To do this assignment, you need to download data. You can find data from Federal Reserve - https://fred.stlouisfed.org
Economic Data Center.
1 Inflation Index
1.1 Consumer Price Index
The Consumer Price Index (CPI): a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Indexes are available for the U.S. and various geographic areas. Average price data for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items are also available.
1. Get Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in the U.S. City Average data for 1970 Jan to 2010 Dec.
2. What is the frequency of the CPI? (is it quarterly? monthly? yearly?)
3. Plot the CPI data over time (for 1970 Jan to 2010 Dec).
• You can do this in several ways. The most straightforward way is to set the time period on the Fred webpage, then download the selected data plot using the download option.
• You can also download the data(in CSV or xlsx extension) and then plot the data in Microsoft Excel.
1
1.2 GDP Deflator
The GDP deflator: a measure of the money price of all new, domestically produced, final goods and services in an economy in a year relative to the real value of them.
1. 2.
De f latort = Nominal GDPt × 100 (1) Real GDPt
Download United States Nominal GDP and Real GDP for 1970 Jan to 2010 Dec (You can download them on Nominal GDP and Real GDP).
What is the frequency of the GDP? (is it quarterly? monthly? yearly?)
Plot the calculate GDP deflator data over time (for 1970 Jan to 2010 Dec).
• To do this, you need to download the data(in CSV or xlsx extension) and then calculate the GDP deflator using the GDP deflator equation (1). Plot the calcu- lated deflator in Microsoft Excel.
4. Are CPI and GDP Deflator look similar?
2.1 Unemployment
1. Download United States unemployment rate for 2000 Jan to 2022 Dec (You can download them on Unemployment Rate).
2. What is the frequency of the Unemployment Rate? (is it quarterly? monthly? yearly?)
3. Plot the Unemployment data over time (for 2000 Jan to 2022 Dec).
2.2 Natural Unemployment
1. Download United States natural unemployment rate for 2000 Jan to 2022 Dec (You can download them on Noncyclical Unemployment Rate). Note that after 2023, the noncyclical unemployment rate is the projected rate
2. Plot the noncyclical unemployment data over time (for 2000 Jan to 2022 Dec).
3. Comparethenoncyclicalunemploymentrateandunemploymentrate.Whydothey look different?
