ECON7040 Research assignment

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ECON7040

Research assignment

Weighting: 40%

Due date: Assignment opens 20 April and is due 20 May 11：00 AM

Deliverables: This is an individual assignment.

(i) 1200 word (maximum) written research report. 20 marks

(ii) 10 minute video recording of a PowerPoint presentation. 20 marks

Context and research task:

The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) has engaged you as a consultant economist to write a research report and present it to them via PowerPoint (PPT).

The COVID-19 pandemic led to economic shocks and policy responses, both economic and public health policies, in Australia and around the world. The consequences of these shocks and policy responses continue to play out today.

The AICD is concerned that the economic impacts of the pandemic were not very well understood by policy makers. Yet the effect on corporate Australia has been unprecedented. The AICD wants to learn about the economic mechanisms created by the public health responses and the macroeconomic policy responses to the pandemic. The aim is that corporate Australia (and policy makers) will be better prepared should there ever be a similar pandemic response in future.

Your approach as the consultant is to apply the New Keynesian (NK)  partial sticky wage model to explain the effects of the pandemic on output, the real interest rate, inflation,  the real wage and employment.

It is important that your analysis start with data on the above variables for the Australian economy. You should then discuss the extent to which the data can be explained by the NK model.

Further detail:

The AICD members have a range of backgrounds in business, but many are not specialist economists. While your report should be technical at the level of analysis covered in ECON7040, you will not conduct any econometric or mathematical modelling. Your analysis will be diagrammatic based on algebraic expressions for the key equations in the NK model.

Your PPT presentation should briefly explain the key economic mechanisms in your report on the assumption that the audience has economic understanding equivalent to first year economics. The audience will therefore require explanation of the mechanics of the New Keynesian model. They will, however, be familiar with the meaning of economic variables such as real GDP, aggregate demand and supply, real interest rates etc.

You must produce your own diagrams and any  figures and tables that you may wish to use, rather than cut and paste. You must keep a copy of the file that you use to create any diagrams, figures and tables. The penalty for copying a diagram, figure or table is 3 marks out of 40 for each one copied.

You do not need to cite sources such as lecture notes or the text by Garin et al. However, you should not quote directly from these or any other sources without acknowledgement. Also, any direct quotes (with acknowledgement) from all sources should not exceed 50 words in total in the whole of your report (or PPT presentation).

For in-text citations and references at the end of the report you may apply any recognised academic system, provided it is applied consistently throughout the report.

The PPT video recording

The video may be recorded using Powerpoint, Zoom or the Echovideo software. You should submit the video version which will show you on camera as well as providing audio. You should refer to this UQ video guide to recording a presentation using Zoom.

This link explains how to submit a video assignment through Blackboard.

The maximum number of slides is 4. The maximum number of words of text per slide is 10, using a font size of between 20 to 28. The reason for these maximums is to encourage you to explain the economic mechanisms in your own words rather than reading from the slides; this will be one of marking criteria.

Font, word count, line spacing:

Your written report should use font size of 11. Any font type is acceptable. Line spacing should be 1.15.

The word count does not include diagrams or references. It does include any footnotes and appendices. The penalty for exceeding the word count by more than 100 words is 2 marks out of 40 for every 50 words exceeding the maximum. There is no explicit penalty for less than the maximum word limit, but you may lose marks for insufficient content.

Data sources

You should use primary data sources such as national agencies, e.g., ABS, Treasury, RBA; or multinational agencies, e.g., the World Bank, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund.

Turnitin submission

The report and PPT presentation should be submitted separately. See separate submission links in BB. If the similarity score for the written report (from Turnitin) exceeds 20% (excluding references), a penalty may apply.

Warning on the use of AI:

This assessment task evaluates students' abilities, skills and knowledge without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT. Students are advised that the use of AI technologies to develop responses is strictly prohibited and may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. Students may be asked to explain to the lecturer of ECON7040, verbally or in writing, various statements or data in their report and identify the sources of these statements or data.