Solved; No Plagiarism: ECON7021 Research Assignment COVID-19: Macroeconomic Impact

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ECON7021 Research Assignment

COVID-19: Macroeconomic Impact

Assessment Task Analyse the macroeconomic impact of and policy response to the

COVID-19 pandemic for Singapore.

Weighting 40% of Course (100 marks reweighted to 40%)

Word Limit 1500 words excluding coversheet and Section 5: References.

Due Date 27th May 2021, 2 PM

Marking Rubric Blackboard > Assessment > ECON7021 Research Assignment >

Rubric

Submission Turnitin via course Blackboard site (see below for further guidance)

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 rigorously pursue social distancing

practices, close borders for international travel, and to shut down business venues for

public gatherings such as cafés, restaurants, gyms and cinemas.

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook Update for January

2021 estimated economic growth for 2020 at -3.5% (compared to a 0.1% global contraction

during the 2009 Global Financial Crisis). Governments and central banks around the

world have taken various policy actions to limit the contraction of their economies on the

one hand, and to speed up their recovery on the other.

The IMF projects the world economy to grow 5.5% in 2021, but also noted that _[t]he

strength of the recovery is projected to vary signi_cantly across countries, depending on…

e_ectiveness of [_scal and monetary] policy support, exposure to cross-country spillovers,

and structural characteristics entering the crisis._ The World Economic Outlook Update

further noted that _[p]olicy actions should ensure e_ective support until the recovery is

_rmly underway…_

1

Task

You are required to:

  1. Asssess the macroeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country of

Singapore’s economy.

  1. Evaluate the e_ectiveness of Singapore’s policy responses.

Your essay can include the following illustrative features:

_ Up to _ve (5) _gures (diagrams, graphs or tables) in total. You can use a mixture of

diagrams, graphs and tables provided the total number is no more than 5.

_ You can include more than one variable in a graph or table.

_ You must produce your own _gures, rather than _cut and paste_ from other sources.

PLEASE NOTE: You must use the essay template on

Blackboard > Assessment > ECON7021 Research Assignment > Essay Template.

The formatting requirements are:

_ Font type: Arial

_ Font size: 12

_ Line space: 1.5

_ 1500 words excluding the coversheet and references

_ Referencing style: Harvard

The essay template includes the cover sheet. You must include the 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. The _rst page of your essay should be the page

after the coversheet (as it is in the template).

2

Essay Structure

The following is your guide to researching and writing each section of your essay.

Word counts for each section are also suggested.

  1. Introduction (~100 words)
  2. The Economy before the Pandemic (~200 words)

Assess the macroeconomic performance of Singapore based on macroeconomic indicators

covered in this course, e.g. GDP per capita, in_ation, unemployment etc., prior to the

pandemic.

TIPS:

_ Consider a range of macroeconomic indicators rather than just one or two indicators.

_ There is no need to explain the concepts and de_nitions of commonly used

macroeconomic indicators.

_ You could mention any economic problems that exist prior to 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

su_cient to explain the situation of the country.

For example, data of a single quarter or even a year may be a result of some idiosyncratic

factors and therefore does not re_ect the ‘true strength’ of the economy.

_ What years you consider could be restricted by the availability of data.

Accessing Data

Your primary data sources should be:

(a) Singapore government agencies, such as:

_ Department of Statistics (link)

_ Monetary Authority of Singapore (link)

(b) Multinational agencies, e.g. the World Bank, the United Nations, the International

Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, the Bank for International Settlements.

Data from secondary sources can still 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 for your country.

3

The World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) database contains most of the

national data collected by national and multinational agencies and can be used 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(May 7, 2019)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_B1t4BRQ94&t=64s (Sept 21, 2018)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKANl-ZWUTY (March 9, 2017)

PLEASE NOTE:

_ Do not falsely claim that certain data are not readily available from a primary source

without doing your due diligence. For most data at the national level (e.g. GDP,

unemployment rate), only national or multinational agencies have the capacity to

collect those data. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that they 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 that it drew the data from

a government statistical bureau, the data is considered to have come 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 annual basis. For monthly or quarterly data, you need to access

statistics directly from the country’s statistical bureaus.

  1. The Impacts of the COVID-19 Shocks (~600 words)

Use economic models and theories covered in this course (e.g. AD-AS model, neoclassical

growth model, etc) to explain how the pandemic a_ects the demand and supply side of the

economy.

TIPS:

_ You could discuss how the government’s non-economic responses to the pandemic

(e.g. social distancing, closing the borders) and how it a_ects the economy.

_ You could contrast the economic e_ects of di_erent shocks (COVID-19 vs 2008 Global

Financial Crisis or the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis) by comparing the growth rate of

di_erent indicators (growth, GDP growth, unemployment, etc) at the ‘peak’ of the

crisis.

