Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
- Textbook: Chapter 6
- Videos relating to Chapter 6
- Link (website): Bureau of Labor Statistics
- No outside sources are required
Introduction
In this paper, you will apply what you have learned in Chapter 6 to the firm or business you selected in order to see how the concepts can be applied to a business situation.
Keep in mind that throughout this course, papers are intended to bring real-world situations to the course material that we are covering. Part of your grade will depend on the connections you make between your chosen firm (which could include the economic environment of your chosen firm, the markets in which your chosen firm interacts with outside actors, the decisions your chosen firm makes, etc., depending on the particular question) and the material from the chapters we covered.
Activity Instructions
Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (linked in the Resources section above) and click on “Data Tools” (if you hover over the link there will be a dropdown menu, but click on the header). That will bring you to the page with data (http://www.bls.gov/data/). Then click on the “Top Picks” link for “All Urban Consumers” under the Inflation & Prices table (it is the first yellow star on the blue background in the list as of the time of this writing). Select “U.S. All items, 1982-84 = 100” and click “Retrieve data” from the bottom of the page. Use this data for the first few questions below.
Part 1: What has happened to the CPI over the past year? Over the past 3 years? Over the past 10 years? What has been the rate of inflation been over those time periods? If you select “Include graphs” at the top and then click on “Go”, a graph of the data will appear. Are there time periods in that graph when the CPI is decreasing or is the CPI always increasing over that time period? Are there any relatively large declines in the CPI? What does this mean happened to prices in the United States?
Part 2: For your chosen business, how does a relatively slow increase in the CPI affect the choices it makes? If the CPI increases at a much more rapid rate, how might those decisions be affected? Will different decisions need to be made, or do those decisions just need to be made more often? What if the CPI declines significantly or over an extended period of time? Think about both the output and inputs of the firm.
Be sure to spend at least half of the paper on the application to business. Do not only focus on the data.
Writing Requirements (APA format)
- 1.5-2 pages (approx. 300 words per page), not including title page or references page
- 1-inch margins
- Double spaced
- 12-point Times New Roman font
- Title page with topic and name of student