ECF1110-Economics

Assignment

The assessment is an individual assignment to be prepared as a business essay. There are two steps for this assessment and completion of these steps are compulsory. In other words, if you decide not to complete one of these two steps, you will lose the marks of the particular step. For instance, say a student decided to skip Step 1 and only complete Step 2, he or she will lose 10% of the overall assessment mark.  

Choose one of the two options below. Each topic has a list of questions, and these questions are designed to assist students in developing their essays.  

Option A: Freshwater scarcity and its impacts on Australia’s economy

1.Using appropriate economic theories, explain why freshwater is scarce and how economists determine the price of freshwater. Justify your arguments using appropriate diagrams. 

2.What are the factors that cause the depletion of freshwater resources? Explain your answers in detail with supporting evidence (i.e. past academic research papers, books, government reports, statistical data from the World Bank, newspapers such as The Conversation).

3.Examine how freshwater scarcity can cause market failure and impact the economic performance of a region or a state in Australia. Search the data from http://www.bom.gov.au/water/dashboards/#/water-markets/about and analyse the water volume and prices between 2010 and 2018. To search for the economic performance of a region or state, search the data from https://itt.abs.gov.au/itt/r.jsp?databyregion by typing the name of the region or state of your interest. Using the water and economic dataset you have obtained, investigate whether water shortage has adverse effects on the population growth and performances of major industries in the region or state. Justify your arguments with appropriate diagrams and/or tables. 

Based on the case study that you have selected, critically analyse whether the introduction of a freshwater policy can sustain water supply in the region or state. Has the regional government implemented such a policy? If so, discuss its effectiveness in tackling shortages in freshwater resources. If not, discuss how the government can implement a sustainable water policy for the future of a region or state.

Option B: Retail sales and its usefulness in predicting the performance of an economy. 

1.Discuss the importance of retail sales in determining the economic performance of a country. Justify your answer using macroeconomic concepts.

2.Recently, the national newspapers reported that Australia’s retail sales dropped to the lowest point since the 1990s (Cranston, Nov 4, 2019; and Chau, Nov 4, 2019). Search the latest seasonal adjusted dataset from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Retail Trade Catalogue Number 8501.0, and describe the trends of the yearly retail turnover by industry group and by state between 2009 and 2019. Compare the data in the current year with the periods during the Global Financial Crisis between 2009 and 2011.