_ This Monetary of Singapore report might be a useful (but hopefully not your only)

resource for this section of the essay.

4

  1. The Policy Responses (~600 words)

Outline the key _scal and monetary policy actions of Singapore against the COVID-19

shocks, and use appropriate macroeconomic models and theories covered in this course to

explain their expected impacts. Discuss any limitations of these policy actions.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

_ As a small open economy with high levels of capital mobility, interest rates in Singapore

are largely determined in international _nancial markets.

_ Given limited ability to e_ectively manage interest rates in the Singapore economy,

the Monetary Authority of Singapore (which takes on the role of a central bank in

the Singapore _nancial system) uses exchange rates (as opposed to interest rates) as

the instrument of monetary policy.

_ Please refer to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s website for an

overview of monetary policy in the country.

_ This paper is also a very readable and short primer on monetary policy in Singapore.

(Highly recommended that you read this.)

TIPS:

_ The IMF Policy Tracker records the policy responses to COVID-19 by country.

Also refer to Singaporean government and media sources to ensure that you have

taken recent policy announcements into consideration. (For example, the

Singapore Government Budget for 2021 has just been announced.)

_ If there are many policy actions, you could list all of them but focus on the key

ones for discussion.

_ The government may take multiple actions (e.g. subsidising _rms; providing cash

handouts to households) and each action may have di_erent impacts and

e_ectiveness.

_ Fiscal and monetary policy actions have di_erent limitations (e.g. e_ect lags;

ability to target speci_c sectors). You should discuss their relative e_ectiveness

in dealing with the pandemic shocks.

_ You could discuss how the behaviours of households and businesses, and the

pre-pandemic macroeconomic conditions (e.g. very low interest rates) may a_ect

the e_ectiveness of the policy actions.

_ You could discuss the potential drawbacks of the policy actions (e.g. building up

of debts; in_ating asset bubbles).

_ You could contrast the policy actions of Singapore with some other countries if

that helps to explain the pros and cons of the policy actions of the Singapore

government.

5

  1. References

References and citations must be in Harvard style.

TIPS:

_ Use a variety of sources (rather than just one or two) and use sources that are

credible, e.g. WDI indicators by the World Bank, o_cial government websites and

academic journals.

_ Consult UQ’s 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 useful to you.

6

Submitting Your Assignment

_ Your essay must be submitted through Turnitin on Blackboard to check for plagiarism.

While most instances of plagiarism are unintentional (e.g. forgot to close a

quotation mark), any form of plagiarism (intentional or unintentional) will be revealed

in the originality report.

From the originality report, the marker will check whether any part of your essay is

considered as having potentially plagiarised from other sources, rather than a similarity

index value or colour. Therefore, you are expected to carefully check the originality

report before your _nal submission.

_ After uploading your essay, you must press the con_rm button. If you do not

receive an email con_rmation from ITS upon your submission, it means that your

submission has failed and you must resubmit your essay. UQ ITS rule: No email

con_rmation, 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.

_ The word length for each section is suggestive only. You are allowed to exercise

discretion in deciding the length of each section, provided that your total word count

is within the set word limit.

_ 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 reduce 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 signi_cantly, e.g. 10% or 150

words, then besides the penalty as speci_ed in the Rubric, the marker may not read

the last 150 words before the Reference section.

7

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Questions Answers

Why do we need to

do this assignment?

To excel in the workplace, professional economists need to

be able to:   analyse problems;   identify potential

solutions and their limitations;   _nd, extract and

organise good quality and relevant data; and   present

_ndings precisely and concisely. This assignment aims to

provide you with an opportunity to develop these skills.

Why can’t I use

more than _ve

_gures?

Consultant reports are typically very concise so that

(busy) readers can focus on the most relevant information.

As the number of _gures is limited to no more than _ve,

you need to think carefully about where to use them to

maximise the overall impact of the essay.

Why can’t I cut

and paste _gures

from other sources?

This is part of real-world training on how to extract and

organise data, and present _ndings.

If I want to include

a graph, how

should I do this?

Insert your graph as an image, rather than as an Excel

object, in your essay.

How should I

include a diagram

in my essay?

If you want to include a diagram (e.g. AD-AS model),

draw it in PowerPoint, copy it, and then paste it as an

image in your essay.

How should I cite

any data source

used for a _gure?

Include the data source below each _gure. For example:

_Source: WDI Database._

What is counted in

the 1,500 word

limit?

Everything except the coversheet and the reference section.

Figures and in-text citations are included in the 1,500

word count.

Why exceeding the

word limit is

penalised so

heavily?

In the real word, a submitted document that does not

follow the word limit (or other instructions) could be

rejected entirely.

