Imagine that you are an IMF (International Monetary Fund) economist. You have been given the task of analysing and comparing the economic performance of two countries (United Kingdom and the United States) over the time period 2007-2014 and offering policy advice to both governments. Your analysis should allow you to explain any differences and similarities in economic performance in the two countries over the specified time period.
Write a report that you would present to the IMF which details the results of the analysis and the policy advice that you would give to the governments of these countries.
For this assignment, you must compare the performance of The US and The UK.
As with the previous assignment, the key focus is on the analysis. So your research questions should include; why did these economies perform the way that they did, what caused the adjustments in the economic variables over time (policy will be very important here) and why did the two countries experience similaries and differences in their economic performance. Also what are the key economic issues/problems in each country over this time period.
Remember, your report should be focused on presenting the results of your analysis and offering policy advice. So you need to ask all the above questions before you then write up the results of your findings. Your report should be focused on developing key analytical points rather than a descriptive account of economic performance in each country. An example of what a report might say is as follows
Both countries experienced growth in unemployment as a result of the recession. In country A there was a much bigger increase in unemployment and the unemployment rate increased over a longer time period. Give the statistics for both countries (i.e. unemployment increased by x amount in country A over the period x, while it increased by only x amount in County B over x time period) Although both countries experienced falling demand for goods and services and therefore falling demand for labour, this was much worse in country X because…. (this is where your research comes in)
After that, you would focus on the most recent adjustments to unemployment and provide and policy advice going forward.
It is probably wise to focus your writing on the comparison, that way it will be more interesting and more analytical. It is up to you to truly engage with the analysis and write an interesting report. This will require careful consideration of the performance of each economy, substantial research and will take time.
You should examine key economic indicators in each country e.g. GDP growth, GDP per capita growth, unemployment rate, inflation rate, budget balance, exports and imports, other relevant variables. You should address indicators relevant to any specific issues which arise in the economy over the time frame. It is up to you to do a good analysis so that you pick up key economic issues in each economy.
Regarding sources of information, I have already shown you how to find data from the World Bank website. This is pretty straight forward. You can also find data using national statistic websites such as the Office of National Statistics in the UK or you could find data on the IMF website. I think it wise to first find the data you are looking for and then try to find some articles that discuss the economic performance of both countries so that you can try to explain changes in the economic variables in both countries.
Possible sources are
www.economist.com
www.theguardian.com/uk
www.thetimes.co.uk
www.ft.com
www.bbc.com
www.googlescholar.com
www.worldbank.org
www.imf.org
The above is not a complete list of possible sources of information. It’s just a list of some places that you might look.
Some resources that students sometimes use for researching essays but that may not cited in the essay are
www.wikipedia.com
www.economicshelp.com
www.economics.about.com
www.onlinedictionary.com (or any dictionary)
www.investopedia.com
www.yahoo.com
The above is not a complete list of resources that may not be used. In general, newspapers and journal articles are fine but information websites such as dictionary sites are not appropriate for citations but may be helpful to improving your understanding of the issue being addressed. Regarding websites that help students to understand economics, tutor2u is the only one you can reference at GIC. If you are referencing material obtained from tutor2u, please do so via a footnote. The same applies to any material obtained from a website that does not have an author.
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