BEA603 Economics and Statistical Analysis Assignment 5, Semester 1 2023
Task Description: The assignment consists of Sections A and B. Follow all the instructions provided in each section to complete the requirements for each task. For analysis purposes, you are expected to apply any relevant economic theories/concepts covered in the lectures from week 8 to week 13.
Task length: Your report should be typed and 1500 words* in total (i.e. excluding calculations, tables, charts, selected media articles, and references) and submitted as a single MSWord “*.docx” document.
Due Date/Time: Thursday 1st June, 2023, submit by 11:00 pm (AEST).
Total Marks: Section A (35 mark) + Section B (15 marks) = 50 marks
Weight: 20%.
Section (A) Technical economic analysis (Word count: ~1000 words)
Step 1. Select a recent articles (newspapers online or a business internet source) that highlight an event/issue that can potentially impact businesses in Australia/overseas.
- In order to maintain the currency of events, ensure that you select only articles published in the last 12 months (in Australia or other countries†).
The selected article must contain the details of media and the date of publication.
(1 marks).
Step 2: Provide a clear description of the event/issue based on the selected article (~150 words*)
(4 marks)
Step 3: Use relevant economic concepts, theories and/or diagrams to demonstrate the impact of the event/issue on your business. (~600 words)
- Identify which industry your business is in. (2 marks)
- Identify and describe the economic concepts that are relevant to the event/issue selected. (6 marks)
- Conduct an analysis, using economic theories and/or diagrams to make predictions on all relevant markets for your business (think of complements, substitutes etc.) (12 marks)
Step 4: Provide a playbook for your boss on how to mitigate/or take advantage depending on what the selected event has provided/issue it has raised (~250 words) (10 marks)
Section (B) Non-Technical Briefing Note (~500 words)
The purpose of this section is to provide a non-technical version of the analysis you carried out in Section A. Typically, this involves not using jargon, technical terms, calculations, complicated analysis etc. Further briefing notes use bullet points to convey main messages of the technical analysis (which you conducted in Section A).
Your briefingng note must do the following:
- Provide a clear description of the event/issue chosen (4 marks)
- In non-technical terms, describe how the event has implications on the various markets your company operates in. (7marks)
- In non-technical terms, provide solutions to how your company should respond to the changed economic landscape brought about by the event. (4 marks)
Additional Information:
The assignment is really about students showing that they can identify how economics can apply to contemporary issues, and then demonstrating some base understanding.
Articles:
- Need to be fully referenced.
- I need to be able to read the articles, so they have to be in English
- If the article is sourced from the internet, I don’t need you to include the article, just its URL.
- If the article is sourced from print media (newspaper, magazine etc) you should include a scanned copy as an appendix.
- The article is not part of the word count for this assessment.
Marking Guide
| Section A | Marks |
| Link to article provided | 1 |
| Description | 4 |
| Identification of Business | 2 |
| Description of economic consepts used | 6 |
| Economic Analysis using theory and/or diagrams | 12 |
| Strategies for Manager | 10 |
| Section B | |
| Description | 4 |
| Non technical description of the economic naalysis | 7 |
| Non technical advice on strategy | 4 |
Example Topics
Just to get you thinking, here is a shortlist of potential topics I put together from a quick 15 minute browse of internet news services. These are just the tip of the iceberg.
- Housing Crisis and rental affordability
- Carbon Tax
- Petrol Prices
- Traffic Congestion
- Interest rates
- Cryptocurrency
- Government Budgets
- Distribution of Wealth
- COVID
- The Gig economy
- Electric Vehicles
- Globalization and International Supply Chains
- Balance of Trade
- BREXIT
- Unemployment
- Water Rights
- Inflation
- Protectionism
- Home Office and remote Working
- 5G and the ACCC
- Labour shortage
- Too big to fail
- …
Because economics is essentially about the use and allocation of scare resources, the range of potential topics is huge.