8

Description

ECON7021 Research Assignment

COVID-19: Macroeconomic Impact

Assessment Task Analyse the macroeconomic impact of and policy response to the

COVID-19 pandemic for Singapore.

Weighting 40% of Course (100 marks reweighted to 40%)

Word Limit 1500 words excluding coversheet and Section 5: References.

Due Date 27th May 2021, 2 PM

Marking Rubric Blackboard > Assessment > ECON7021 Research Assignment >

Rubric

Submission Turnitin via course Blackboard site (see below for further guidance)

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 rigorously pursue social distancing

practices, close borders for international travel, and to shut down business venues for

public gatherings such as cafés, restaurants, gyms and cinemas.

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook Update for January

2021 estimated economic growth for 2020 at -3.5% (compared to a 0.1% global contraction

during the 2009 Global Financial Crisis). Governments and central banks around the

world have taken various policy actions to limit the contraction of their economies on the

one hand, and to speed up their recovery on the other.

The IMF projects the world economy to grow 5.5% in 2021, but also noted that _[t]he

strength of the recovery is projected to vary signi_cantly across countries, depending on…

e_ectiveness of [_scal and monetary] policy support, exposure to cross-country spillovers,

and structural characteristics entering the crisis._ The World Economic Outlook Update

further noted that _[p]olicy actions should ensure e_ective support until the recovery is

_rmly underway…_

1

Task

You are required to:

  1. Asssess the macroeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country of

Singapore’s economy.

  1. Evaluate the e_ectiveness of Singapore’s policy responses.

Your essay can include the following illustrative features:

_ Up to _ve (5) _gures (diagrams, graphs or tables) in total. You can use a mixture of

diagrams, graphs and tables provided the total number is no more than 5.

_ You can include more than one variable in a graph or table.

_ You must produce your own _gures, rather than _cut and paste_ from other sources.

PLEASE NOTE: You must use the essay template on

Blackboard > Assessment > ECON7021 Research Assignment > Essay Template.

The formatting requirements are:

_ Font type: Arial

_ Font size: 12

_ Line space: 1.5

_ 1500 words excluding the coversheet and references

_ Referencing style: Harvard

The essay template includes the cover sheet. You must include the 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. The _rst page of your essay should be the page

after the coversheet (as it is in the template).

2

Essay Structure

The following is your guide to researching and writing each section of your essay.

Word counts for each section are also suggested.

  1. Introduction (~100 words)
  2. The Economy before the Pandemic (~200 words)

Assess the macroeconomic performance of Singapore based on macroeconomic indicators

covered in this course, e.g. GDP per capita, in_ation, unemployment etc., prior to the

pandemic.

TIPS:

_ Consider a range of macroeconomic indicators rather than just one or two indicators.

_ There is no need to explain the concepts and de_nitions of commonly used

macroeconomic indicators.

_ You could mention any economic problems that exist prior to 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

su_cient to explain the situation of the country.

For example, data of a single quarter or even a year may be a result of some idiosyncratic

factors and therefore does not re_ect the ‘true strength’ of the economy.

_ What years you consider could be restricted by the availability of data.

Accessing Data

Your primary data sources should be:

(a) Singapore government agencies, such as:

_ Department of Statistics (link)

_ Monetary Authority of Singapore (link)

(b) Multinational agencies, e.g. the World Bank, the United Nations, the International

Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, the Bank for International Settlements.

Data from secondary sources can still 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 for your country.

3

The World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) database contains most of the

national data collected by national and multinational agencies and can be used 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(May 7, 2019)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_B1t4BRQ94&t=64s (Sept 21, 2018)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKANl-ZWUTY (March 9, 2017)

PLEASE NOTE:

_ Do not falsely claim that certain data are not readily available from a primary source

without doing your due diligence. For most data at the national level (e.g. GDP,

unemployment rate), only national or multinational agencies have the capacity to

collect those data. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that they 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 that it drew the data from

a government statistical bureau, the data is considered to have come 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 annual basis. For monthly or quarterly data, you need to access

statistics directly from the country’s statistical bureaus.

  1. The Impacts of the COVID-19 Shocks (~600 words)

Use economic models and theories covered in this course (e.g. AD-AS model, neoclassical

growth model, etc) to explain how the pandemic a_ects the demand and supply side of the

economy.

TIPS:

_ You could discuss how the government’s non-economic responses to the pandemic

(e.g. social distancing, closing the borders) and how it a_ects the economy.

_ You could contrast the economic e_ects of di_erent shocks (COVID-19 vs 2008 Global

Financial Crisis or the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis) by comparing the growth rate of

di_erent indicators (growth, GDP growth, unemployment, etc) at the ‘peak’ of the

crisis.

