EC322 Assignment 2 Deadline: Monday 15th April 2024 12 noon The aim of this assignment is to write two pieces (1,000 words each so 2,000 words in total) aimed at a non-technical audience. You will be writing as an economics expert so should demonstrate your knowledge on the topics and undertake an economic analysis of the topic, based on what you have learnt in the module (economic theory, empirical evidence) plus, importantly, wider reading/research on the topic, and consideration of policy implications. However, you need to write in a way that is understandable to a non-economist non-academic audience (i.e. including no technical language or economics jargon). For the first piece you will choose from one of the following broad topics: 1) Technological progress: What impact has technological progress had on the labour market? What future impact might technological progress have on the labour market? What are the policy implications of technological progress? OR 2) Unions: In a lot of countries, union membership has fallen over time but in some countries, such as the UK, there has been a recent increase in union activity. How important are unions in today's workplace? How successful are unions at bargaining? What impact do unions have on outcomes such as wages, employment, working conditions, productivity, and wage inequality? For the second piece you will examine either: 3) Labour market mismatches: Discuss why labour market mismatches may arise (e.g. skill shortages, vertical and horizonal mismatches) and why might they be a problem? What policies would you recommend to address labour market mismatches? OR 4) High pay: It was reported by the high pay centre¹ that in the UK the median pay ratio between a firm's chief executive officer (CEO) and their median worker was 80:1 among FTSE 100 firms. Are executives overpaid? Does this pay difference represent productivity differences between executives and the median worker? What policies would you recommend to address within firm wage inequality? As an example of how to write for non-technical audiences see some examples from the conversation (see here for advice the Conversation provide to those pitching to them) https://theconversation.com/higher-education-funding-shake-up-what-it-means-for-students- and-universities-177778 https://theconversation.com/maternal-death-rates-in-the-uk-have-increased-to-levels-not- seen-for-almost-20-years-experts-explain-why-221351 https://theconversation.com/is-valentines-day-worth-the-romantic-investment-heres-what-we- can-learn-from-economics-223128 1 See https://highpaycentre.org/high-pay-centre-analysis-of-ftse-350-pay-ratios-2/ 1 https://theconversation.com/labour-scaling-back-its-28-billion-green-pledge-will-impact-uk- housing-and-public-health-223283 Conversation pieces are often focused on one policy or one piece of research, and your pieces will likely be broader (and not all of the above examples are written by economists), but these examples should give you an idea of how academics write for non-technical audiences (the intellectually curious general public). Further guidance: • • • You can decide what to write about under the broad theme. You do not have to cover all questions under a theme, these are there to introduce the topic. • Each piece should draw on economic theory and empirical evidence and discuss policy implications and/or analyse existing policy. However, these components do not need to have an equal part in your piece. • You should avoid overlap between your two pieces, although it is permitted to make reference to the other piece with a piece, if it adds value. • • You should provide a headline which attracts the attention of the reader and is reflective of your discussion and the arguments you are making in your piece. • We have often focused on the UK due to data availability and knowledge of the context, but you are welcome to draw on any relevant country/countries of your choice. - • Although the examples provided do not include references, rather they provide hyperlinks to sources, you are required to include references – it is important that you show you have read widely on the topic and gone beyond the lecture material. Most of your references should be academic references. Since the word count is important the recommendation is to use footnotes/endnotes for your references. I will provide an example in the general assignment 2 screencast. • To demonstrate you have read widely I would expect reference to at least 8-10 (mostly academic) references per piece. • Please only use footnotes/endnotes for references and citing sources. Anything else in the footnotes/references will be ignored. You may include statistics, tables and figures should you wish to, and please cite the source. The use of Stata and data analysis is not expected for this assignment. The word count is 1,000 per piece excluding references and any tables/figures, this is strict; only -/+10% will be permitted, it is important to be concise. Please state the word count for each piece (excluding references and any tables/figures) on your document. There will be a small penalty of 5 marks (out of 100) for not providing the (correct) word count, this will be applied to each piece you do not provide the word count for. The standard department of economics rubric will be applied (it is not possible to have a rubric per question so the mark range that best represents your work across the two pieces will be selected). You will be given a mark out of 100 for each piece and an average taken across the two pieces (rounded up). Further advice on the assignment and questions will be provided throughout the module and in the assignment 2 screencasts. 2 Deadline: The project is to be submitted electronically through Turnitin (details provided under assignment submission) by Monday 15th April 2024 12 noon. You can only submit a single document so your two pieces should be in the same document, and you can add your references for both pieces at the end. You should provide the word count for each piece, there will be a small penalty of 5 marks for not providing (the correct) word count for a piece. Students are reminded of the University's penalty for late submission of work: The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late: • • where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days; where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded. The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/qualitysupport/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work. 3