ECON7002 ESSAY ASSIGNMENT - Markets in Action
ECON7002 Assignment
Essay: Markets in Action
1,200 words - 35% of course grade
Choose a real-world market and a real-world company that operates in that market. Write a 1,200 word
essay using the tools of economic analysis describing and explaining how a recent or upcoming domestic and/or
international government policy could affect the company, its consumers and, if applicable, broader social
welfare. Graphs and figures should be included if they support your analysis. You should summarise your
analysis in a single paragraph in your essay’s conclusion. Finally, you should briefly criticise your analysis,
emphasising its strengths and weaknesses for understanding and providing policy guidance in the real world.
Provide a properly formatted references section (not a bibliography) for all cited claims.
Your essay must be saved as a pdf document and submitted via the Turnitin link in the assignment folder
on the ECON7002 Blackboard website by the due date and time.
Details
1. Briefly describe the nature and characteristics of your chosen company.
2. Briefly describe the prevailing market structure including (as applicable) relevant demand-side and supplyside
elasticities, externalities, public goods features, price controls, taxes, tariffs, subsidies, trade quotas
and/or any other forces relevant to market efficiency and the firm’s competitiveness.
3. Briefly describe the recently enacted or upcoming domestic and/or international government policy facing
the market.
4. Describe the announced reason and some other potentially plausible (possibly unannounced) reasons why
the government might want to enact the policy.
5. Using the tools of economic analysis, explain how the announced government intervention will achieve its
stated aims.
6. Note any unintended consequences of the policy, briefly describing how they might arise.
7. List and briefly describe any other reasonable means the government possesses for achieving its stated
aims. Include a short statement with each describing its likely market and welfare impacts. Explain why
the government chose to implement its announced policy instead of adopting another approach.
8. Find and briefly describe a real-life example of an essentially similar government intervention in an
essentially similar market at any time previously anywhere in the world. Did that intervention produce
its intended results? How can that example be used to inform your economic analysis in item 5, above?
9. Conclude your essay with a critical reflection about how useful your economics approach is for understanding
and providing policy guidance in the analysed situation in the real world.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a “recent or upcoming policy”?
A recent or upcoming policy is a policy that has been introduced in the last 12 months, or that
is planned for the near future. The abolition within the last 12 months or planned abolition of a
government policy also counts as a recent or upcoming policy.
Does the market and company I choose have to be Australian?
No. However, all references must be in English (i.e., if you list a website, journal or newspaper article
as a reference that supports your description of a foreign market, it must be in English).
I do not have the data to exactly plot the aggregate demand/supply curve in my market. What can I do?
In almost all cases, you will not have the time or resources to gather the data to exactly plot the aggregate
demand and supply curves for your market.1
Therefore, your figures will be mostly qualitative rather than quantitative in nature.
The quantitative figure above exactly specifies where the demand and supply curves lie, whereas the
mostly qualitative figure only specifies that the equilibrium price is 2, but leaves open the exact slopes
of D and S, etc. The qualitative figure is nonetheless useful: e.g., by demonstrating that D and S still
satisfy the laws of demand and supply, depicting relative price elasticities of demand and supply, etc.
Despite the absence of detailed information, qualitative figures allow you to draw important conclusions.
E.g., you may be able to conclude from your qualitative figures that after the government intervention, the
market price will fall and consumer surplus will increase, or that the burden of a tax might fall unevenly
on suppliers or consumers, even though you will not be able to determine by exactly how many dollars
the price will fall, exactly how the tax burden will be split, or by exactly how many dollars consumer or
producer surplus will change.
Do I have to format my essay in a particular way?
Yes. Please comply with the following instructions. Any violation (e.g., missing word count) may lead to
penalty.
– Include a word count, your personal name, your family name and your student number on your
front page. Your word count should exclude material included in tables, figures, graphs and your
essay’s References section.
– Use1.5 line spacing or double line spacing.
– Fonts must be easily readable, including those used for figure captions.
1Of course, if you can access such data, that is fantastic!
4
My essay is 1,300 words long. Do I have to cut it down to 1,200 words?
Not necessarily. However, you should try to stick as close as possible to 1,200 words. An excellent 1,300
word essay will receive a high mark, while a poor 1,200 word essay will not. However, if you exceed 1,200
words it can be a hint that your essay contains superfluous information or is not focused enough, which
may attract a poor mark. Similarly, if your essay contains fewer than 1,200 words, it may indicate that
your essay is not deep or detailed enough.
How do I submit my essay?
The essay must be submitted via the Turnitin link in the Essay folder (in the Assignment section of the
course Blackboard site). The submission must be electronic in pdf format only (no hardcopies or Word
documents).
The Turnitin “similarity report” shows a similarity of x%. Is this still acceptable?
Short answer: I do not know. Long answer: The similarity report is a tool that assists essay graders in
recognising if a part of your essay has been plagiarised. In some cases, the report mistakenly picks up
passages that have been correctly cited. In other cases, the report fails to pick up plagiarised passages.
If your similarity score is 0% but you plagiarised and it is discovered by another method, I will refer
your case for investigation. If your essay contains a correct quote that the report picks up, this will be
ignored. What matters is not primarily the similarity score but that you do not plagiarise --- this is an
important responsibility that you have as an author.
GUIDE FOR ASSIGNMENT PRESENTATION
An assignment should be regarded as a piece of academic writing. The following comments
and suggestions about the construction and presentation of this "Market in Action"assignment are intended to
provide a guide. They are not intended to be considered as rigid rules. However, there are a
number of academic conventions which should be met in academic work. Of most
importance in academic writing is an overriding need for internal consistency in presentation.
Internal consistency is achieved by thoroughness and attention to detail in the presentation of
work.
The purpose of an academic piece of writing is to report the results of an investigation to
other members of the discipline for their information, evaluation and criticism.
Communication of the results of academic activity is important as it allows the dissemination
of information and is fundamental to the establishment of groups of people who are interested
in similar problems and who are interested in applying similar analytical techniques to
identify solutions to these problems. Writing an assignment is an exercise in effective
communication and requires more than just learning of techniques of analysis and facts about
the economic process.
There are a number of books available that assist with writing this Market in Action assignment. See for example,
Betts and Seitz (1986) Writing Essays in the Social Sciences and Anderson and Poole (1994)
Thesis and Assignment Writing. It is recommended that students consult these for
information about how to research and write an assignment.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Each course offered through the School of Economics will have stipulated the criteria for
assessment of assignments in the Course Outline. A number of assessment criteria that may
be relevant for all courses are listed below.
• Relevance of your answer to the question or task set.
• Clarity of expression.
• Supporting documentation for arguments.
• Proper acknowledgement of documentation and the use of a bibliographic convention.
• Logical planning and sequence.
• Overall presentation, including correct grammar, spelling and punctuation.
• Comprehensive coverage reflecting mastery of set readings and text.
PLANNING AND SEQUENCE OF AN ASSIGNMENT
The assignment should contain at least three well defined and distinct sections:
(a) An introduction (or ‘a beginning’)
(b) The body of the assignment (or ‘a middle’)
(c) A conclusion (or ‘an end’)