AP Macroeconomics · 38 questions
Past multiple-choice questions
Every multiple-choice question College Board has published for AP Macroeconomics, sorted by the unit and topic each one tests in the current course. Each one opens College Board's own page beside its answer choices, and tells you right away whether your pick matches College Board's answer key.
College Board printed these questions as samples in the AP Macroeconomics course and exam descriptions and course overviews and, before 2019, in the AP Economics course description booklets it shared with AP Microeconomics. We read 11 of those PDFs: the ones College Board posts now from its site, and every earlier one from the copy the Internet Archive saved. A question printed in more than one is listed once, from the newest PDF that prints it. Your picks stay in this browser and are never sent anywhere.
Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts
- Topic 1.2 · Question 1 · Four-function calculator Which park and gym mix is out of reach A township's production possibilities curve trades parks against gymnasiums. Pick the combination its resources cannot produce.
- Topic 1.3 · Question 1, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Labor-hours for fish and wheat in two countries A table gives the labor-hours each of two countries needs for one unit of fish and one of wheat. Decide which statements about advantage and terms of trade hold.
- Topic 1.6 · Question 2 · Four-function calculator When the new market price cannot be pinned down Demand and supply in a competitive market can each move. Find the pair of changes that leaves the direction of the equilibrium price unknown.
Unit 2: Economic Indicators and the Business Cycle
- Topic 2.1 · Question 3 · Four-function calculator What the official GDP count includes Five items that might or might not enter a country's gross domestic product. Choose the one the measure takes in.
- Topic 2.3 · Question 4 · Four-function calculator Unemployment rate from a jobs and labor force count A country of 250,000 people has a labor force of 200,000, and 175,000 of them hold jobs. Work out the unemployment rate.
- Topic 2.4 · Question 2, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator What a doubled price index tells you The consumer price index climbs from 100 to 200. Decide which conclusion follows from that fact alone.
- Topic 2.6 · Question 20, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Nominal GDP down while real GDP is up Nominal GDP fell in a year when real GDP rose. Decide what must have been true.
Unit 3: National Income and Price Determination
- Topic 3.2 · Question 5 · Four-function calculator Equal rises in taxes and spending with an MPC of 0.8 The government adds $100 million to both its spending and its tax take. Decide the largest change this can make to real GDP, and its direction.
- Topic 3.2 · Question 5, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator What an MPC of 0.8 implies Taxes are a fixed sum, there is no foreign trade, and households spend 80 cents of each extra dollar of income. Pick the statement about spending, saving and income that must be true.
- Topic 3.2 · Question 6, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Purchases and taxes raised by the same amount The government raises its purchases and its taxes by equal sums. Decide what follows for aggregate demand, interest rates or the money supply.
- Topic 3.3 · Question 16, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator What shifts aggregate supply to the right Five candidates, from wages to interest rates. Pick the one whose increase raises aggregate supply.
- Topic 3.6 · Question 8, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator More oil on the world market A diagram shows an economy's aggregate demand and supply. Predict how cheaper, more plentiful oil on world markets changes real GDP and the price level.
- Topic 3.6 · Question 12, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Workers become more productive Labor productivity rises across an economy. Pick the outcome most likely to follow.
- Topic 3.7 · Question 3, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Back to long-run equilibrium with no policy An AD-AS graph shows an economy away from its long-run equilibrium. Find the change that would carry it back there with no policy action.
Unit 4: Financial Sector
- Topic 4.4 · Question 8, Fall 2020 edition · Four-function calculator Why new reserves fall short of the full multiplier The central bank has enlarged the monetary base. Find the reason the money supply grows by less than the most it could.
- Topic 4.4 · Question 15, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator A $400,000 bond sale with a 25 percent requirement Banks must hold 25 percent of deposits as reserves and keep nothing extra, and the Fed sells $400,000 of securities. Work out the largest change in the money supply.
- Topic 4.6 · Question 6 · Four-function calculator Monetary policy while money demand also shifts Each choice pairs an expansionary or contractionary central bank move with a change in money demand. Find the pair that pushes nominal interest rates up.
