Assignment
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 four economic indicators of 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 to outline the target values for these economic indicators as 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, graphs and 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 (section headings are appropriate)
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 yourself involved 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 2Your report will be marked against the following criteria:
Appropriate description of the four economic indicators- economic growth,
unemployment, inflation and trade and the trend in these indicators over the last ten years.
Succinct description of current macroeconomic policy in Australia and appropriate
assessment of its effectiveness.
Useful conclusions and recommendations about the future direction of policy including
threats to current policy settings.
Evidence in the report of a depth of research and accuracy in referencing (Harvard Style).
Abstract, presentation, grammar, structure, etc.
TOTAL FOR ASSIGNMENT 2: 100 marks (weighting 25% of total marks f 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 a discussion 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 Australia reach 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 policy is 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:
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 budgets that are usually brought down in May (details can be found at https://www.budget.gov.au) and monetary policy announcements