ASSIGNMENTS

I Homework (3 total)

There will a homework assignment for every two modules that will be due by the date posted.

II Quizzes (3) and Final Exam

There will be a quiz at the end of the 2nd, 4th and 6th modules, covering the chapters in every two successive modules. No makeup quizzes will be available. There will also be a final quiz covering all modules toward the end of the course.

III Short Individual Presentation

For this assignment, please present a recent (less than one week old from the due date) news item that is related to this course. It could be related to a particular company, the market for a specific product, and/or a specific economic policy. These presentations will be on the date scheduled for you and cannot be made up.

Requirements:

• You should share the news item
• Summarize what you seen/read/heard
• Provide your thoughts and opinions in response
• Explain the connection to a topic or subject area we are covering in the course.

IV Group Project

OVERVIEW

In this assignment we examine different aspects of Microeconomics as applied to a business, consumers and government policies. Some possible areas to look at are technology, media, entertainment, consumer products, finance, retail or commodities.

The first step is to form your teams of 3-4 members. You have the choice of deciding with whom you want to team up and the company you plan to study from this list.

You are not a representative of the business who is trying to present them in a positive light to prospective customers. Rather, your perspective should be that of an analyst who is hired by the company to advise them. Therefore, be objective in what you write.

PART 1: WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

Background

• Why does this business interest you?
• Provide some background information on it, such as how long it has been in operation; what products it creates.
• Describe its performance over the past 5 – 10 years. Please discuss what indicator(s) you are using to measure performance and why you think they are important. Some common measures of performance are market share, profits, revenues (sales) and share price. It is a good practice to describe performance using data on these items in a table or graph and commenting on it, particularly where there are big changes. What has the business done well? What could it have done differently?

Requirements

• 3-4 pages, excluding charts, graphs, tables and references.
• At least 3 references other than the textbook

Consumers

• What is the target market of the business? In other words, what type of consumers does it seek/sell to? How would you characterize their market in terms of age, income, geography, race, gender, tastes or other demographic factors?
• Is consumers’ demand for this business’ product(s) elastic or inelastic? Please explain how you come to your conclusion.

Requirements

• 2-3 pages, excluding charts, graphs, tables and references.
• At least 3 references other than the textbook

Costs

• Please identify at least one fixed and one variable cost for this company, explaining the basis for your identification.
• Please explain if any of these costs be reduced without any negative consequences for the company.

Requirements

• 2-3 pages, excluding charts, graphs, tables and references.
• At least 3 references other than the textbook

Market structure and regulation

• Please identify the market structure of the industry in which this business operates, making sure to explain how you arrived at this conclusion.
• Given the market structure, business practices and nature of the company’s products, what kind of government regulation, if any, would you recommend? Address this from the perspectives of the business, its consumers and society at large. You can think of policies related to market structure (anti-trust), taxes/subsidies and/or ESG issues. Or is the current level and nature of regulation enough/too much? You should approach these questions from the following perspectives:
  • What regulation would be in the interest of the business?
  • What regulation would be in the interest of its target consumers?
  • What regulation would be socially optimal?

 

Requirements

• 3-4 pages, excluding charts, graphs, tables and references.
• At least 3 references other than the textbook

International operations

• Please identify the countries (in addition to its home country) where this company has substantial dealings/operations related to sourcing inputs and/or inputs, manufacturing and sales of products.
• What are aspects of US trade policy that are of relevance to this industry, and what has been their impact on this company?
• If you were advising the US government on trade policies that would be in the interest of the company that you are studying, what would you recommend?

Requirements

• 3-4 pages, excluding charts, graphs, tables and references.
• At least 3 references other than the textbook

Environmental, social, and governance concerns

• Please summarize company statements related to their commitment to ESG issues. Use other sources as well to evaluate how well their actions live up to their commitments. Finally, provide two recommendations for the business to improve its ESG profile. If it has a published ESG score, what would you advise their management to do to raise that score?

Requirements

• 2-3 pages, excluding charts, graphs, tables and references.
• At least 2 references other than the textbook

The grade for the written part of the project is broken down as follows:

• Content: Are you addressing the questions that are being asked? 80%
• Writing: Is the writing clear and grammatical, and do you have the requisite number of pages in size 11-12 font as well as the requisite number of references in the correct format (APA)? 20%

Guidelines for the full project:

• 15-21 pages, excluding charts, graphs, tables and references.
• At least 17 references, other than the textbook
• All written work should be typed and double spaced in a size-12 font
• Please follow the directions for number of pages and references for each section
• References, as well as citations should be included in each section of the project using APA format.
• No late assignments will be accepted.
• Due date for Part 1:
  • Draft TBD (expect some time in mid/late May)
  • Final paper: TBD (expect some time in early June)

PART 2: PRESENTATION

 

Guidelines:

• Create a presentation using any of the standard programs (e.g., Prezi, PowerPoint, Slides, Visme).
• The presentation should be 8-10 minutes in duration.
• All group members should participate.
• Do not read out your paper.
• You may use index cards to guide your presentation.
• Please upload a copy of your presentation to Blackboard.
• Date for presentation: TBD (some time in mid June)

 

A note on plagiarism

There is no tolerance for plagiarism in this course. The minimum penalty for any assignment with evidence of plagiarism will be a grade of zero points on the assignment. Please ensure that you understand the meaning of plagiarism, and do not hesitate to speak with the instructor if you have any doubts.

Additionally, using artificial intelligence (AI) for coursework and assignments is not acceptable. Your work products should be the result of your own research, analysis and preexisting knowledge

This link describes ethical practices in writing. You should specifically focus on Guidelines 1-9, 14 and 19

Your completed project (written portion and presentation) should be submitted using Turnitin. Prior to submitting the assignments, you should ensure that the similarity score does not exceed 15-20%.

 

Citation:

Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ori.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/plagiarism.pdf