MA503 Electronic Display
Task:
1. Using literature to identify the time periods of economic recessions in each of the four countries. For each country, you should use at least three different sources of literature. Graphically present the real GDP, unemployment rate and inflation rate for each country against the identified periods of economic recession of that country (see lecture slide 7 of week 9). (hints: the publications of the Central Bank represent usually the official view on the macro economy, the peer reviewed journal papers usually represent the view of the authors.)
2. Make a brief comparative analysis of the four countries, with respect to global economic impacts and country specific developments, in particular, you need to compare the impact of COVID-19 on the four countries under investigation and their policy responses respectively.
3. Based on your analysis above, write a report with the title “Macroeconomic Briefing of [countries]”. Pay attention to: in text references, reference list, data source, labelling of graphs and editing.
Explanations to the assignment
In Task 1, you are asked to identify the business cycles in the country of your choice. The concept of business cycle is taught in week 9 slide 7. The following three graphs are from the slide. This illustrates the business cycle in Australia. The three bars on the diagrams indicate the three periods of economic recession in Australia. You are asked to investigate the business cycle for the country of your choice, i.e. to identify the time periods of economic recessions in the country. It is not easy to identify the business cycle. This is why you should look into the existing literature to find what has been discussed about the business cycle in the country. For example if you choose Japan as the country for your investigation, the following link provides information on Business cycles in Japan
When you read two more such papers, you will know a lot more on the business cycles in Japan. As a result of section 2 you will produce three similar diagrams as given above for the country of your choice, say, for Japan. You will know if the country is currently in economic recession or not.
Task 2. Four macroeconomic issues are Economic growth, inflation, unemployment and international trade. You need to briefly discuss one of the four macroeconomic issues in the country of your choice. Again here you need to use literature to read about the current issues. For example, this link may help you to know what is the current issues in Japan: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/japans-economic-outlookin-five-charts. You need only to address one issue. After doing this you will know how macroeconomics.
