Microsoft Word - Writing Assignment.docxEco 209 Writing Assignment. Prof. Denislamova Worth: 10% Due: 11:59pm Toronto Time March 30th Format: a max 2000 words policy brief...

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Microsoft Word - Writing Assignment.docx Eco 209 Writing Assignment. Prof. Denislamova Worth: 10% Due: 11:59pm Toronto Time March 30th Format: a max 2000 words policy brief (there is no required minimum word limit). Late Penalty: 20% of the total assignment grade per 24 hours of late submission. The first 24 hours start straight after 12am Toronto time on March 31st, so if you submit the assignment at 12.01am Toronto time on March 31st, you will suffer a 20% late penalty. Academic Integrity Statement: Academic integrity is fundamental to maintaining the value of our academic programs and upholding the standards of excellence. All students are expected to adhere to the highest standards of academic integrity and to take responsibility for maintaining the integrity of their work. This is an individual assessment. You may NOT discuss this assessment with ANYONE while the submission window is open. The use of AI generative systems that generate original content is prohibited and will be considered a violation of academic integrity. The use of tools that help students improve their writing and do not produce content (such as Grammarly) is allowed. Submission Instructions Start and submit the assessment well before the deadline to avoid any last-minute issues. Again, to be clear, if you wait till the last minute to submit and then have issues like internet connectivity/outages, illness, computer crashes, personal problems etc., you WILL NOT get any reduced penalties. You must submit your assignment on both Quercus and Crowdmark. Submission steps: 1) Complete your work in Microsoft Word. 2) Submit the Microsoft Word file on Quercus 3) Convert the Microsoft Word file into a pdf file (File -> Save as -> file type pdf) 4) Submit the pdf file on Crowdmark 5) Complete both steps before the deadline You must verify (the correct version of) your work was submitted before the deadline. Details in the links below. This is your responsibility and we will not accept any excuses for not checking. You can keep resubmitting till the deadline. o https://crowdmark.com/help/verifying-that-an-assignment-was-submitted/ Make sure that you properly acknowledge your sources using your preferred citation style (I routinely go for the APA citation style). If you are experiencing extreme circumstances beyond your control you need to email your college registrar ( https://future.utoronto.ca/current-students/registrars/ ) and [email protected] at the earliest indication of trouble. Writing Help: If you are anxious about writing in general or writing in English, please make an appointment with your college writing center for help (https://writing.utoronto.ca/writing- centres/). No available times? Check back later as they have many cancellations. The task. Consider the following scenario. You work for a major company in either the US, the Eurozone or Canada. You were tasked with writing a policy brief for the senior executive management and the members of the board that broadly addresses the topic of the recent state of the economy in the country of your choosing (you must focus on either the US or Canada) and takes a stance in the ongoing debate about the possibility and the severity of a recession as a result of the policy that are targeting the increase in inflation. In particular, your brief should address the following questions: 1. What is the nature of the recent increase in inflation & what policies, if any, did the central bank and the fiscal authorities implement to combat the rise in inflation? Your description should be brief. 2. What are the competing views on whether the measures that you described in 1. will result in the economy going into a severe recession? a. In order to answer this question, you will need to find and read in detail at least five articles that outline different views on the recent developments in the economy (you must choose either the US, the Eurozone or Canada). You will need to reference the articles in your brief. 3. How “good” are the opinions described in 2? This is where you get to apply the knowledge you have accumulated in this class and look at the opinions through the lens of the models we have studied in class a. Are they consistent with the models? Can the models that we discussed generate the predictions and substantiate the views described in 2? Consider yourself to be the expert who is evaluating how well-founded the opinions of other experts are given what you have learnt about how the economy behaves in Eco209. 4. What is your position on whether the economy is heading toward a recession and if it is heading toward a recession, how severe? Your answer should be well substantiated for a good mark. 5. Should the government implement any fiscal or monetary policies to try and correct the course of output and employment, and if so, how will these measures interact with the effort to combat inflation? You should take a stance on what you think the government should prioritize and provide a well-argued position. Your brief should address all of the questions above, but it does not have to do it in this order: you have to determine what would make your brief the most internally consistent and logical. Your brief should be well structured, with an introduction and logical paragraphs and be internally cohesive. What is a policy brief? A policy brief presents a concise summary of information that can help readers quickly understand, and oftentimes make decisions about, important issues. Your policy brief should include: 1. An introduction that briefly describes the recent trends in inflation, as well as major recent developments in the economy and the world in general that you think might be relevant. Be selective: many things happen in the world, not all of them will be important for your policy brief, keep your introduction concise. 