gross domestic product

Examples of gross domestic product in the following topics:

• The Goals of Economic Policy

  • The above image Rate of change of Gross domestic product, world and OECD, since 1961, is one representation of economic growth.

• The Golden Age: 1860–1932

  • States in the South, part of the defeated Confederate States of America, remained economically devastated; their economies became increasingly tied to cotton and tobacco production, which suffered low prices.
  • During the 1870s and 1880s, the U.S. economy rose at the fastest rate in its history, with real wages, wealth, gross domestic product (GDP), and capital formation all increasing rapidly.
  • By the beginning of the 20th century, per capita income and industrial production in the United States led the world, with per capita incomes double that of Germany or France, and 50% higher than Britain.
  • The period featured a transformation from the issues of the Third Party System, instead focusing on domestic issues such as regulation of railroads and large corporations ("trusts"), the money issue (gold versus silver), the protective tariff, the role of labor unions, child labor, the need for a new banking system, corruption in party politics, primary elections, direct election of senators, racial segregation, efficiency in government, women's suffrage, and control of immigration.

• Health Care Policy

  • Of each dollar spent on health care in the United States, 31% goes to hospital care, 21% goes to physician/clinical services, 10% to pharmaceuticals, 4% to dental, 6% to nursing homes and 3% to home health care, 3% for other retail products, 3% for government public health activities, 7% to administrative costs, 7% to investment, and 6% to other professional services (physical therapists, optometrists, etc.).
  • This graph shows the fraction of gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to health care in a number of developed countries in 2006.According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States spent 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care in 2006.The next highest country was Switzerland, with 11.3 percent.In most other high-income countries, the share was less than 10 percent.

• Economic Prosperity

  • The main policies that contributed to this economic prosperity were a large unified market, a supportive political-legal system, vast areas of highly productive farmlands, vast natural resources (especially timber, coal, iron, and oil) , and an entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to investing in material and human capital.
  • The United States is highly influential in the world, primarily because the United States's foreign policy is backed by a $15 trillion economy, which is approximately a quarter of the global gross domestic product (GDP).

• Medicaid and Medicare

  • Spending on U.S. healthcare as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).

• Trade

  • In most countries, it represents a significant part of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
  • International trade greatly contributes to the process of globalization, the processes of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.
  • Issues currently associated with international trade are: intellectual property rights, in that creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized in law are considered essential for economic growth; smuggling, especially as it relates to human and drug trafficking; outsourcing, the contracting out of business processes to another country, generally one with lower wages; fair trade, which promotes the use of labor, environmental, and social standards for the production of commodities; and trade sanctions, in which punitive economic measures are taken against a defaulting country.

• Voluntary, Involuntary, and Trust Associations

  • They may be extremely gross or high subtle.
  • They dump waste products from their enterprise into the atmosphere.

• International Humanitarian Policies and Foreign Aid

  • Conversely, badly managed food aid can create problems by disrupting local markets, depressing crop prices, and discouraging food production.
  • In absolute dollar terms, the United States is the largest international aid donor, but as a percent of gross national income, its contribution to economic aid is only 0.2%, proportionally much smaller than contributions of countries such as Sweden (1.04%) and the United Kingdom (0.52%).

• Subsidies and Contracting

  • Most subsidies are paid by the government to producers or distributed as subventions in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry, to increase the prices of its products, or simply to encourage the hiring of more labor.
  • Some subsidies are to encourage the sale of exports; some are for food to keep down the cost of living; and other subsidies encourage the expansion of farm production.
  • Subsidies are often regarded as a form of protectionism or trade barrier by making domestic goods and services artificially competitive against imports.
  • Subsidies that increase the production will tend to result in lower prices, while subsidies that increase demand will tend to result in an increase in price.

• Economic Aid and Sanctions

  • For example, some donors mandate that a receiving nation must spend the aid on products and expertise originating only from the donor country.
  • Economic sanctions are domestic penalties applied by one country or group of countries on another for a variety of reasons.
  • For instance, one country may conclude that another is unfairly subsidizing exports of one or more products, or unfairly protecting some sector from competition from imported goods or services.
  • These sanctions were on the basis that the US government was paying cotton farmers for their products, an action not allowed by the WTO.