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15 multiple-choice questions and 23 flashcards on Macroeconomics: GDP, Inflation, and Unemployment, about 7% of the High School Economics bank. Every one carries a written rationale.
Macroeconomics: GDP, Inflation, and Unemployment is one of 11 chapters in CoStudy's High School Economics bank, and it holds 15 of the bank's 225 multiple-choice questions — roughly 7% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.
Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.
9 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.
Unemployment rate measures:
Answer: A — Percentage of labor force (those willing and able to work) who are jobless and actively seeking work
Unemployment rate = unemployed / labor force × 100. Labor force excludes children, retirees, full-time students, discouraged workers (giving up). Underreports actual joblessness. Types: frictional, structural, cyclical, seasonal.
Unemployment occurring when workers are between jobs or new entrants are searching is called:
Answer: C — Frictional unemployment
C) Short-term job-search unemployment. A) Tied to the business cycle. B) Mismatch between skills and jobs. D) Tied to seasonal hiring patterns.
A worker who has stopped looking for a job because she believes none are available is best classified as:
Answer: B — A discouraged worker — counted outside the labor force, so not included in the official unemployment rate
B) Discouraged workers have stopped active search, so they leave the labor force in BLS definitions, masking some weakness. A/C/D) All require active job-search.
If a CPI basket cost $200 in the base year and $220 today, the current CPI value (base = 100) is:
Answer: C — 110 — and the cumulative inflation is 10%
C) CPI = (current basket cost / base basket cost) × 100 = (220/200) × 100 = 110, implying 10% inflation since base. A) Just the dollar gap. B) Off by 10. D) Raw dollar cost, not the index.
The standard business-cycle phases, in order, are:
Answer: D — Expansion, peak, contraction (recession), trough — then back to expansion
D) Standard four-phase business cycle around a long-run growth trend. A) Includes 'depression,' not a standard cycle phase. B) Informal terms. C) Lists price-level events, not cycle phases.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures:
Answer: B — The market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a period
B) Standard expenditure approach: C + I + G + NX. A/C/D) Each is a different aggregate.
GDP measures:
Answer: E — Total monetary value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period (typically year or quarter)
GDP = sum of final goods/services. Approaches: expenditure (C+I+G+X-M), income, production. Measures economic size and growth. Per capita GDP for comparison. Limits: doesn't measure inequality, environment, household production, well-being.
Nominal GDP is $22 trillion and the GDP deflator is 110 (base = 100). Real GDP is approximately:
Answer: C — About $20 trillion — nominal divided by the price-level index (and multiplied by 100)
C) Real GDP = Nominal / (Deflator/100) = 22 / 1.10 ≈ $20T. A) Would multiply by 1.10. B) Ignores deflation adjustment. D) Halves incorrectly.
Which of the following is NOT counted in U.S. GDP?
Answer: D — The resale value of a used car sold between two individuals
D) GDP counts only final goods/services produced in the current period; resale of used goods was already counted when first produced. A/B/C) All are current-period final output.
4 cards from the 23 in this chapter.
What is the GDP formula by expenditure?
GDP = C + I + G + (X − M). Consumption + Investment + Government spending + Net Exports.
What is the difference between nominal and real GDP?
Nominal: current prices. Real: adjusted for inflation, allowing year-to-year comparison.
Worked example: A CPI basket costs $250 in the base year and $275 this year. Compute (a) this year's CPI value and (b) the inflation rate from the base year.
Step 1 — CPI formula: CPI = (cost of basket in current year / cost of basket in base year) × 100. Step 2 — Compute current CPI: CPI = (275 / 250) × 100 = 1.10 × 100 = 110. Step 3 — Inflation rate from base year = (CPI_new − CPI_old) / CPI_old × 100. Using base CPI = 100: (110 − 100) / 100 × 100 = 10%. Step 4 — Interpretation: prices have risen 10% relative to the base year. Step 5 — If you wanted the inflation rate over just one year between two consecutive non-base years (say CPI 110 → 113.3), use (113.3 − 110) / 110 × 100 = 3.0%.
What is the natural rate of unemployment?
The rate consistent with no cyclical unemployment — frictional + structural. Roughly 4–5% in the U.S.
These are a sample. The full Macroeconomics: GDP, Inflation, and Unemployment chapter runs 38 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.
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