- Topic 4.6 · Question 7 · Four-function calculator Lowering the price level from point H An AD-AS graph places the economy at point H next to full employment output. Choose the policy that would bring the price level down in the short run.
- Topic 4.6 · Question 7, Fall 2020 edition · Four-function calculator Letting banks lend more from the same reserves A central bank wants the banking system to be able to create more loans from a given amount of reserves. Choose the action that raises that limit.
- Topic 4.6 · Question 7, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator The Fed moves against a recession Each choice pairs a reserve requirement or open market move with a discount rate change. Pick the pair that fights a recession.
- Topic 4.6 · Question 8 · Four-function calculator A rate cut while output sits below potential Output is below potential and the central bank lowers its administered rates. Predict the short-run effect on cyclical unemployment and on real income.
- Topic 4.6 · Question 10, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator The Fed sells a large amount of bonds The Federal Reserve sells a large amount of government securities. Predict the effect on bank lending, the money supply or interest rates.
- Topic 4.6 · Question 11, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator When a Fed bond purchase moves GDP the most The Federal Reserve buys bonds. Choose the conditions, among reserve ratios, spending habits and how investment reacts to rates, under which real GDP gains the most.
- Topic 4.7 · Question 9 · Four-function calculator What raises the demand for loanable funds Five events that could touch a credit market. Pick the one that best explains why more borrowing is sought in that market.
- Topic 4.7 · Question 15 · Four-function calculator A bigger US budget deficit and the dollar The United States government's budget deficit grows. Decide what happens to the dollar on the foreign exchange market, and why.
Unit 5: Long-Run Consequences of Stabilization Policies
- Topic 5.1 · Question 9, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Expansionary money and fiscal policy together Monetary and fiscal policy both turn expansionary at the same time. Decide what happens to interest rates and to unemployment.
- Topic 5.1 · Question 10 · Four-function calculator Tight money and tight fiscal policy at once The central bank and the government both turn contractionary together. Work out the short-run effect on interest rates and on real output.
- Topic 5.1 · Question 18, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Stimulating fiscal policy, restrictive money Fiscal policy turns stimulative while monetary policy turns restrictive. Find the result that must follow.
- Topic 5.2 · Question 14 · Four-function calculator Reading unemployment off a Phillips curve graph A graph shows short-run and long-run Phillips curves. With inflation at 6 percent, read off the unemployment rate the economy is at.
- Topic 5.2 · Question 14, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator What goes with high inflation in the short run Along a short-run Phillips curve, pick what goes with a high rate of inflation.
- Topic 5.3 · Question 17, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Money that changes hands more slowly Money changes hands less often than before. Decide which statement about the money supply, output and nominal income then holds.
- Topic 5.5 · Question 4, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Borrowing to pay for more government purchases A government runs a bigger deficit and so demands more loanable funds. Predict the long-run effect on the real interest rate and on investment.
- Topic 5.6 · Question 11 · Four-function calculator More output now and lower prices later An economy sits in a recessionary gap. Find the change that lifts real output soon and also leaves the price level lower once the economy fully adjusts.
- Topic 5.6 · Question 13 · Four-function calculator Better technology on the PPC and the LRAS curve An economy's technology improves. Decide how both its PPC and its LRAS curve respond.
- Topic 5.7 · Question 12 · Four-function calculator A tax credit for businesses The government offers firms a tax credit. Trace the most likely chain of effects through spending and on to real output.
Unit 6: Open Economy—International Trade and Finance
- Topic 6.4 · Question 19, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Canadians buy Mexican financial assets Canadian consumers want more Mexican financial assets. Trace what follows for how many Canadian dollars are offered, how the peso fares, and Canada's net exports to Mexico.
- Topic 6.5 · Question 21, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Shrinking the US trade deficit Five things that could rise. Pick the one whose increase would cut the United States trade deficit.
- Topic 6.6 · Question 13, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator What strengthens the US dollar abroad Five changes at home and abroad. Choose the one most likely to raise the dollar's value against other currencies.
The questions and answer keys are College Board's; each question's page names the PDF it comes from. The titles and summaries on this page are ours.