Assignment:
1. What is GDP and how is it calculated? What are some of the weaknesses of using GDP as a measure of economic performance? How do we take into account inflation when comparing GDP in one period to GDP in a different period?
2. What is the CPI, and how is it calculated? Why do many groups want their pay to be linked to the CPI? Should there be a different market basket for younger households than for older households?
3. What is inflation, and how is it calculated? What is the FED's goal for inflation, and why doesn't the FED seek to achieve no inflation? What are some of the harmful effects of high rates of inflation?
4. How do we define unemployment? Why is our current measure of unemployment misleading? Why do some economists prefer using the "real" unemployment rate? Why are so many middle aged men not working and not unemployed?
5. What are the different types of unemployment? Give examples of each. How does an increase decrease in the minimum wage affect unemployment?
6. What is fiscal policy? Who conducts fiscal policy? What are some of the problems with using fiscal policy to achieve economic goals? How do Keynesians view the use of fiscal policy compared to the views of non-Keynesians?
7. What is money? Discuss the evolution of money? What is included in the U.S. money supply?
8. Discuss the contributions of John Maynard Keynes to the development of Macroeconomics.
9. What is the Federal Reserve? What is its primary mission? Why do many politicians and economists oppose the FED?
10. What is monetary policy? Who conducts it, and how? What is the Federal Funds Rate, and why is it important in the conduct of monetary policy?
Once you have selected a topic, be sure to conduct a thorough Review of Literature on the subject. The minimum length of your course paper is 10 pages, double-spaced without the title page and the page on references. There is no upper page limit for your paper. Additional guidance will be provided during the first week of the course.
Organize your paper with five sections:
- Introduction and objective. Make sure the objective is specific.
- Literature Review. Conduct a search on the topic of your paper and summarize works of others similar to what you are writing on. Be sure to follow APA guidelines. The following link contains basics of APA style guidelines:
- Analysis: Analyze your topic with reference to the objective.
- Summary and conclusion.
- References. Provide at least five references, at least two of which must be scholarly books and /or journals.
You are welcome to send your topic and the objective of your paper to your instructor by the end of the first week so that she/he may provide additional guidance.
Notes
1. Refereed papers are academic papers that were criticized and reviewed by experts before being published.
2. To find the academic articles that you need for your paper (at least one), go to the following full text databases in our library: Business Source Premier (EBSCO), Emerald Management Xtra, LexisNexis Academic, ProQuest Databases and ProQuestDissertations and Thesis. These databases are in Databases have different sources or information, and you always have to combine them. Economists would say that databases are complements rather than substitutes, in other words, try more than one database.
Short papers are nice pieces of art. Your paper will be evaluated not in terms of right/wrong but on rational coherence and quality of the argument.