Saturday Quiz – February 18, 2012

Welcome to the billy blog Saturday quiz. The quiz tests whether you have been paying attention over the last seven days. See how you go with the following questions. Your results are only known to you and no records are retained.

Quiz #152

• 1. A nation that issues its own currency and floats it on international foreign exchange markets faces no solvency risk with respect to the debt it issues.
• False
• True
• 2. Under current institutional arrangements, the change in the ratio of public debt to GDP will exactly equal the primary deficit plus the interest service payments on the outstanding stock of debt both expressed as ratios to GDP minus the changes in the monetary base arising from official foreign exchange transactions conducted by the central bank.
• False
• True
• 3. By investing budget surpluses in a sovereign fund a government creates more space for non-inflationary public spending in the future.
• False
• True
• 4. Consider a government that increases spending by $100 billion in the each of the next three years. Economists estimate the spending multiplier (which is the multiple by which income increases for a given injection of spending) to be 1.5 and the impact is immediate and exhausted in each year. They also estimate that the import propensity is 0.2 (meaning that imports rise by 20 cents for every dollar generated in the economy). They also estimate the tax multiplier (impact of tax changes on income) to be equal to 1 and the current tax rate is equal to 30 per cent. So for every extra dollar produced, tax revenue rises by 30 cents. Which of the following statements is correct? The cumulative impact of this fiscal expansion on nominal GDP is:
• $450 billion and the private sector saves 24 cents out of every extra dollar generated.
• $450 billion and the private sector saves 28 cents out of every extra dollar generated.
• $315 billion and the private sector saves 24 cents out of every extra dollar generated.
• $315 billion and the private sector saves 28 cents out of every extra dollar generated.
• 5. Premium Question: Ignoring laws to the contrary, a central bank currently targetting a 3 per cent short-term policy rate, cannot directly purchase treasury debt to facilitate the national governments budget deficit (that is, "monetise the deficit") because otherwise it would lose control of its policy target.
• False
• True

Sorry, quiz 152 is now closed.

You can find the answers and discussion here