Free Macroeconomics MCQs with Answers

1,499 Macroeconomics MCQs from Economics, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

The economy is studied as a whole through national income, gross domestic product, inflation, unemployment, economic growth and business cycles. Coverage includes aggregate demand and supply, consumption and investment, money and banking, fiscal and monetary policy, exchange rates and balance of payments, which distinguishes macroeconomics from the study of individual markets.

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1,499 questions · page 39 of 75

  • A. boom
  • B. slump
  • C. recovery
  • D. acceleration

Explanation: The usual business-cycle phases are boom, slump or recession, trough, and recovery.

Correct answer: acceleration
  • A. trend path of output
  • B. boom
  • C. recession
  • D. short-run fluctuations in output

Explanation: Business cycles are temporary expansions and contractions in economic activity around the economy's long-term trend path of output.

Correct answer: trend path of output
  • A. saving, investment
  • B. capital per person, productivity
  • C. labor growth, output
  • D. investment capital per person

Explanation: In the neoclassical growth model, steady-state investment is just enough to equip the growing labour force while keeping capital per…

Correct answer: investment capital per person
  • A. the value of leisure
  • B. Externalities
  • C. Untraded goods
  • D. Change in the distribution of income
  • E. All of the above

Explanation: GDP per head records market production but omits or poorly reflects leisure, external costs and benefits, non-market or untraded goods…

Correct answer: All of the above
  • A. Imposing higher taxes on capital
  • B. encouraging more labour intensive work to reduce unemployment
  • C. reducing spending in education
  • D. encouraging private investment

Explanation: Private investment can raise productivity by increasing the capital available per worker and encouraging improved technology and…

Correct answer: encouraging private investment
  • A. total exploitation
  • B. labour/capital productivity
  • C. total factor productivity
  • D. total productivity

Explanation: Total factor productivity measures the efficiency with which the combined inputs of labour and capital produce output.

Correct answer: total factor productivity
  • A. endogenous
  • B. exogenous
  • C. beta
  • D. convergence

Explanation: Endogenous growth theory explains long-run growth through factors within the economic system, such as technology, education, institutions…

Correct answer: endogenous
  • A. Steady state growth path
  • B. Steady state invention rate
  • C. Steady state level of output
  • D. Unsteady state growth path

Explanation: A steady-state growth path is the path of output and capital generated by a given saving rate alongside technological progress, with key…

Correct answer: Steady state growth path
  • A. economic growth is Zero
  • B. All investment is used in the manufacturing sector
  • C. Economic growth is growing
  • D. All investment is used to maintain the existing capital stock at its current level

Explanation: In a steady-state or long-run equilibrium, gross investment is just sufficient to replace depreciation and maintain the existing capital…

Correct answer: All investment is used to maintain the existing capital stock at its current level
  • A. increase government spending
  • B. reduce taxation
  • C. save more
  • D. increase personal consumption

Explanation: Higher saving increases the funds available for investment in capital, which expands productive capacity and supports economic growth.

Correct answer: save more
  • A. All countries will eventually join the EEC
  • B. Poorer countries have higher capital/labour ratios than richer countries.
  • C. The gap between countries GDP per head will widen
  • D. Poorer less developed countries will catch up with richer ones.

Explanation: GDP convergence means poorer economies grow faster and gradually catch up with richer economies in GDP per person.

Correct answer: Poorer less developed countries will catch up with richer ones.
  • A. imperfect labor markets
  • B. rational expectations
  • C. intertertemporal decisions of households, firms and government
  • D. sun spot cycles

Explanation: Real business cycle theory links output fluctuations to real factors and the intertemporal decisions of households, firms, and…

Correct answer: intertertemporal decisions of households, firms and government
  • A. private sector imports and exports
  • B. economic policy
  • C. the duration of compulsory education
  • D. labor supply changes

Explanation: Changes in the duration of compulsory education are not a normal international transmission channel for business cycles.

Correct answer: the duration of compulsory education
  • A. potential output
  • B. actual output
  • C. real output
  • D. international trade

Explanation: Real business cycle theory attributes fluctuations to real shocks that change productive capacity, so cycles are viewed as movements in…

Correct answer: potential output
  • A. aggregate supply is
  • B. aggregate demand is
  • C. potential output is
  • D. real variables are

Explanation: RBC theory explains short-term fluctuations mainly through real supply-side shocks and therefore gives aggregate demand little importance.

Correct answer: aggregate demand is
  • A. sun spot theory
  • B. multiplier accelerator model
  • C. Solow theory
  • D. New classical theory

Explanation: The multiplier-accelerator model combines the consumption multiplier with investment responses to changes in output, producing cyclical…

Correct answer: multiplier accelerator model
  • A. capital-widening technical innovation
  • B. capital-widening Catch-up in technology
  • C. capital-deepening technical innovation
  • D. capital-deepening, catch-up in technology

Explanation: Capital deepening is easier when capital per worker is low because the initial returns to added capital are relatively high.

Correct answer: capital-deepening, catch-up in technology
  • A. Population size, x-efficiency
  • B. Population age distribution, education
  • C. Population growth technical progress
  • D. Population growth education

Explanation: Long-run growth depends on increases in the labour force through population growth and on technical progress that raises productivity.

Correct answer: Population growth technical progress
  • A. a higher growth rates
  • B. a fluctuating growth rate
  • C. a fluctuating growth rates
  • D. no change in the growth rate

Explanation: In the neoclassical growth model, a higher saving rate raises the steady-state level of output per worker and causes temporary…

Correct answer: no change in the growth rate
  • A. increasing the use of labor increasing the use of land
  • B. increasing the use of capital increasing the use of labour
  • C. increasing the use of land increasing the use of capital
  • D. increasing the use of all inputs, technical advances

Explanation: Production can rise through greater use of all factor inputs, such as labour, land and capital, or through technological progress that…

Correct answer: increasing the use of all inputs, technical advances