GrowthRatesandLogarithms: ARefresher
Growth Rates and Logarithms: A Refresher
Prof. Lutz Hendricks
Econ520
November 10, 2020
1 / 14
U.S. Economic Growth
It looks like U.S. growth has been accelerating? Is that true?
2 / 14
What Is a Growth Rate?
We need to understand the math of growth rates. The growth rate g is defined as
x (t + 1) - x (t)
g=
(1)
x (t)
Or:
x (t + 1) = (1 + g) x (t)
(2)
Example: x (t) = 100, g = 5%. Then x (t + 1) = 1.05 ? 100.
3 / 14
Growth rates over multiple periods
If we take multiple periods: x (t + n) = (1 + g)n x (t)
Example: GDP per capita grows at 1.8% per year. y2002 = 30, 000 y2003 = 1.018 ? $30, 000 = $30, 540. y2003 = 1.018y2002 = 1.0182 y2001.
Example: In 50 years, y grows by 1.01850 = 2.44.
(3)
4 / 14
Calculating the average growth rate
The average growth rate answers the question:
Which constant growth rate would change yt to yt+n in n years?
Start from
yt+n = yt ? (1 + g)n
(4)
and solve for g.
(1 + g)n = yt+n/yt
(5)
1 + g = (yt+n/yt)1/n
(6)
Example: Average GDP growth since 1870. The annual growth rate is calculated from y2000 = y1870 (1 + g)130. Therefore: g = (y2000/y1870)1/130 - 1 = 0.0179 = 1.79% p.a.
5 / 14
Large long-term effects of small changes in growth
How much lower would U.S. GDP be today, had it grown 0.5% more slowly? The answer:
^y2000 = y1870 1.013130 = $17, 900 or 46% lower than the actual 2000 level. A 0.5% drop in long-run growth cuts GDP in half over 140 years.
6 / 14
Logs: An easier calculation
Average growth rate: yt+n = yt ? (1 + g)n
In logs:
ln (yt+n) = ln (yt) + n ln (1 + g)
ln is the natural log: ln (ex) = x. For small growth rates:
ln (1 + g) g
(check this by example!)
Therefore:
g = ln (yt+n) - ln (yt) n
(7) (8)
(9) (10)
7 / 14
Important growth rate rules
g (xy) = g (x) + g (y) g (x/y) = g (x) - g (y) g (x ) = g (x) These are easily derived from the log growth equation.
8 / 14
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related download
- economics 304 fall 2017 homework 2 due 9am friday
- graphing and data transformation in
- growthratesandlogarithms arefresher
- national health expenditure trends 1975 to 2017
- national health expenditure trends
- lab 1c—excel version
- 2018 fundraising effectiveness survey report
- technical note aarr unicef data
- handout on growth rates discrete time analysis