Case Study 1: The State of the USA
The State of the USA is not intended to replace the GDP; instead, it is intended to provide a wider perspective on economy-related factors in the United States (as well as information about other aspects of life in the US, such as education, health, children, and families). A team of economists and other experts, originally designated by the Government Accountability Office in 2003, began work on a website, “The State of the USA,” which would explore options in new indicator systems (McEachern, 2014).
By 2010, its economic reporting included a study of the income gap between rich and poor as it has changed over time, a new measure of economic security, in-depth interactive graphs concerning the 2008-2009 recession, and an interactive tutorial on the meaning of the unemployment rate (GAO, 2011). The wide range of viewpoints available from the website acknowledges that the GDP alone does not provide detailed information about the economy and can, in fact, be misleading.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Tracking the US Economy".
Case Study 2: Price Check on Aisle 2
The hedonic approach is a method of tracking price changes on items that experience frequent new models and/or technological changes. Often, the previous model of an item is no longer available for a direct comparison of price. To account for this problem, the hedonic approach chooses the currently available model that is nearest the previous model, then establishes a relationship between current price and the characteristics of the item being priced based on complicated computer calculations (McEachern, 2014).
For example, when a new smart phone is released, it usually involves a number of new features which will have varying values to the customer. The hedonic approach assigns a dollar value to each new feature, then uses these values to compare the price of a previous model to a current model. An issue with the hedonic approach is the difficulty of knowing exactly how much each new feature is worth to the customer and what the decrease in value would be if certain features are removed (Hausman, 2003).
