Other things the same, if prices fell when firms and workers were expecting them to rise, then a. employment and production would rise. b. employment would rise and production would fall. c. employment would fall and production would rise. d. employment and production would fall.

d. employment and production would fall.

Explanation:

Economic agents have expectations about the parameters of an economy, such as price, inflation, unemployment rate, etc. If the price falls while economic agents expect the opposite, in the short run production and employment tend to increase. This is because investment decisions had already been made. However, in the medium and long term, economic agents realize that price expectations have not been confirmed and market parameters adjust. Thus, in the face of falling prices, there will be less demand. With lower demand, there will be a decrease in production and thus the employment rate decreases.

a manufacturer of printed circuit boards uses exponential smoothing with trend to forecast monthly demand of its product. at the end of december, the company wishes to forecast sales for january. the estimate of trend through november has been 200 additional boards sold per month. average sales have been around 1000 units per month. the demand for december was 1100 units. the company uses α = 0.20 and β = 0.10. make a forecast including trend for the month of january.