Posted: November 17th, 2015

Writing Assignment

Writing Assignment

Assume that you are an adviser to the President of the United States, and have been asked to write a brief, 1-2 page (single spaced) memo (approx. 400-500 words) on one of the below topics. You get to choose the topic you wish to write on from the attached list.

Please note that this is in the form of a memo.  Here is a sample memo format (http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/workbooks/memo_format.html).  There are others out there and if you prefer one of those you are free to use it.  I am not terribly concerned about the specific formatting here, more that you write your assignment in the intended spirit: you are writing a memo to the President of the United States.

Your answer should be consistent with the intuition in the models from the course.  However, you should NOT draw a loanable funds model, an aggregate production function, an aggregate demand/aggregate supply model, or any such graph, and you should avoid using economic jargon to the extent possible.  Use the intuition of economics to explain the topic of your choosing to the President of the United States, who you should assume to be relatively intelligent but mostly economically illiterate.

In each case, I give you a link to look at to get you started thinking about the topic.  This need not/should not be the only source you use for the assignment.  And finally: WIKIPEDIA IS NOT A REFERENCE.

 

OPTIONS:

Current state of (un)employment:

The President wants to better understand the state of employment in the US.  You will want to use the information found here:  http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm

In particular you will want to look at the first three links (summary and the summary of Tables A and B).  Also, table A-15 provides useful information on alternative measure of the unemployment such as the one that takes into account discouraged workers. You should also look at news stories and blogs about the release.

Specifically, you should discuss:

  1. What happened to the standard measure of the unemployment rate (the U-3 measure)? What does that say about the current state of the economy?
  2. Does the standard unemployment series convey an accurate picture of the labor market? If not then what other factors should you look at?  Explain.  You may want to consider the average duration of unemployment, the broader measures such as U-6 which takes into account “discouraged workers,” the labor force participation rate or the employment-population ratio.  Make sure you explain the rationale for looking at these broader measures.

 

 

Size of Government:

The President wants to know how the size of government in the US has changed since the end of WWII.  You may find this useful: http://www.cbo.gov/publication/45010.  Note that you should speak specifically about the size of government, so issues like deficit or debt are not necessary.

Specifically, you should:

  1. Explain how government spending as a percentage of GDP has changed from 1945 to today and explain the sources of the changes. For example, has government spending increased or decreased as a percentage of the economy?  If so has it increased or decreased due to changes in military spending, changes in transfer programs etc.
  2. Repeat step 1 for the forecasted values of government spending from 2012 to 2037.

 

Encouraging Development

The President wants to know how to advise foreign, less-developed countries to improve their economic well-being.  You may find this useful: http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story094/en/index.html

Specifically, you should:

  1. Explain what policies are generally believed to be consistent with economic development
  2. Explain HOW those policies encourage development

iii.      Explain how this relates to the idea that the “usual suspects” of foreign aid and investments are necessary but not sufficient conditions for economic development

 

Disaster Recovery

In the wake of the recent natural disaster, the President wants to know whether or not the rebuilding effort will stimulate the macroeconomy.  You may find this ebook useful, in particular pp. 3-17: http://c457332.r32.cf2.rackcdn.com/pdf/books/Economics_in_one_lessonOCR.pdf.

Specifically, you should:

  1. Explain the intuition of the broken window fallacy
  2. Explain how it relates to natural disasters

iii.      Discuss other places that we can apply the broken window fallacy to understand the economy.

 

 

 

 

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