Assessment Description

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Assignment 2

Due:                         9pmTuesday,17 September, 2016(Week 11)

Length:                   1500 words

Weighting:              25%

Requirement:

Prepare a report on the current state of the Australian economy and its management by the Federal government. You need to do this by examining the following four economic indicators – economic growth (GDP), unemployment, inflation and trade (including the terms of trade, the current account, net foreign debt and the value of the Australian dollar). In your report you are expected tooutline the target values forthese economic indicatorsas well as the trend in these economic indicators over the last 10 years.Finally, you should outline the current macroeconomic policies of the Federal government and RBA where you think these policies may relate to these four economic indicators and comment on whether you see these policies as suitable in the present economic environment.   Given your analysis, you are expected to conclude your report with policy recommendations to achieve targeted economic growth, unemployment, inflation and trade outcomes.

Presentation of report

The report should not exceed 1500 words. This word limit does not include the abstract, tables,graphsand reference list.

The report should be word processed using a font size 12 with 1.5 line spacing.

Structure of report

Your report must include:

• an appropriate title
• an abstract (sometimes called an executive summary) summarising the report
• an introduction in which you briefly explain what you are going to address in the report and why
• the body of the essay broken into sections with appropriate section headings
• a brief conclusion that should summarise your analysis and your predictions and recommendations
• appropriate referencing and a reference list as required.

Although the requirements for presentation and structure may appear pedantic, they are not. In the business world you may often find yourselfinvolved in writing a report – perhaps even for multilateral and government organisations such as the IMF or OECD. We suggest that you devote some time to developing this skill. Your future career can only be enhanced by your ability to communicate effectively in writing.

Marking criteria Assignment 2

Your report will be marked against the following criteria:

• Abstract, presentation, grammar, structure, etc.
  (10 marks)
• Appropriate descriptionof thefour economic indicators- economic growth, unemployment, inflation and trade and the trend in these indicators over the last ten years.
  (20marks)
• Succinct description of current macroeconomic policy in Australia and appropriate assessment of its effectiveness.
  (40 marks)
• Useful conclusions and recommendations about the future direction of policy including threats to current policy settings.
  (20 marks)
• Evidence in the report of a depth of research and accuracy in referencing (Harvard Style).

(10 marks)

 

TOTAL FOR ASSIGNMENT 2:     100 marks (weighting 25% of total marks for the unit)

Some advice about Assignment 2

Your short “Abstract”needs to describe the aim of the report and a brief overview of the economic targets, government policy and recommendations. It should be approximately 500 words.

The “Introduction” is a brief paragraph or two that outlines the aim of the report and how the report is structured (i.e., what you are examining). The content of your assignment should generally reflect the marking criteria. REMEMBER that an Introduction is different to an Abstract.

The “body” of the report is the content of your research and analysis. You may want to consider dividing you report into different sections with appropriate subheadings.

You should begin the body of your work with adiscussion of the current values of the four economic indicators under investigation (Economic Growth (GDP), Unemployment, Inflation and Trade) and the government targets for each of these. You should also discuss the trends in the economic variables over the past 10 years.This section is worth 20%.

Once you have discussed the variables you should discuss current macroeconomic (Fiscal and Monetary) policy in Australia. In addition to a description of policy you need to provide your assessment of the effectiveness of the policy.The effectiveness of macroeconomic policy will be determined by how close the current figures are to policy targets. For example, did Australiareach targets or not and/or how close has Australia been to meeting targets? You NEED to give your (well thought out) opinions about how well current macroeconomic policyis working based on the data obtained. You need to support your opinions with scholarly research to further enhance/prove/justify/confirm your findings. This section is worth 40%.

In your “Conclusion” you need to discuss what the future is for the economy (the strengths and/or threats) as well as canvass the policies you would recommend to ensure meeting the economic targets. You should again call upon scholarly research to further enhance/prove/justify/confirm your commentary in this section. This section is worth 20%.

A reminder: To complete your assignment you need to ensure you have used correct Harvard referencing throughout the report and that you have correctly formatted your reference list. Only include the references that you actually used in your report.  This section is worth 10%.

You should check your “turnitin” value before submitting your assignment. A value of over 50 per cent should be of concern to you.

There are a number of useful resources you can use to gather information but make sure you are using reliable sources. Useful sources of information might include the following web sites:

• Australian Bureau of Statistics <http://www.abs.gov.au>
• The Reserve Bank of Australia <http://ww.rba.gov.au>
• Treasury<http://ww.treasury.gov.au>
• Department of Finance<http://ww.finance.gov.au>
• The Productivity Commission <http://www.pc.gov.au>
• The World Trade Organization <http://www.wto.org>
• ABC News <http://www.abc.net.au/news/>

Some newspaper sites may also be useful. For example, the Australian Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, the Guardian and other major newspapers. The editions around the time of economic policy announcements are especially useful.

You will also need to look closely at some recent budgetsthat are usually brought down in May (details can be found at http://www.budget.gov.au) and monetary policy announcements about interest rates can be found at http://</ u>www.rba.gov.au. The RBA’s quarterly statement on monetary policy is also a very useful source of information on the economy and its status. If you find some good sources I suggest that you share them with other students on the Discussion Board.