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Using the Data and Your Economic Knowledge, Assess the Importance of Higher Labour Productivity in Bringing About Improvements to Uk Macroeconomic Performance.

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Submitted By daw4639
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In this part of the question, candidates will need to demonstrate that they are able to evaluate issues and arguments to support a conclusion if they are to be awarded more than
13 marks.
Candidates who make a genuine attempt at evaluation should be well rewarded. For this question they might comment on the extent of any improvement; what impact this might have on the productivity gap; that we cannot put too much weight on any one factor but must see productivity as part of a wider picture; the extent to which productivity improvements are cancelled out by a rising rate of inflation and/or an appreciating exchange rate; productivity improvements become meaningless if we cannot sell any extra output in world markets for whatever reason, eg recession or poor quality.
A maximum of 21 marks should be awarded if there is no explicit reference to the data.
Issues and areas for discussion:
• definition of macroeconomic performance
• components of the macroeconomy
• economic growth
• price level
• employment/unemployment
• the balance of payments on current account assuming improved productivity benefits unit costs
• labour productivity and how it might affect one or more of the above components
• the productivity gap
• the UK experience
• the significance of the rate of inflation
• the significance of exchange rate trends
• the significance of macroeconomic conditions in the UK’s overseas markets
• the significance of the rate of growth of AD
• better productivity being unable to disguise the deindustrialisation that has taken place in the UK
• the importance of considering in which sectors of the economy the greatest improvements in productivity are taking place
• the extent of any improvement in labour productivity
• the dangers of isolating, and putting significant weight upon, just one factor such as labour productivity

The issues

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