QUESTION 3. U.S. Trade Data. 15 POINTS.

This problem will introduce students to one of the most common sources for U.S. economic data and give them an overview of the magnitudes and patterns of trade in the U.S. for the past century.

a) The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) prepares the official economics accounts for the United

States, including the international accounts. Go to the BEA website: https://www.bea.gov/. Click on the tab "Tools" and select "Interactive Data". Select "GDP & Personal Income" under Domestic Data. Click on "Begin using the data..." and download the following table (in Excel or CVS format): 1. Choose Table 1.1.5 "Gross Domestic Product" in "Section 1-- Domestic Product and Income". This table contains the nominal values of the major components of GDP. 2. "Modify" the table to display all years of data (annually). 3. "Download" data in CVS or XLS format. Choose a place to save the file in your computer. b) Use EXCEL. To visualize how US trade has grown, create two time series: exports/GDP and

imports/GDP. (Why is it useful to divide a trade flow by GDP?) A quick check: exports/GDP in 1929 is 0.0564.

c) Use EXCEL. Make a chart of the two series you created in part b) with years on the x-axis and share of GDP on the y-axis. Be sure to label the series.

Answer the following questions:

d) How much did exports, as a fraction of GDP, grow from 1950-1972? How much did exports grow from 1972-94?

e) How much did exports, as a fraction of GDP, grow from 2000-2020?

How much did imports grow

from 2000-2020?

f) As you found in part e., U.S. imports have been growing more quickly than exports in the last 20

years. When a country is importing more than it is exporting, that country is said to be running a

trade deficit. In what other period did the United States run a large trade deficit? P.S. I need: a,b,c,f.