In this course, you will study topics such as opportunity costs, supply and demand, consumer behavior, elasticity of demand, market structures, factor markets, wages, labor, unions, government and product market, anti-trust and regulations, international finance, and trade. As part of this course, you will demonstrate the application of microeconomics theory (as presented in your textbook) to a current topic, issue, or event and write a formal paper.
Your paper will show how the theory you’ve learned from the course and presented in your textbook applies to or explains a current situation. The paper provides you with an opportunity to realize, reflect, and explain the economics that exists all around us.
Your paper must include a graph used as an explanatory tool of the economic principles presented. For your paper, you will select a recent economics topic, issue, event, or economics report to analyze and relate to the basic principles of microeconomics covered in the course. To write a quality paper, your topic must have sufficient current information (within one year) from at least five quality publications.
Your selected topic must relate to microeconomics. To choose a topic, review the Arnold textbook table of contents contained in the microeconomics sections. Topic examples could include the following:
Airline industry
Automotive industry
Financial industry (to exclude the Federal Reserve)
Housing industry
IT industry
Individual firms
Products or services
Consumer behavior
You may also select a microeconomics topic that is not covered in the course, but that is of interest of you as long as you can explain and relate it to the basic principles learned in the course. Discuss your idea with your instructor. After your topic has been approved, the next step is to research current articles and publications (within one year) and write an outline. You will need to use at least six credible sources that provide objective, authoritative, and accurate descriptions of your selected microeconomics topic. Two of your sources must be from academic journals. Your sources can include the following:
Academic journals
Financial and economic publications like the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and industry-specific publications
Newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post
Research databases like ProQuest
Use the Hunt Library (Links to an external site.) to conduct your research. Do not use Investopedia or Wikipedia.
You may write a formal outline or present your information in paragraph form using current APA formatting. Regardless of the outline format, you must provide the following:
Details that align with your microeconomics topic
List of your sources
Two of the sources must be from academic journals.
After you have written your outline, you will initiate work on the first draft of your paper. While the draft is not expected to include all of the points that you will have in your final paper, it must provide enough detail so that the general scope and depth of the final paper is clear. Your final paper must be at least 1,800 words and include six or more credible sources. Two of the resources must be from academic journals.
