Quantitative and qualitative economic data

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A level Essay Q5 O/N 07

The chairman of a national bank stated “It is important to rely on a range of qualitative and quantitative data to assess the economic health of the nation”

Explain what data might be employed in this assessment and discuss how useful it is likely to be                                                                                (25)

Quantitative data is the use of numerical statistics to describe economic phenomena. It would use numbers to show trends, patterns and analysis of the economic health of the nation.

Qualitative data would be data that relied on other factors or descriptors to describe the trends, patterns and analysis of the economic health of the nation.

The first thing to state is that it is highly unlikely that the there would be simply quantitative data or qualitative data. The likelihood is that both data would be used together and the range of this qualitative and quantitative data would increase the clarity of the economic assessment of the nation.

The most important data to be measured would be that which measured the standard of living in a country. Here it is beneficial to use a range of quantitative as well as qualitative data. This is because even though GDP or GNP may measure an economies output or income levels it does not measure the standard of living within the economy or the disparities between rich and poor. Economic growth does not necessarily mean improvements in the standard of living for many households in the economy.

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In many instances the HDI (Human Development Index) would provide a better measure as it’s a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita GNI or gross national income as a measure of a standard of living.

Another avenue could be to measure data related to government macro-economic objectives. Quantitative measurements of inflation, unemployment, balance of payments and economic growth would provide an excellent assessment of the economic health of a country. These data provide hard evidence of the costs to the citizens the availability of work and the competitiveness of the country with other nations abroad. The ...

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