The economic models of competitive, monopolistic, and oligopolistic markets are powerful tools. But they are of little use if we cannot apply them in context. This assignment asks you to do just that—apply the economic models to a policy debate, preparing a brief for a decision maker.
But economic theory in the absence of contextualizing data lacks influence. How many people may be impacted by the proposed policy? Are the changes in policy large or small? Is there a pressing need addressed by the policy? How do we know? What are the opportunity costs (ie forgone policy possibilities)? This assignment will expose you to useful data sources for providing context to your arguments.
to apply economic models to real-world debates
to present economic analysis in text and figures
to identify sources of basic data on the country, state, county, and city level
to judiciously choose data to make the strongest case possible
to present data in text, table, and chart
Task
Take on the role of a policy adviser for a public official. Your boss (that’s the public official!) will soon have to cast a vote for or against a specific proposal. They have asked you to prepare a 5-7 page policy brief which gives them background information that they will use to take a position on the policy. Knowing of your fantastic economics training, they have asked you to include an analysis (using the appropriate market model) of the causal effects of adopting the policy as predicted by economic theory.
Sample Solution