Assessment criteria for assignment overall

Besides the textbook, you should also refer to a few other books, journal articles and relevant websites in answering these questions. Sources must be acknowledged and a list of references provided. Concepts must be defined accurately and completely. The assumptions upon which the analysis is based must be stated. Diagrams must be drawn properly, correctly labelled and the relations they depict explained. Photocopied and scanned graphs are not acceptable. Please try to create the graphs yourself electronically or draw the graphs. Answers must be complete, addressing the specific tasks nominated in the questions. Where a question has more than one part, so too should the answers. Ensure complete coverage. You must work on the assignment questions progressively each week which will prevent you from asking for extensions. Remember an extension is not a gift, it is a burden.

Assessment details for ALL students

Assessment item 1- Part A: short answer questions
Due date: Weighting:

Tuesday 17 April 2012 (Week 7) 30% Each question is seven marks (4 questions x 7 marks = 28 marks) An additional 2 marks are allocated for in-text referencing/ reference list and presentation.

ASSESSMENT

Length:

Approximately 600 words for each question for a total of 1,800 words. It is a progressive assignment based on first 6 modules covering chapters 1-2 & 18-22

Objectives
This assessment item relates to the course learning outcomes numbers 1 to 5 as stated in Part A of the course profile. It covers work from the first six modules of the course. Question 1 (Refer to Chapter 1 & 2) (a) Look at an issue of The Australian newspaper from one day during the term and answer the following questions (provide full reference and a photo copy or the cutting of the article). i) What is the top economic news story? Which of the big macroeconomic questions does it deal with? (It must deal with at least one of them and might deal with more than one.) (1 mark) ii) What tradeoffs do the news items discuss or imply? (0.5 mark) iii) Write a brief summary of the current news item using economic vocabulary and basic theory that you have learnt in this chapter one and as many as possible of the key terms listed on page 15 of the set textbook (for example: factors of production, globalisation, human capital, labour, opportunity cost, profit, rent, scarcity & wages). (2.5 marks)

(b) Suppose that a countrys production possibilities are given in the table below.
Food (kilograms per month) 300 200 100 0 Sunscreen (litres per month) 0 50 100 150

i) Draw a graph of the countrys PPF and explain the trade off. (1 mark)

ii) If the country produces 150 kilograms of food per month, how much sunscreen must it produce to achieve production efficiency? Calculate your answer. (1 mark) iii) Calculate the opportunity cost of producing 1 kilogram of food and the opportunity cost of producing 1 litre of sunscreen? (1 mark)

Question 2 (Refer to Chapter 18) (a) The table shows data from the United Kingdom in 2005.
Items Wages paid to labour Consumption expenditure Taxes Transfer payments Profits Investment Government expenditure Exports Saving Imports Billions of Pounds 685 791 394 267 273 209 267 322 38 366

i) Calculate GDP in the United Kingdom. (1.5 marks)

ii) Explain the approach (expenditure or income) that you used to calculate GDP. (1.5 marks)

(b) Tropical Republic produces only bananas and coconuts. The base year is 2008, and the table gives the quantities produced and the prices. Quantities Bananas Coconuts Prices Bananas Coconuts 2008 800 bunches 400 bunches 2008 $2 a bunch $10 a bunch 2009 900 bunches 500 bunches 2009 $4 a bunch $5 a bunch

i) Calculate Tropical Republics nominal GDP in 2008 and 2009 (2 marks)

ii) Calculate real GDP in 2009 in terms of base year prices.

(2 marks)

Question 3 (Refer to Chapters 19 & 20) (a) In Queensland in January 2009, 1,601,000 people were employed and 95,400 people were unemployed. A year earlier, in January 2008, 1,560,800 people were employed and 80,200 were unemployed. The labour force participation rates were 67% in January 2008 and 67.5% in January 2009. For January 2008 and January 2009, calculate Queenslands: i) Unemployment rate (1 mark) ii) Working-age population (1 mark) iii) Employment to working-age population ratio (1 mark) iv) What do these data tell us about the changes in the Queensland labour market during 2008? (1 mark) (b) If Thailand imposes coastal security and legal restrictions to crack down on illegal immigrants and returns millions of workers to their home countries, explain what is likely to happen to: i) Thailands potential GDP (0.5 mark) ii) Employment in Thailand (0.5 mark) iii) The real wage rate in Thailand (0.5 mark) In countries to which immigrants return, explain what is likely to happen to: iv) Potential GDP (0.5 mark)

vi) Employment (0.5 mark) vii) The real wage rate (0.5 mark)

Question 4 (Refer to Chapters 21 & 22) (a) The table below shows an economys demand and supply for loanable funds schedules, when the governments budget is balanced. Study the table and answer the following questions: Real interest rate (per cent per year) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Loanable funds demanded 2006/07 Trillions of $ 8.5 8.0 7.5 7.0 6.5 6.0 5.5 Loanable funds supplied 2006/07 Trillions of $ 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5

i) If the government has a budget surplus of $1 trillion, what are the real interest rate, the quantity of investment, and the quantity of private saving? Is there any crowding out in this situation? (1 mark)

ii) If the government has a budget deficit of $1 trillion, what are the real interest rate, the quantity of investment, and the quantity of private saving? Is there any crowding out in this situation? (1 mark) iii) If the government has a budget deficit of $1 trillion, and the Ricardo-Barro effect occurs, what are the real interest rate and the quantity of investment? (1 mark) (b) Rapid inflation in Brazil in the early 1990s caused the cruzeiro to lose its ability to function as money. Which of the following commodities do you think would most likely have taken the place of the cruzeiro in the Brazilian economy? Explain why. i) Tractor parts (1 mark) ii) Packets of cigarettes (1 mark) iii) Loaves of bread (1 mark) iv) Impressionist paintings (1 mark)

