ECON7021 Individual Assignment Part 1 Pre-pandemic macroeconomic conditions of Australia Assessment Task Assess the macroeconomic performance of Australia before the COVID-19 pandemic Weighting 10% of course (100 marks reweighted to 10%) Word Limit 400 words excluding cover sheet and reference section Due Date 10 September 2021, 5 pm Marking Rubric Blackboard > Assessment > Individual Assignment > Individual Assignment Part 1 > Marking Rubric Submission Turnitin via course Blackboard site (see details on page 5) Academic Integrity UQ has strict rules against cheating, including “colluding with other students on individual assessment items”. You must read and be familiar with these rules. (Please refer to PPL 3.60.04 Student Integrity and Misconduct) Context The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most countries to pursue social distancing practices, close borders for international travel, and shut down business venues such as cafes, restaurants, gyms, and cinemas for public gatherings. As a result, governments and central banks worldwide have taken various policy actions to limit the contraction of their economies and speed up their recovery. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook Update for July estimated global economic growth for 2020 at -3.2% (compared to a 0.1% global contraction during the 2009 Global Financial Crisis). In April’s World Economic Outlook, the IMF called the contraction “unprecedented in living memory in its speed and synchronised nature”. The World Economic Outlook Update projects the world economy to grow by 6% in 2021. However, the IMF notes unequal vaccine access is splitting the recovery into two blocs: “those that can look forward to further normalisation of activity later this year (almost all advanced economies) and those that will still face resurgent infections and rising COVID death tolls”. The IMF also caution that their projections are dependent on the pandemic path, adequate fiscal and monetary policy support to “provide a bridge to vaccine-powered normalisation”, and financial conditions. 1 Task You are required to: • Assess the macroeconomic performance of Australia before the COVID-19 pandemic Your essay can include the following illustrative features: • Up to three (3) figures (diagrams, graphs, or tables) in total. You can use a mixture of diagrams, graphs, and tables provided the total number is no more than three. • You can include more than one variable in a graph or table. • You must produce your own figures rather than “cut and paste” from other sources. PLEASE NOTE: You must use the assignment template on Blackboard > Assessment > Individual Assignment > Individual Assignment Part 1 > Assignment Template. The formatting requirements are: • Font type: Arial • Font size: 11 • Line space: 1.5 • 400 words excluding the cover sheet and references • Referencing style: UQ Harvard The assignment template includes the cover sheet. You must include this cover sheet with your submissions. A penalty will be applied if you fail to do so. Do not write your essay on the cover page. Instead, the first page of your essay should be the page after the coversheet (as it is in the template). 2 Assignment Structure The following is your guide to researching and writing your essay. 1. Pre-pandemic macroeconomic conditions of Australia (Maximum 400 words) Assess the macroeconomic performance of Australia, based on macroeconomic indicators such as GDP per capita, inflation and unemployment, before the pandemic. TIPS: • Only consider data before 2020 and thereby ignore the COVID-19 pandemic, which is considered in Parts 2 and 3 of the Individual Assignment. • Consider a range of macroeconomic indicators rather than only one or two indicators. • You should not explain the concepts and definitions of commonly used macroeconomic indicators. • You could mention any economic problems that exist before the pandemic that may aggravate the impact of the pandemic. • You could use just one year of data or multiple years of data, depending on what is sufficient to explain the country’s situation. For example, data of a single quarter or even a year may result from some idiosyncratic factors and therefore does not reflect the “true strength” of the economy. 2. References References and citations must be in UQ Harvard style. TIPS: • Use various sources (rather than just one or two) and use credible sources, e.g., official government websites and the World Bank’s WDI indicators. • Consult the UQ Harvard referencing style guide. • You must reference sources that you use for your text, graphs, or tables. • You must reference even when you have paraphrased the original content. • If you directly quote the original content word by word, it must be in quotation marks. • When to paraphrase and when to quote? This guide from the University of Adelaide may be helpful to you. 3 Accessing Data Your primary data sources should be: (a) Australian Government agencies and central bank, such as: • Australian Bureau of Statistics • Reserve Bank of Australia • Australian Treasury (b) Multinational agencies, e.g., The World Bank, United Nations, IMF, Bank for International Settlements. Data from secondary sources may be used as a supplement only if those data are not available from any primary sources. Using non-primary data can lead to loss of marks when primary source data is available. The World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) database contains most national data collected by national and multinational agencies, and you may use it as a primary data source. Here are some YouTube tutorials on how to extract data from the WDI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGJhI_YqFuI (7 March 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_B1t4BRQ94&t=64s (22 September 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKANl-ZWUTY (9 March 2017) PLEASE NOTE: • Do not falsely claim that specific data are not readily available from a primary source without doing your due diligence. Only national or multinational agencies have the capacity to collect data at the national level (e.g., GDP and unemployment rate). Therefore, it is doubtful that these data are available from a secondary source but not from a primary source. • If you use data from a source (e.g., a report) that indicates it drew the data from a government statistical bureau, your data is from a secondary source, not a primary source. However, if you go to the government statistical bureau and extract the same data (and verify what you read is indeed accurate), then it is considered to have come from a primary source. • WDI data are on an annual basis. For monthly or quarterly data, you need to access statistics directly from the country’s statistical bureaus. 