Economics homework help. ECON 1110 Intermediate Macroeconomics
Spring 2020
 
Instructions for Essay
 
Due: Beginning of your scheduled lecture on Thursday 2^nd April. A hard copy must be submitted to me—no emailed attachments.
 
Please read all of these instructions carefully as your grade depends on it.
 
The purpose of the essay is to use the techniques and concepts learned in class to analyse a particular issue.  The ideal essay should be about 2500 words.  (Please worry more about making it complete than whether or not it is exactly 2500 words!)  You must include a reference list at the end AND appropriate in-text documentation (footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation).  Failure to include references constitutes plagiarism and will not be accepted.  It must be typed with 12 point font and 1.5 line spacing.  Please include page numbers. You are of course permitted to include charts or graphs (which may be drawn by hand).  Outside reading and research on the chosen topic are essential.  Possible sources of information are the Internet and Pitt libraries.  Another valuable resource for economists is the Journal of Economic Literature, which is available in the library.  This quarterly publication compiles a list of all economics books and journal articles and organises them by subject.  So if you are looking for recent journal articles about monetary economics, you simply have to look at the newest JEL under the topic “monetary economics” and you will find a list of all recent publications.  Obviously, if you look at older copies of JEL you will find past publications.  Only certain editions list book publications.  Perhaps more handy is to use is EconLit, which is an online search engine for economics publications, which should be available to you from a Pitt computer at search.ebscohost.com (click on the EconLit link). You can access many full articles directly from the search engine, depending on whether Pitt has access to that particular publication.  You should also note that you can access JSTOR from a Pitt computer (www.jstor.org).  JSTOR is a collection of online files of hundreds of different journals from many subjects and is a valuable resource for finding full articles.  Due to copyrights articles from the past few years are not yet available on JSTOR, but you can find most common journals at Pitt’s libraries anyway if you require a recent edition.
 
Essay Topic:
 
Choose ONE of the following topics for your essay (if you previously wrote an essay for me or for another class, you may not turn in the same or a very similar essay for this class).  Note that I give you some suggested questions that you can address in each essay.  You should not feel restricted to answering just these questions—just make sure that it flows coherently and is complete. Most of these essays leave you plenty of room to discuss the ideas that you find most interesting.  I am mostly looking at your ability to conduct research, write coherently, and analyse issues and policies using proper economic techniques.  It is much more advisable to pick a relatively narrow topic and do a more thorough discussion than to do a superficial treatment of a broad topic.
 
 

1. The US federal government has run deficits for the majority of recent history.  There have been proposals in the past for requiring government’s to balance their budget, such as proposals for a balanced budget amendment or similar policy rules.  What are the benefits of a balanced government budget?  What are the potential problems?  How do different schools of macroeconomic thought view this situation? You could also look at state-level analysis, as most US states do have some sort of balanced budget rule.  A similar topic is the European Union’s Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) for eurozone nations, which requires them to maintain a budget deficit of less than 3% of GDP, except during times of economic turmoil (which has been ignored by some members and also be aware the SGP has been changed over time; the current version is different than the original).  You could explain the purpose and goals of this act, the benefits and costs of fulfilling these requirements, and the problems that have occurred in under the SGP.

 

1. The Bretton Woods system provided a system of fixed exchange rates from the end of WWII until the early 1970s.  Write an essay discussing some aspect of the international experience of under Bretton Woods.  What are the benefits/costs of fixed exchange rates? How did the system operate?  What difficulties were encountered that led to its eventual abandonment?

 

1. After the breakdown of Bretton Woods, some European nations decided to form their own system of fixed exchange rates called the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) (which was a part of the European Monetary System, EMS).  What were the motivations for its creation?  How did it operate?  Which nations had the most influence?  What difficulties were encountered?  There are many interesting essays that you can write on this situation, such as the exit of Britain from the ERM in 1992 or the role of West Germany in this system.

 

1. During the 1970s and early 1980s, many industrialized nations had massive inflation problems.  There are many possible explanations: monetary policy, the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, the oil embargoes launched by OPEC nations, or fiscal policy actions (excessive government deficits). These factors could affect aggregate demand or aggregate supply and thus create inflation. Possible essays in this area could focus on the supply shocks created by the oil embargoes, the breakdown of Bretton Woods and the resulting exchange rate volatility/monetary policy volatility in these nations, government budget problems.  An effective essay could be an analysis of various attempts by governments to reduce inflation during the 1980s, or explaining why West Germany had such superior inflation performance relative to most other economies.

