Investopedia: What is 'Aggregate Demand'?

Aggregate Demand

What is 'Aggregate Demand'

Aggregate demand is an economic measurement of the sum of all final goods and services produced in an economy, expressed as the total amount of money exchanged for those goods and services. Since aggregate demand is measured through market values, it only represents total output at a given price level, and does not necessarily represent quality or standard of living.

The Keynesian equation for aggregate demand is: AD = C+I+G+(Nx)

Where:

C = Consumer spending on goods and services

I = Private investment and corporate spending for non-final capital goods (factories, equipment, etc.)

G = Government spending for public goods and social services (infrastructure, Medicare, etc.)

Nx = Net exports (exports minus imports)
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BREAKING DOWN 'Aggregate Demand'

As a macroeconomic term describing the total demand in an economy for all goods and services at any given price level in a given time period, aggregate demand necessarily equals gross domestic product (GDP), at least in purely quantitative terms, because the two share the same equation. As a matter of accounting, it must always be the case that the aggregate demand and GDP increase or decrease together.

Technically speaking, aggregate demand only equals GDP in the long run after adjusting for the price level. This is because short-run aggregate demand measures total output for a single nominal price level, not necessarily (and in fact rarely) equilibrium. In nearly all models, however, the price level is assumed to be “one” for simplicity. Other variations in calculations can occur depending on methodological variations or timing issues in gathering statistics.

Aggregate demand is by its very nature general, not specific. All consumer goods, capital goods, exports, imports and government spending programs are considered equal so long as they traded at the same market value.
Illustrating Aggregate Demand

If you were to represent aggregate demand graphically, the aggregate amount of goods and services demanded is represented on the horizontal X-axis, and the overall price level of the entire basket of goods and services is represented on the vertical Y-axis.

The aggregate demand curve, like most typical demand curves, slopes downward from left to right. Demand increases or decreases along the curve as prices for goods and services either increase or decrease. In addition, the curve can shift due to changes in the money supply, or increases and decreases in tax rates.
Aggregate Demand Controversy

Boosting aggregate demand also boosts the size of the economy in terms of measured GDP. However, this does not prove that an increase in aggregate demand creates economic growth. Since GDP and aggregate demand share the same calculation, it is only tautological that they increase concurrently. The equation does not show which is cause and which is effect.

And this is the subject of major debates in economic theory.

Early economic theories hypothesized that production is the source of demand. The 18th-century French classical liberal economist Jean-Baptiste Say stated that consumption is limited to productive capacity and that human demands are essentially limitless, a theory referred to as Say's law.

Say's law ruled until the 1930s, with the advent of the theories of British economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynes, by arguing that demand drives supply, placed total demand in the driver's seat. Keynesian macroeconomists have since believed that stimulating aggregate demand will increase real future output. According to their demand-side theory, the total level of output in the economy is driven by the demand for goods and services, and propelled by money spent on those goods and services. In other words, producers look to rising levels of spending as an indication to increase production.

Keynes considered unemployment to be a byproduct of insufficient aggregate demand, because wage levels would not adjust downward fast enough to compensate for reduced spending. He believed government could spend money and increase aggregate demand until idle economic resources, including laborers, were redeployed.

Other schools of thought, notably the Austrian School and real business cycle theorists, hearken back to Say. They stress consumption is only possible after production. This means an increase in output drives an increase in consumption, not the other way around. Any attempt to increase spending rather than sustainable production only causes maldistributions of wealth or higher prices, or both.

Keynes further argued that individuals can end up damaging production by limiting current expenditures – say, by hoarding money. Other economists argue that hoarding changes prices but does not necessarily change capital accumulation, production or future output. In other words, the effect of an individual's saving  money – more capital available for business – does not disappear on account of lack of spending.
Aggregation Problem

Another issue rests with the use of aggregate data in macroeconomics. Aggregate demand measures countless different economic transactions between millions of different individuals and for different purposes. This makes it very difficult to variations, run regressions, or accurately identify collinearity and causality. In statistics, this is referred to as the “aggregation problem” or “ecological inference fallacy.”
Next Up Aggregate Supply

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    Demand
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    Monetary Aggregates
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    Demand Theory
    Accelerator Theory
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    Demand Shock

Aggregate Supply
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Aggregate supply, also known as total output, is the total supply of goods and services produced within an economy at a given overall price level in a given time period. It is represented by the aggregate supply curve, which describes the relationship between price levels and the quantity of output that firms are willing to provide. Normally, there is a positive relationship between aggregate supply and the price level.
BREAKING DOWN 'Aggregate Supply'
Rising prices are usually signals for businesses to expand production to meet a higher level of aggregate demand. When demand increases amid constant supply, consumers compete for the goods available and therefore pay higher prices. This change in dynamic induces firms to increase supply output to sell more goods. The resulting supply increase causes prices to normalize and output to remain elevated.

Causes of Aggregate Supply Shifts

A shift in aggregate supply can be attributed to a number of variables. These include changes in the size and quality of labor, technological innovations, increase in wages, increase in production costs, changes in producer taxes and subsidies, and changes in inflation. Some of these factors lead to positive changes in aggregate supply, while others cause aggregate supply to decline.
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