_ This Monetary of Singapore report might be a useful (but hopefully not your only)

resource for this section of the essay.

4

  1. The Policy Responses (~600 words)

Outline the key _scal and monetary policy actions of Singapore against the COVID-19

shocks, and use appropriate macroeconomic models and theories covered in this course to

explain their expected impacts. Discuss any limitations of these policy actions.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

_ As a small open economy with high levels of capital mobility, interest rates in Singapore

are largely determined in international _nancial markets.

_ Given limited ability to e_ectively manage interest rates in the Singapore economy,

the Monetary Authority of Singapore (which takes on the role of a central bank in

the Singapore _nancial system) uses exchange rates (as opposed to interest rates) as

the instrument of monetary policy.

_ Please refer to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s website for an

overview of monetary policy in the country.

_ This paper is also a very readable and short primer on monetary policy in Singapore.

(Highly recommended that you read this.)

TIPS:

_ The IMF Policy Tracker records the policy responses to COVID-19 by country.

Also refer to Singaporean government and media sources to ensure that you have

taken recent policy announcements into consideration. (For example, the

Singapore Government Budget for 2021 has just been announced.)

_ If there are many policy actions, you could list all of them but focus on the key

ones for discussion.

_ The government may take multiple actions (e.g. subsidising _rms; providing cash

handouts to households) and each action may have di_erent impacts and

e_ectiveness.

_ Fiscal and monetary policy actions have di_erent limitations (e.g. e_ect lags;

ability to target speci_c sectors). You should discuss their relative e_ectiveness

in dealing with the pandemic shocks.

_ You could discuss how the behaviours of households and businesses, and the

pre-pandemic macroeconomic conditions (e.g. very low interest rates) may a_ect

the e_ectiveness of the policy actions.

_ You could discuss the potential drawbacks of the policy actions (e.g. building up

of debts; in_ating asset bubbles).

_ You could contrast the policy actions of Singapore with some other countries if

that helps to explain the pros and cons of the policy actions of the Singapore

government.

5

  1. References

References and citations must be in Harvard style.

TIPS:

_ Use a variety of sources (rather than just one or two) and use sources that are

credible, e.g. WDI indicators by the World Bank, o_cial government websites and

academic journals.

_ Consult UQ’s 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 useful to you.

6

Submitting Your Assignment

_ Your essay must be submitted through Turnitin on Blackboard to check for plagiarism.

While most instances of plagiarism are unintentional (e.g. forgot to close a

quotation mark), any form of plagiarism (intentional or unintentional) will be revealed

in the originality report.

From the originality report, the marker will check whether any part of your essay is

considered as having potentially plagiarised from other sources, rather than a similarity

index value or colour. Therefore, you are expected to carefully check the originality

report before your _nal submission.

_ After uploading your essay, you must press the con_rm button. If you do not

receive an email con_rmation from ITS upon your submission, it means that your

submission has failed and you must resubmit your essay. UQ ITS rule: No email

con_rmation, 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.

_ The word length for each section is suggestive only. You are allowed to exercise

discretion in deciding the length of each section, provided that your total word count

is within the set word limit.

_ 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 reduce 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 signi_cantly, e.g. 10% or 150

words, then besides the penalty as speci_ed in the Rubric, the marker may not read

the last 150 words before the Reference section.

7

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Questions Answers

Why do we need to

do this assignment?

To excel in the workplace, professional economists need to

be able to:   analyse problems;   identify potential

solutions and their limitations;   _nd, extract and

organise good quality and relevant data; and   present

_ndings precisely and concisely. This assignment aims to

provide you with an opportunity to develop these skills.

Why can’t I use

more than _ve

_gures?

Consultant reports are typically very concise so that

(busy) readers can focus on the most relevant information.

As the number of _gures is limited to no more than _ve,

you need to think carefully about where to use them to

maximise the overall impact of the essay.

Why can’t I cut

and paste _gures

from other sources?

This is part of real-world training on how to extract and

organise data, and present _ndings.

If I want to include

a graph, how

should I do this?

Insert your graph as an image, rather than as an Excel

object, in your essay.

How should I

include a diagram

in my essay?

If you want to include a diagram (e.g. AD-AS model),

draw it in PowerPoint, copy it, and then paste it as an

image in your essay.

How should I cite

any data source

used for a _gure?

Include the data source below each _gure. For example:

_Source: WDI Database._

What is counted in

the 1,500 word

limit?

Everything except the coversheet and the reference section.

Figures and in-text citations are included in the 1,500

word count.

Why exceeding the

word limit is

penalised so

heavily?

In the real word, a submitted document that does not

follow the word limit (or other instructions) could be

rejected entirely.

8

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