General Instructions: . Please upload a PDF of your problem set to Gradescope by 11:00 pm. . Late homework will not be accepted. . Please put your name and student ID at the upper right corner of the front page. 1. The current population of the United States is 331.4 million with 2.0% of the population is engaged in R&D at an efficiency rate of 1/400 per million persons per year. (a) If R&D is the only source of total-factor productivity growth what is the growth rate of labor efficiency in the United States? (b) If the growth rate of total factor productivity is 0.8% per year, what is the value of a in the Cobb-Douglas production function? 2. Referring to the analysis of building permits in the United States (BPERMITS) shown in the graphs below: gap-gth - BPERMITS-YOY 0.6 0.2 20 CROSS CORRELATION RATE (W/year) 0.0 -0.2 -20 -0.4 -0.6 -40 rel. vol. = 9.2 -0.8 -60- -10 1960 1970 1980 2000 2020 Source: FRED / BEA TIME (year) LAG (quarters) Assess the relationship between the growth rate of building permits and the growth rate of GDP using the measures listed below. Include a brief summary of the ways each measure can be classified to support your assessment. (a) Timing. (b) Direction. (c) Volatility