A paper on a microeconomic topic is required for this course. As per your Course Outline, you are required to submit a written assignment (course paper) for this course. There are fifty (50) points available for the written assignment and it is worth 20% of your course grade. Your course paper must address the following microeconomic topics:
Interpret the market conditions or market structures of real businesses (CLO3 or CLO1)
Employ marginal analysis to consumer and production decisions (CLO2, CLO6, CLO7)
Illustrate the concept of elasticity (CLO4)
Practice writing and analytical skills.
Select ONE firm from these options: Amazon, Boeing, Costco, Facebook, Gillette, Hachette, J.C. Penney, McDonalds, Priceline, Schick, Virgin Atlantic, and Wal-Mart. These firms are mentioned in your textbook as business cases, so you can read those sections to get some motivation for your paper. I also recommend to read current news and use the NU Library site for ECO203 to find academic articles related to your topic.
Select ONE research question from these two options:
What are the main characteristics of the Demand and Supply of the firm or industry of your choice?
What are the main characteristics of the market structure of the firm or industry of your choice?
Once you have selected a topic, be sure to conduct a thorough Review of Literature on the subject. The minimum length of your course paper is 10 pages, double-spaced without the title page and the page on references. There is no upper page limit for your paper. Additional guidance will be provided during the first week of the course.
Organize your paper with five sections:
Introduction and objective. Make sure the objective is specific.
Literature Review. Conduct a search on the topic of your paper and summarize works of others similar to what you are writing on. Be sure to follow APA guidelines. The following link contains basics of APA style guidelines:
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx
Analysis: Analyze your topic with reference to the objective.
Summary and conclusion.
References. Provide at least five references, at least two of which must be scholarly books and /or journals.
Notes
Refereed papers are academic papers that were criticized and reviewed by experts before being published. More information can be found in http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic/sources/journals/index.htmlhttp://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham/guides/guidec.shtml.
To find the academic articles that you need for your paper (at least one), go to the following full text databases in our library: Business Source Premier (EBSCO), Emerald Management Xtra, LexisNexis Academic, ProQuest Databases and ProQuestDissertations and Thesis. These databases are in http://library.nu.edu/FindResources/ResourceFinder.cfm. Databases have different sources or information, and you always have to combine them. Economists would say that databases are complements rather than substitutes, in other words, try more than one database.
Short papers are nice pieces of art. Your paper will be evaluated not in terms of right/wrong but on rational coherence and quality of the argument.
Written Assignment Grading Standards
Points
Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling
10
APA style for citations and no sign of plagiarism*
10
Clarity of introduction, conclusion and strong connection between introduction and conclusion
30
Economic analysis using economic principles
20
Empirical evidence that supports economic analysis
10
Overall quality of conclusion
20
Total
100