 
 
 
 

1. The Great Depression of the 1930s was a time of monumental change in many nations.  Key industries such as manufacturing and agriculture were in massive slumps.  Unemployment reached record heights.  There are two approaches that you can take to this essay. You can analyse some of the causes of the Great Depression (it would be best to pick a few related ones since if you attempt to cover them all then you will not have a very in-depth discussion of any).  Alternately, you can look at some of the economic policies used by governments to deal with the Depression.  You can do this for any particular (more or less) capitalist nation, such as the US. Be cautious with this topic—there are many low-level history-type sources out there, most of which are dubiously accurate (e.g. falsely claiming Hoover was laissez-faire, etc.) and lack proper economic analysis. You could also analyse the policies taken by nations that explicitly abandoned capitalism for fascism or communism, although you should be warned that such an essay will require you to do some outside reading about non-capitalist economic theory.  One particular topic along those lines would be to study Mussolini’s corporatist policies and how they influenced US policy and economic thought in the 1930s.

 

1. In the 1950s and 60s unemployment rates in Western Europe were substantially lower than unemployment rates in the US.  By the 1980s the situation had reversed in many of these nations.  Economists have done considerable research to explain this phenomenon.  What factors caused high European unemployment?  What is the effect of this unemployment on these nations?  What policies have been tried/could be tried to reduce unemployment? (Hint: Charles Bean has a very good survey article on European Unemployment, which you can search for on JSTOR).

 

1. Central Banking and Monetary Policy:  You can write an essay analysing the policies taken by the Fed or another central bank in a specific situation, such as during the Great Depression, the stock market crash of 1987, the East Asian financial crisis, etc.  There is much debate about what central banks should be doing to deal with the current financial market instability—you could write a very good essay comparing the events of today with the actions taken by central banks in response to previous financial market problems.  You should investigate the actual policies that were taken, their effects, and any problems that were encountered.

 

1. The Austrian model developed by Mises, Hayek and others has proven to have some value in predicting the recent economic situation.  Write an essay on some aspect of Austrian theory.  One example would be to investigate the Austrian explanation of the 1930s depression and discuss its application to today.  Another example would be to compare the ideas of Hayek and Keynes (who had a spirited correspondence with each other) on the macroeconomy.  The best source on Austrian theory is mises.org, which has many full-text books and articles available for free.

 
 
 

1. There have been numerous instances of hyperinflation through modern history, such as what is presently occurring in Zimbabwe.  Perhaps the most famous example of hyperinflation is what occurred in 1920s Germany, although other nations as diverse as Turkey and much of South America have also experienced massive inflation problems.  What factors caused these hyperinflationary episodes?  What economic theories can be used to explain hyperinflation?  What were the consequences of these inflationary periods on the economies of these nations?

 

1. An analysis of economic growth could provide an effective essay topic.  You could analyse the causes of economic growth and then apply them to a particular nation (e.g. explaining the causes of US growth in the post-Civil War period, the growth in Japan after WWII or China since the 1980s, for example), or you could compare the economic performance of different countries today, e.g. explaining different productivity levels internationally.  Many of these topics cross over into aspects of development economics, which is fine as long as you concentrate on macroeconomic issues.

 

1. Alternatively, you can select your own topic in macroeconomics, subject to the following:

1. You must pick something suitable for an upper-level undergraduate student. Very basic topics or topics not related to the course are not acceptable.  Pick something feasible about which you can find information.  Do not pick something that is too complicated—an essay on a complex subject that you do not understand very well is not conducive to a higher grade, contrary to popular belief.  Also, try to be specific in your topic—writing on “the Fed’s monetary policy” is very vague and will not allow you to show much in-depth research, whereas writing on, for example, how the Fed responded to the oil price shocks will allow a much more detailed discussion.
2. You may select a topic that we do not explicitly cover in class provided that it is sufficiently related to macroeconomics
3. If you choose your own topic, you must have it approved by me BEFORE you start. Please email (maloy@pitt.edu) me with your proposed topic so that I can check it and provide any advice/warning about your topic.  If you wait until two days before the essay is due to ask me to approve a topic you should expect to get a sarcastic email in reply.

 
A few notes on writing techniques:
 
You should put considerable effort into the structure and coherency of your essay.  You should include an introduction and conclusion.  Your introduction should introduce your paper and should clearly indicate the purpose of your paper.  Be particularly careful to ensure that your conclusion is a summary of your key points and does not bring in a bunch of new information.  When writing the main body, pay attention to the organisation of your discussion.  Make effective transitions between paragraphs; in other words, make sure that your discussion flows coherently from section to section.
 
