Writing Assignment: Country specific analysis, event shock and Outcomes
Part 1: Country Overview
Give a brief history of the country, including economic indicators and historical events that impacted economic outcomes. This should include a discussion of the overall economic health (including: unemployment, GDP growth, standard of living, inflation, and budget balances) of the country.
Part 2: Graphical Analysis
For this section, you will create 2 graphs, each showing your country and the US over the past 20 years. These graphs should support your discussion in part 3…in other words, the graphs you choose for this section should directly relate the news article/economic event chosen for analysis in part 3. Each graph should include a brief discussion of why it is relevant for the analysis conducted in part 3.
Choose 2 of the variables below and include separate graphs for each (either by downloading the data and plotting yourself or taking a screenshot of provided graphs):
GDP (per capita, which is the default option on the OECD site)
Government expenditure as a share of GDP
The budget balance as a share of GDP
National debt as a share of GDP
CO2 emissions
Inequality
Tax on personal income
Other if relevant to the event/article discussed in part 3.
Creating Graphs: There are many data tools and sources available, including those listed on our “Economic Resources” Page on Canvas. For international data, the OECD is a great place to start, but any accredited sources are accepted. If using the OECD website, you’ll need to use the “Browse by Topic” and/or “Search” tools to find the relevant data. You can then create graphs by finding the relevant variable, and changing the year slider on the data page. Select “none” in the “background” option so that the graph only shows the US and your country.
Part 3: Discussion – Recent Economic Events and outcomes
Find a news article from a reputable source such as The Economist, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc. that talks about the impact of a recent event of economic significance for your country. The article used must be less than a year old (published after April 21, 2021). It is ok to choose an article discussing an event that took place more than a year ago, so long as the article itself was published in the last year. For example, you could discuss how a country is still recovering from the “Great Recession” of 2007 assuming you find an article about recent developments/outcomes from this previous event. Discuss the effect of this event on your country using the article and the graphs you’ve created in the previous section. Use the following questions as a guide, but write in essay format rather than bullets.
Briefly summarize the key points of the article – keep summary to a half page or less.
How severely impacted was your country by the event? Does the article give any indication?
Did the event impact the rest of the world or just your country? If the event impacted the US economy, how did outcomes differ in the U.S. verses the country being analyzed.
Does your article talk about any fiscal policy responses by your country? Do you see evidence of these policies in your graphs? How does any response compare to the US based on your graphs (and article, if applicable)?
Based on your graphs (and article, if applicable), do you think your country took a Keynesian or a Classical approach to dealing with the event discussed and why?
