Reference no: EM131569867
Assignment: Economic Naturalist Assignment Adapted from Robert Frank
Your assignment is to use a principle, or principles, discussed in the course to explain some pattern of events or behavior that you personally have observed. The paper has a 500 word limit. You need not include a bibliography but if you borrow from external sources, cite them and include reference information.
An important part of this assignment is to base the paper on your questions or observations. Coming up with a question is part of the assignment. DO NOT copy a question from the textbook or the internet.
The paper should be structured as follows:
(1) Begin with a question. [Such as: Why does store A decide to have policy 1 but similar store B instead has policy 2? What incentives lead the price of good X to increase this year relative to last year? What incentives led to rule Z being designed like it was?]
(2) Answer that question using incentives and the economic principles we learned in class.
• An 8-9 point paper asks an interesting and original question and makes a plausible argument drawing on economic reasoning, using incentives as an explanation for why this behavior occurs. It is well-presented, doesn't misuse economic terms, and addresses all the important implications of the argument.
• A 6-7 point paper applies economic logic in a mostly correct way to answer the question, and covers most of the relevant issues. It generally uses economic terms correctly, and presents an argument that makes sense.
• A 5 point (or less) paper fails to make an argument or explain anything, or does so in a way that is obviously false or uses economic reasoning in a very incorrect way.
Tips:
1) DO NOT write a paper on "should (I or someone else) buy Good X or Good Y?" These come down to basically making a pro-and-con list, and have little economic content.
2) Make sure your answer is plausible. It shouldn't fail a basic common-sense check, or rely on any obviously untrue facts.
3) The question "Why is X true in situation Y but not in similar situation Z?" or "Why is X true for people Y, but not for similar people Z" is a good question to ask! Be sure you can explain why it makes more sense that X is true for Y than for Z.
4) Your paper should be about explaining observed behavior. "Why does the demand curve slope down?' isn't a great topic because you can't observe a demand curve.
5) This is an economics paper, not a business paper
6) ' Why do brand name things cost more?" is not allowed as a question for Naturalist #1. I see this question a lot, and very rarely is it done well before we go over pricing power in class.