This essay must be written in the third person.  The word ‘I’ should NOT be in this essay.  I especially do not want to see the phrases “I think” or “I believe” anywhere; in my experience such phrases are typically followed by some pre-conceived opinion that has nothing to do with the evidence you have presented.  Any conclusions you draw should be the result of the evidence and theories you have discussed and your economic analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of issues, not on random personal opinions about how you think butterflies are pretty with no factual foundation.  You should give the impression that your views and conclusions are the direct result of what you have learned.  Any opinions should be supported by evidence.
 
Please ensure that you are writing an economics essay, not a history or a politics essay.  Although such issues are important and can be brought into your essay where appropriate, you are expected to concentrate on economic issues and use economic analysis in your essay.
 
Try to include economic theory and relate it to the issue at hand, rather than just writing a summary of events.  For example, if you were writing about monetarism in the US during the 1980s then you should include monetarist theory to supplement your summary of the policies taken by the Fed.  In other words, you should be using theory to explain the evidence.
 
Please consult outside sources and research your topic thoroughly.  Just reading the textbooks and some random articles from the National Enquirer does not constitute research.  Make sure that your sources are at an appropriate level for this class.  This is particularly important for internet sources: just because something is on the internet does not make it true!  For example, something found on the European Central Bank’s website should be fine, but something from some random blog may be, but is not necessarily, accurate.  However, keep in mind that good sources may be factually correct but biased towards a particular point of view, e.g. you probably will not find much effective criticism of Fed policy on the Fed’s own website.
 
At the university level you should not be using an encyclopaedia as a primary reference for the bulk of your essay.  However, if you do consult one do make sure that it is a properly-edited one, not something where anyone with internet access and an IQ of 60 can post random things.  Wikipedia is not an acceptable reference for a university-level student.  YOU MAY NOT USE WIKIPEDIA OR ANY SIMILAR TYPE OF NON-REFERENCE.  The use of inappropriate sources will result in a significantly lower grade.
 
Also, you MUST include appropriate documentation, including both references in the text (parenthetical or footnotes/endnotes) AND a full, alphabetized reference list at the end.  Failure to use appropriate documentation constitutes plagiarism and will not be accepted.   Use an appropriate format for references.  You should purchase a guidebook that shows you an appropriate style, such as MLA.  Most such books show methods of both parenthetical documentation and footnote documentation.  Usually, parenthetical documentation is used in economics but I will accept footnotes/endnotes as well.  Any style is acceptable as long as you are consistent (i.e. don’t switch from footnotes to parenthetical halfway through the essay), with the exception that using numbered parenthetical references such as [3], with the [3] referring to “source 3” in a numbered bibliography at the end is complete rubbish; no proper academic papers use such a style.
 
As for WHEN to use documentation:
The basic rule is that you must give the source of anything that is not common knowledge.  What is common knowledge?  Basically, anything that should be known by a student at your level is common knowledge.  For example, you do not have to give credit to Adam Smith if you start talking about supply and demand.  However, any figures or advanced theories must be referenced.  If you say that some country had inflation of 4.5654 percent in 1984 or discuss Friedman’s theory of the velocity of money, you MUST provide documentation crediting your sources.  Any fact, figure, or theory you mention must be referenced in the text by using a parenthetical reference/footnote.  As a general rule, in an essay of this type where most of what you write will be other people’s ideas, probably almost every paragraph should have at least one reference in it.  Exceptions are introductions/conclusions or transition paragraphs between sections.  Also, any charts/graphs that use data must have the data source referenced.  If you are in doubt about how/when to use documentation, please ask!  Improper documentation constitutes plagiarism.  My general advice if you are unsure if you should document something is to go ahead and put in the citation—simple cost/benefit analysis indicates that excessive documentation is less costly than inadequate documentation (aka plagiarism).
 
Finally, do not cheat or plagiarise on your essay in any way, shape or form.  Do not turn in an essay identical to one that you have done for another class.  Any formal complaints I receive or evidence I find of a student cheating, plagiarizing or attempting to free-ride off the work of another student will be treated as an academic integrity offense.  This assignment is subject to the University’s policies on academic integrity, as specified here: http://www.cfo.pitt.edu/policies/policy/02/02-03-02.html
 

Economics homework help