MPE781 Economics for Managers Trimester 1, 2020 Assignment
DUE DATE AND TIME: 11:59pm Tuesday 5 May 2020, Melbourne time PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 40% WORD LIMIT: No more than 3,000 words (excluding references)
Students to provide the word count on the front page of their assignment submission
Learning Outcome Details
Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO)
ULO 1: Interpret and apply basic principles and their effect on individual economic decisions (microeconomics), the economy as a whole (macroeconomics) and how economic indicators (data) are used to validate these economic behaviours.
GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities
GLO8: Global citizenship
ULO 2: Apply economic principles to the analysis of important decisions confronting the management of business organisations.
GLO4: Critical thinking
ULO 3: Critically evaluate existing economic theories in the context of real and contemporary national and international circumstances.
GLO4: Critical thinking
GLO8: Global citizenship
Assessment Feedback
Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on CloudDeakin on Monday 25 May 2019.
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Description / Requirements
Australias bushfires in 2019 reignite its debate about climate change. In this assignment, you will discuss the public policies on greenhouse gas emissions, an important contributing factor to climate change. Each of the following four questions is worth 10 marks.
1. In your own words, summarize the article Australias rising greenhouse gas emissions by Greg Bourne, Andrew Stock, Will Steffen, Petra Stock, and Louis Brailsford. In particular, think about the following: What is Australia doing to tackle climate change? What is its emissions reduction target? What might help Australia to achieve its goal?
2. Many observers believe that the levels of greenhouse gas emissions in our economy are too high. a. If society wants to reduce overall emission by a certain amount, why is it efficient to have
different amounts of reduction at different firms? b. Economics usually prefer corrective taxes over regulations as a way to deal with greenhouse
gas emissions. Can you explain why? (Hint: Can regulations target the firms that should undertake bigger reductions?)
c. Suppose there is a sharp development in the technology for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Using a diagram for the market for emissions, illustrate the effect of this development on the demand for emissions rights. What is the effect of a carbon tax on the price and quantity of emissions? Explain.
d. The demand for emission rights depends on the time horizon. In the short term, the demand for emission rights is likely inelastic because firms may not have many alternatives. Over time, however, demand becomes more elastic because more alternatives are developed. Illustrate the effects of an increase in carbon tax on emissions in the short run and in the long run. Explain.
3. A carbon tax makes the individuals and firms to pay for the full social cost of carbon pollution. Do you think the carbon tax is a good policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia? Why or why not? Whenever appropriate, you should supplement your answers with suitable diagrams. (Hint: What are the pros and cons of a carbon tax?)
4. Find two countries other than Australia that have implemented a market-based approach to control emissions such as carbon taxes and cap-and-trade schemes. Give a brief description of the emissions controlling policies in these countries. (Hint: Did these policies effectively reduce emissions in these countries?) Provide your views or suggestions on the best policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia.
Please provide clear references for any cited sources using the Harvard referencing style.
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Submission Instructions
All assignments must be submitted online to the unit website by the due date. Instructions for assignment submission will be provided at the beginning of Week 7 (Monday 27 April 2020).
You must keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit, until the marked assignment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assignments is misplaced, you will need to submit your backup copy.
Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism.
When you are required to submit an assignment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment dropbox folder after upload, and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.
Notes
Penalties for late submission: The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an assessment task after the due date without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted from available marks for each day up to five days, and work that is submitted more than five days after the due date will not be marked. You will receive 0% for the task. ‘Day’ means working day for paper submissions and calendar day for electronic submissions. The Unit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date.
For more information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and assessment feedback, please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student in this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide of the Resources area in the CloudDeakin unit site.
Building evidence of your experiences, skills and knowledge (Portfolio) – Building a portfolio that evidences your skills, knowledge and experience will provide you with a valuable tool to help you prepare for interviews and to showcase to potential employers. There are a number of tools that you can use to build a portfolio. You are provided with cloud space through OneDrive, or through the Portfolio tool in the Cloud Unit Site, but you can use any storage repository system that you like. Remember that a Portfolio is YOUR tool. You should be able to store your assessment work, reflections, achievements and artefacts in YOUR Portfolio. Once you have completed this assessment piece, add it to your personal Portfolio to use and showcase your learning later, when applying for jobs, or further studies. Curate your work by adding meaningful tags to your artefacts that describe what the artefact represents.