ECON 19033: Part-A Term 1-Assignment: Marking Sheet Student Name: __________________________Student/Number: __________________

Question No Q1

Q2

ECON11026 Part A A (i) A (ii) A (iii) B (i) B (ii) B (iii) A (i) A (ii) B (i) B (ii) A (i) A (ii) A (iii) A (iv) B (i) B (ii) B (iii) B (iv) B (v) B (iv) A (i) A (ii) A (iii) B (i) B (ii) B (iii) B (iv)

Marks Out of 1 0.5 2.5 1 1 1 1.5 1.5 2 2 1 1 1 1 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 30

Total Marks

Q3

Q4

Referencing Presentation Total marks Part A

Total marks out of 30

Additional Markers Comments: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Markers Name: __________________________ Date: _______________________ _______________________________xxxx__________________________________

Assessment item 1 Part B: Case Study-Term 1-2012 Due date: Weighting: Tuesday 17 April 2012 (Week 7) 20% Each question is nine marks (4 questions x 9 marks = 36 marks) An additional 4 marks are allocated for overall presentation and synthesis Marks out of 40 will be scaled back to 20%. Length: Approximately total of 2,000-2,500 words maximum. It is a progressive assignment based on chapters 18, 19 & 22 Objectives This assessment item relates to the course learning outcomes numbers 1 to 5 as stated in Part A of the course profile. Case Study: Reading Between the Lines: Zimbabwe Unveils 500 Million Dollar Notes (2008) Agence France-press, 12 December 2008. Key Chapter: Chapter 22, page 522 to 523 from the set textbook. Read the case study and answer the following questions. It is important that you do some research related to Zimbabwe and find information about the context of the news item on page 522-23. Key Concepts to Review Zimbabwe, Central bank, hyper inflation, money, economic growth, currency shortage, interest rates and inflation Tasks to be undertaken: Read the essence of the story along with economic analysis of the case (pp: 522-23) and answer the questions that are listed at the end of this section. In answering the questions, take note of the following advice: ASSESSMENT 2

i)

ii)

iii)

Refer and read Chapters 18, 19 and 22 to get a good understanding of the theory. Make notes, which will help you to answer the questions by applying the theory to real life example of economics at work. Understand how a case study should be analysed in economics and questions answered by applying the relevant theory from the chapters. Apply the DADA (Definitions, Assumption, Diagram and Analysis while answering the economic questions). As you answer each question, be careful to define the key terms, list assumptions. You might also provide diagrams and tables to explain the application of economic theory to the case study. On campus students will be attempting some exercises in the workshop sessions and off campus students will perform similar weekly exercises related to Reading between the lines, that is economics at work from the set textbook. These exercises will help and guide you how to think like an economist and look for theory and apply

iv) v)

it to real life examples from Reading between the lines boxed cases from the set textbook. It is important in economics that you interpret the question clearly, use diagrams in an essay and write like an economist. Make sure you include in-text references and provide a reference list. Consult with the Learning Skills Unit staff or Communication Learning Centre staff on your campus if you require assistance on essay writing and referencing. Make some notes after reading the discussion in the interview in context of the questions and the macroeconomic theory and key concepts discussed. You need to listen carefully and read between the lines to grasp the important economic concepts being applied to this real-life economic issue.

vi) vii)

viii) Conduct research on related article in the media and Zimbabwe. You will need this additional information to overall draw conclusions and justify your answers. ix) Prepare your answer in an essay format ensuring that you refer to the essay writing guide for students studying economics available on the Assessment section of the course website. Chapter reference refers to theory to be applied to this case. Use tables /data and draw relevant graphs and explain which can be obtained from doing some research.

Now read the case study from the set textbook (pp: 522-23) and answer the following questions. Question 1: Describe the money growth rate and the inflation rate in Zimbabwe since 2000. How do we know that Zimbabwes reported inflation between 2003 and 2007 is almost certainly below the true inflation rate? Question 2: What features of the Zimbabwes economy provides a view of the cost of hyperinflation? Question 3: What policy changes would address Zimbabwes inflation problem? Explain. Question 4: Will deleting ten zeros off all prices stop Zimbabwes inflation problem? Explain.
.

ECON19033 Assessment Item 1 Part B Marking Sheet

Student Name ______________________________________________ S/N_____________________________ Marking Criteria Overall presentation Structure and organisation of the paper Clarity of expression Evidence of wide reading and research (in-text and end-text referencing) 1 1 Weight 3 1 Marks

Application of theory to practice Define key terms, explain key issue and problem in the case & apply to real life economics with examples. Identify and explain assumptions. Provide appropriately adapted graphical illustration/s with explanation. Provide critical analysis of the question drawing theory from relevant chapter topics. Provide synthesis/conclusions of the case, highlighting overarching economic issues Add marks for each criterion then divide by 2. Final mark for Assessment Item-1-Part B Additional Comments:

9x4 3

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

1 2

____/40 ____/20

__________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ Markers Signature Date