4 Submitting Your Assignment • Your essay must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document through Turnitin on Blackboard to check for plagiarism. While most instances of plagiarism are unintentional (e.g., forgot to close a quotation mark), the originality report will reveal any form of plagiarism (intentional or unintentional). Your essay should have a similarity index value of 15% or less. From the originality report, the marker will check whether any part of your essay is potentially plagiarised from other sources. Therefore, you should carefully review the originality report before your final submission. • After uploading your essay, you must click on the Submit to Turnitin button. Due to a recent Turnitin update, you will no longer receive email copies of submission receipts. Instead, download your digital receipt in your Assignment inbox to confirm successful submission (refer to the Turnitin Student guide). UQ ITS rule: No digital receipt, no submission. • The deadline for submission is based on the time your assignment has been successfully uploaded on Turnitin as recorded by Turnitin, not the time you tried to upload it. • Many students fail to meet the deadline because they have internet connection problems on their side, but they mistake it as an IT problem of UQ. If UQ has any internet connection problems, there will be a record of it. • The only way to guarantee not missing the deadline is to submit your assignment well before the deadline. • Having more in-text citations and references will reduce the number of words for the main body. But having too few in-text citations and references will lessen the credibility of the essay. Therefore, you need to balance the two. • There is a penalty if the number of words exceeds the word limit (see Rubric for details). Where the number of words exceeds the limit, then besides the penalty as specified in the Rubric, the marker will not read the words over the word limit before the Reference section. 5 Outstanding (5) Good (4) Meets Expectations (3) Below Expectations (2) You provide a highly coherent, logical and insightful analysis of the prepandemic economy. You demonstrate a comprehensive and thorough understanding of economic models and theories from the course and how they can be applied to this task. No/negligible errors are present. You provide a coherent and logical analysis of the pre-pandemic economy. Your use of figures, data, facts, citations to support your argument is good. You demonstrate a good understanding of economic models and theories from the course and how they can be applied to this task. At most one or two minor errors are presented. You provide a basic analysis of the prepandemic economy. You demonstrate a basic understanding of economic models and theories from the course and how they can be applied to this task. A few errors are present. Your analysis of the pre-pandemic Does not meet 'below expectations' economy is sometimes incoherent or criteria or evidence of plagiarism. illogical. You demonstrate a limited understanding of economic models and theories from the course and how they can be applied to this task. Several errors are present. 45 Figures, data and Your use of figures, data, facts and citations to support your argument is facts Your use of figures, data, facts, citations to support your argument is good. At most one or two minor errors are presented. Your use of figures, data, facts, citations to support your argument is sufficient. A few errors are present. Your struggle with using appropriate Does not meet 'below expectations' figures, data, facts, citations to support criteria or evidence of plagiarism. your argument. Several errors are present. 35 Writing and presentation Your writing is fluent and lively, complemented by correct grammar and spelling throughout. There are obvious and logical connections between your discussion points, enhancing the structure, synthesis and readability of your essay. Your essay is professionally presented and submitted in an entirely appropriate format. No/negligible errors are present. Your writing is fluent but not always interesting, complemented by mostly correct grammar and spelling throughout. There are obvious connections between your discussion points, adding to the structure, synthesis and readability of your essay. Your essay is professionally presented and submitted in an appropriate format. At most one or two minor errors are present. Your writing flows well in most places but is not always interesting. Mostly correct spelling and grammar are used throughout, with minor errors and the occasional major error. Ideas/themes have been developed, but connections are not always obvious. This sometimes impacts the flow and readability of your essay. The formatting of your essay is appropriate but some improvements would improve its presentation. A few errors are present. Your writing tends to be disjointed. Does not meet 'below expectations' Spelling and/or grammar is consistently criteria or evidence of plagiarism. incorrect, hindering your essay's ‘flow’ and readability. The formatting of your essay is not consistent and has a lot of room for improvement. Several errors are present. 10 Adhering to instructions Your essay strictly follows all the instructions in terms of word count, the cover sheet, the total number of figures, etc. Your essay fails to follow the instructions on one of the following items: the word count, the cover sheet, the total number of figures, etc. Your essay fails to follow the instructions on two of the following items: the word count, the cover sheet, the total number of figures, etc. Your essay fails to follow the Does not follow four or more instructions on three of the following instructions or evidence of plagiarism. items: the word count, the cover sheet, the total number of figures, etc. 5 Referencing Citations/referencing is clear and consistently accurate, and in the UQ Harvard style. Citations/referencing is relevant and mostly accurate. Citations/references are consistent with the UQ Harvard style. Minor inconsistencies & inaccuracies in the citations/referencing. Citations/references are largely consistent with the UQ Harvard style. Citations/references are present but have significant inconsistencies and inaccuracies and/or are not consistent with the UQ Harvard style. 5 Pre-pandemic macroeconomic conditions of Australia excellent and spot-on. No/negligible errors are present. Serious Fail (1) Citations/referencing are seriously inaccurate or absent. % Weight ECON7021 Individual Assignment Part 1 Pre-pandemic Macroeconomic Conditions of Australia COVER SHEET Name: Student number: Declaration: I, ___________________________________, hereby declare that this report is my own work and all materials from other sources are fully and properly referenced. I, ___________________________________, hereby declare that I have completed Parts A and B of the UQ Academic Integrity Modules (AIM). Word count (excluding this cover sheet and Section 2 References): 1 1. Pre-pandemic macroeconomic conditions of Australia 2. References 2
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