Investment - Teacher Presentation
This revision presentation is ideal for AS Macro students who wish to build their knowledge and understanding of the important topic of investment and its role in driving macroeconomic performance. The presentation stays clear of AD-AS or PPF diagrams as we cover this analysis next - I will post a second presentation on applying investment to the AD-AS framework sometime next week.
Launch interactive presentation on the economics of investment
Download printable pdf (slides)
CAPEX under pressure as spare capacity grows
The recession is creating a growing amount of spare productive capacity across many different markets and industries. From container ships to hotels and from steel plants to airlines, the fall in demand has lowered capacity utilisation and put a big squeeze on profits. That pressure on profit margins comes not just from weaker revenues. Keep in mind that many businesses have a large fixed cost component such as the overhead costs of operating a network. Thus when output is contracting, the average fixed costs of production increase.
Declining demand and rising productive slack inevitably cause a fall in planned investment spending - economists term this a negative accelerator effect. BBC news reports that British Airways is cutting capital spending in response to the slump in demand and mounting losses. “The airline said it had cut spending by 20% to £580m ($952m) from £725m, and had lengthened its schedule of orders for 12 Airbus A380 aircraft.”
Further evidence for the reverse accelerator affect comes from Japan where Japanese firms cut their capital spending by a record level in the first quarter of 2009. In contrast Stagecoach is increasing investment in a fleet of greener buses.
Revision: Slump in Global Trade and UK Economy
An important area for students to understand are the ways in which global economic forces affect the domestic economy. Both the new AS and the legacy A2 syllabus for AQA expect students to be aware of the nature of and possible consequences of external demand and supply-side shocks. This chart from the Bank of England Inflation Report (May 2009) highlights just such a demand-shock - the collapse in world trade and the global recession.
Q&A: What is a Keynesian stimulus and will it work?
A Keynesian–style stimulus happens when policy-makers deliberately seek to stimulate one or more of the components of aggregate demand to boost output, jobs and incomes during an economic recession.
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