Describe the expenditure based approach of GDP measurement
A different
perspective on components of GDP is obtained by looking at the expenditure side
of the national income accounts. The expenditure approach measures GDP as total
spending on final goods and services produced within a country or nation during
a specified period of time. Four major categories of spending are added to get
GDP i.e. consumption, investment, government purchases of goods and services
and net exports of goods and services. In symbols we can describe as
Y = GDP = Total output or product
= Total income
= Total
expenditure
C = Consumption
I = Investment
G = Government
purchases of goods and services
NX = Net exports
of goods and services
With these
symbols, we express the expenditure approach to measuring GDP as
Y = C + I + G +
NX ------------------ (1)
This equation is
called income-expenditure identity because it states that income Y, equals
total expenditure
C + I + G + NX. Let us discuss the components which
constitute the GDP measurement.
A—Consumption
Consumption is
spending by domestic households on final goods and services including those
produced abroad. It is largest component of expenditure usually accounting for
about two thirds of GDP .
Consumption expenditure are grouped into three categories.
1. Consumer
durables: Consumer goods are long-lived consumer items such as cars, TV’s, furniture
and major applications.
2. Nondurable
goods: Non durable goods are short-lived items such as food, clothing and fuel.
3. Services:
Services such as education, health care, financial services and transportation.
B—Investment
Investment
includes both spending for new capital goods called fixed instrument and
increases in firms inventory holdings called inventory investment. Fixed
investment in turn has two major components.
1. Business of
fixed investment: It is spending by business on structures such as factories,
warehouses and office buildings and equipments such as machines, vehicles and
furniture.
2. Residential
investment: It is spending on the construction of new houses and apartment
buildings.
C—Government Purchase
of Goods and Services
Government
purchases of goods and services include any expenditure by the government for a
currently produced good or service, foreign or domestic are the third major
component of spending.
D—Net Exports
Net exports are
exports minus imports. As we know export are goods and services produced within
a country that are the goods and services produced abroad that are purchased by
country’s residents. Net exports are positive if exports are greater than
imports and negative if imports exceed exports.
Exports are
added to total spending, because they represent spending by foreigners on final
goods and services produced in a country. Imports are subtracted from total
spending because consumption, investment and government purchases are defined
to include imported goods and services. Subtracting imports ensures that total
spending C + I + G + NX reflects spending only on output produced in the
country. For example an increase in imports of America means that Americans are
buying Japanese cars instead of American cars.
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