2. Describe and evaluate the views on the directions of the economy based on the articles that you choose. 3. Analyse how “well-founded” these views are given what you have learnt, and based on your analysis, present and defend your position 4. Analyse whether additional government intervention is necessary given the priorities that you argue about and if it is, what policies governments can engage in and which ones will be effective. The brief should be written in connected prose and in logically ordered paragraphs. You can, but do not have to, provide headings for your paragraphs and a title for the brief as a whole. You must have at least five references. Any references you cite should be identified and listed at the end of the paper using the citation style of your choice. The bibliography does not count towards the word limit. You do not need to cite the lectures or the textbook. What audience are you writing for? Think about senior management/ board of directors for a big company. Most of them would be highly educated, but will not necessarily have an economics degree, so they might not be familiar with academic economics terminology or economic models. Please write in a way that would make the brief accessible to people without an economics degree. Given your target audience, in your brief, you should rely on theoretical insights from the models studied in class to motivate your analysis, but DO NOT explicitly refer to the models. You can use terms like “cost-push inflation”, “aggregate demand”, “open market operations”, “disinflation” without definition, but do not use terms like the AS- AD model or the ISMP model or refer to parameter names like “a-bar”. Sources Find at least five articles that discuss whether the economy is in a recession due to government policy or not. You must use reputable sources: reputable news agencies, newspapers and journals, both academic and non-academic. You can get started by looking at The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Brookings.edu, Vox.eu, etc. (this is not an exhaustive list). You can refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for advice on how to write up your references. It is available at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. How to format your assignment To be able to earn full marks you must do the following: • Your assignment must have an introduction and be separated into logical paragraphs. • Your assignment must be typed, double-spaced, and have a font size of 12 points. Writing Assignment Rubric (total points: 100) Introduction (max 8 points) Excellent (8pnts) Grabs reader attention. States only the relevant recent trends, data, events & policies in a concise and clear manner. Clearly states the position that the brief is going to take Good (6pnts) States mostly the relevant recent trends, data, events & policies in a mostly concise and clear manner. Clearly states the position that the brief is going to take Fair (4pnts) Overly wordy in the setup of the trends, data, facts & policies, a lot of irrelevant information. Attempts to clearly states the position that the brief is going to take. Poor (0-2pnts) Overly wordy (or insufficient) setup, a lot of irrelevant as well as relevant information. No statement on the position that the brief is going to take Review & Analysis of the “Literature” And Own Position on where the economy is going (max 45 points) Excellent (35-45pnts) Considers a broad set of perspectives, clearly and concisely outlines points of difference and consensus among the perspectives Provides a complete, concise and clear analysis of the perspectives, shows very good understanding of course concepts Takes a clear and confident position, relates it back to the perspectives of others, presents a concise and clear defense of the position which is firmly rooted in and demonstrates very good understanding of the course concepts Good (25-34pnts) Considers a broad set of perspectives, clearly and concisely outlines points of difference and consensus among the perspectives Provides a mostly complete, concise and clear analysis of the perspectives, shows good understanding of course concepts Takes a position, relates it back to the perspectives of others, presents a mostly concise and clear defense of the position which is firmly rooted in and demonstrates good understanding of the course concepts Fair (13-24pnts) Considers a broad set of perspectives, without clearly and concisely outlining points of difference and consensus Provides a mostly complete, concise and clear analysis of the perspectives, shows decent understanding of course concepts Takes a position, without relating it back to the perspectives of others, presents a somewhat concise and clear defense of the position, showing a decent understanding of the course material Poor (0-12pnts) Considers some perspectives in a disorganizes fashion, without clearly and concisely outlining points of difference and consensus Provides a mostly incomplete and unclear analysis of the perspectives, shows limited understanding of course concepts Takes a vague position, without relating it back to the perspectives of others, presents a somewhat concise and clear defense of the position, showing a limited understanding of the course material Analysis and Own Position on the tradeoffs & priorities for the government (max 25 points) Excellent (20-25pnts) Takes a clear, well-argued and confident position on whether the government should course-correct and backs it up with clear economic analysis and data which shows very good understanding of course concepts Good (14-19pnts) Takes a clear position on whether the government should course-correct and backs it up with mostly clear economic analysis which shows good understanding of course concepts Fair (6-13pnts) Takes a position on whether the government should course-correct and backs it up with mostly clear economic analysis which shows decent understanding of course concepts Poor (0-5pnts)