Macroeconomic Analysis of a Pandemic – COVID-19, Economic Growth, and Unemployment

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the global economy in an unparalleled fashion. Each step of this three-part core assessment will challenge you to apply key macroeconomic theory concepts to this real-world case study (that we all lived through). In this unit, you are tasked with looking at the global macroeconomic impact of COVID-19 on key indicators such as GDP and the unemployment rate. Define Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and identify the four expenditure categories in the equation GDP = C + I + G + Xn; identify the measurement and sources of economic growth. Describe the business cycle; identify the primary measure of unemployment and define “full employment”; identify the primary measure of inflation and distinguish between demand-pull and cost-push inflation. Provide a brief synthesis (4-5 sentences) of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it impacted the global economy. What was the impact of COVID-19 on the USA’s labor force in 2020? How did COVID-19 impact consumer and business confidence among the world’s largest economies? How did measurement problems factor into the economic impact of COVID-19?