PACC6007 Economics
Task
Question Two: New York Your next client is the head of statistics of United Nations. She is concerned about the case of Ireland, where the usual indicator of GDP per capita may not be an accurate proxy for the standard of living. She wonders whether there might be other countries in the same situation and, if so, which alternative indicator could be employed to capture the economic differences across countries in a more reliable way. She needs a short briefing report (approx. 1,000 words) about this issue.
The recommended structure has three sections:
a) A simple method to identify the other problematic countries, employing the most recent data that is publicly available. It is expected that you prove that your method works (perhaps with some data visualization?). Remember to include all definitions of the relevant terms.
b) Limitations of the GDP measure to capture differences in standard of living. Feel free to include at least a diagram to support your explanations.
c) Recommendations for alternative indicators: propose at least one alternative indicator also employing data that is publicly available. The client will value originality.
Questions Five: Paris The OECD set up a COVID task force to monitor the global economic impact of the pandemic. However, most of its members have fallen ill during the last week and they now need external support. Using the most recent information available, your task is to write a short note to explain the overall economic impact of the pandemic in relation to the different supply and demand shocks it has caused. Furthermore, they also planned to carry out a detailed benchmarking analysis of the major fiscal and monetary policies implemented by its member countries (e.g public spending as a percentage of GDP, etc...). Some attractive visualizations were also needed for the press release. Finally, despite the great uncertainty surrounding the timescales for recovery, it would also be good to have any sort of indication about the expected impact of these policies on output and inflation in coming years. They need a short briefing report (approx. 1,000 words plus the visualizations).
The recommended structure has three sections:
a) Economic impacts of the pandemic, with several illustrative diagrams explaining the effects on Aggregate Demand, Aggregate Supply, Multiplier, and others. You might want to use data to support the models.
b) A benchmarking analysis of fiscal and monetary policies across the OECD member countries (remember that Eurozone countries have a common monetary policy dictated by the ECB). You can show the differences across countries in bar charts, line charts, or maps.
c) Expected impacts of the policies on output and inflation. Using the same models from section a), you can illustrate their corrective action. You might want to use data to support your conclusions
