Please read and follow these instructions carefully, as your grade depends on it.
The purpose of the essay is to use the techniques and concepts learned in class to
analyse a particular issue. The ideal essay should be about 2500 words. (Please worry
more about making it complete than whether or not it is exactly 2500 words!) You must
include BOTH a full reference list at the end AND appropriate in-text documentation
(footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation). Failure to include references
constitutes plagiarism and will not be accepted. It must be typed with 12 point font and
1.5 line spacing. Please include page numbers. You are of course permitted to include
charts or graphs (which may be drawn by hand). Outside reading and research on the
chosen topic are essential. Possible sources of information are the Internet and Pitt
libraries. Another valuable resource for economists is the Journal of Economic Literature,
which is available in the library. This quarterly publication compiles a list of all economics
books and journal articles and organises them by subject. So if you are looking for recent
journal articles about monetary economics, you simply have to look at the newest JEL
under the topic “monetary economics” and you will find a list of all recent publications.
Obviously, if you look at older copies of JEL you will find past publications. Only certain
editions list book publications. Much more handy to use is EconLit, which is an online
search engine for economics publications, which should be available to you from a Pitt
computer at search.ebscohost.com (click on the EconLit link). You can access many full
articles directly from the search engine, depending on whether Pitt has access to that
particular publication. You should also note that you can access JSTOR from a Pitt
computer (www.jstor.org). JSTOR is a collection of online files of hundreds of different
journals from many subjects and is a valuable resource for finding full articles. Due to
copyrights articles from the past few years are not yet available on JSTOR, but you can
find most common journals via Pitt’s libraries anyway if you require a recent edition.
Essay Topic:
Choose ONE of the following topics for your essay (if you previously wrote an essay for
me or for another class, you may not turn in the same or a very similar essay for this class).
Note that I give you some suggested questions that you can address in each essay. You
should not feel restricted to answering just these questions—just make sure that it flows
coherently and is complete. Most of these essays leave you plenty of room to discuss the
ideas that you find most interesting. I am mostly looking at your ability to conduct
research, write coherently, and analyse issues and policies using proper economic
techniques. It is much more advisable to pick a relatively narrow topic and do a more
thorough discussion than to do a superficial treatment of a broad topic.
The US federal government has run deficits for the majority of recent history.
There have been proposals in the past for requiring government’s to balance their
budget, such as proposals for a balanced budget amendment or similar policy rules.
What are the benefits of a balanced government budget? What are the potential
problems? How do different schools of macroeconomic thought view this
situation? You could also look at state-level analysis, as most US states do have
some sort of balanced budget rule. A similar topic is the European Union’s Stability
and Growth Pact (SGP) for eurozone nations, which requires them to maintain a
budget deficit of less than 3% of GDP, except during times of economic turmoil
(which has been ignored by some members and also be aware the SGP has been
changed over time; the current version is different than the original). You could
explain the purpose and goals of this act, the benefits and costs of fulfilling these
requirements, and the problems that have occurred in under the SGP.
few notes on writing techniques:
You should put considerable effort into the structure and coherency of your essay. You
should include an introduction and conclusion. Your introduction should introduce your
paper and should clearly indicate the purpose of your paper. The introduction should
also provide a road map, e.g. an outline of the structure of your paper. See the introductions
to economics journal articles as an example. Be particularly careful to ensure that your
conclusion is a concise summary of your key points and does not bring in a bunch of new
information. When writing the main body, pay attention to the organisation of your
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discussion. Make effective transitions between paragraphs; in other words, make sure that
your discussion flows coherently from section to section.
This essay must be written in the third person. The word ‘I’ should NOT be in this essay.
I especially do not want to see the phrases “I think” or “I believe” anywhere; in my
experience such phrases are typically followed by some pre-conceived opinion that has
nothing to do with the evidence you have presented. Any conclusions you draw should be
the result of the evidence and theories you have discussed and your economic analysis of
the strengths and weaknesses of issues, not on random personal opinions about how you
think butterflies are pretty with no factual foundation. You should give the impression that
your views and conclusions are the direct result of what you have learned. Any opinions
should be supported by evidence.
Please ensure that you are writing an economics essay, not a history or a politics essay.
Although such issues are important and can be brought into your essay where appropriate,
you are expected to concentrate on economic issues and use economic analysis in your
essay.
Try to include economic theory and relate it to the issue at hand, rather than just
writing a summary of events. For example, if you were writing about monetarism in the
US during the 1980s then you should include monetarist theory to supplement your
summary of the policies taken by the Fed. In other words, you should be using theory to
explain the evidence. This is what an economics paper is all about—present relevant
models/theories and then USE the models to explain the topic and evidence at hand.
Please consult outside sources and research your topic thoroughly. Just reading the
textbooks and some random articles from the National Enquirer does not constitute
research. Make sure that your sources are at an appropriate level for this class. This is
particularly important for internet sources: just because something is on the internet does
not make it true! For example, something found on the European Central Bank’s website
should be fine, but something from some random blog may be, but is not necessarily,
accurate. However, keep in mind that good sources may be factually correct but biased
towards a particular point of view, e.g. you probably will not find much effective criticism
of Fed policy on the Fed’s own website.
At the university level you should not be using an encyclopaedia as a primary reference for
the bulk of your essay. However, if you do consult one do make sure that it is a properly-
edited one, not something where anyone with internet access and an IQ of 60 can post
random things. Wikipedia is not an acceptable reference for a university-level student.
YOU MAY NOT USE WIKIPEDIA OR ANY SIMILAR TYPE OF NON-
REFERENCE. The use of inappropriate sources will result in a significantly lower
grade.
Also, you MUST include appropriate documentation, including both references in the
text (parenthetical or footnotes/endnotes) AND a full, alphabetized reference list at the end.
Failure to use appropriate documentation constitutes plagiarism and will not be accepted.
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Use an appropriate format for references. You should purchase a guidebook that shows
you an appropriate style, such as MLA. Most such books show methods of both
parenthetical documentation and footnote documentation. Usually, parenthetical
documentation is used in economics but I will accept footnotes/endnotes as well. Any style
is acceptable as long as you are consistent (i.e. don’t switch from footnotes to parenthetical
halfway through the essay), with the exception that using numbered parenthetical
references such as [3], with the [3] referring to “source 3” in a numbered bibliography at
the end is complete rubbish; no proper academic papers use such a style.
As for WHEN to use documentation:
The basic rule is that you must give the source of anything that is not common knowledge.
What is common knowledge? Basically, anything that should be known by a student at
your level is common knowledge. For example, you do not have to give credit to Adam
Smith if you start talking about supply and demand. However, any figures or advanced
theories must be referenced. If you say that some country had inflation of 4.5654 percent
in 1984 or discuss Friedman’s theory of the velocity of money, you MUST provide
documentation crediting your sources. Any fact, figure, or theory you mention must be
referenced in the text by using a parenthetical reference/footnote. As a general rule, in an
essay of this type where most of what you write will be other people’s ideas, probably
almost every paragraph should have at least one reference in it. Exceptions are
introductions/conclusions or transition paragraphs between sections. Also, any
charts/graphs that use data must have the data source referenced. If you are in doubt about
how/when to use documentation, please ask! Improper documentation constitutes
plagiarism. My general advice if you are unsure if you should document something is to
go ahead and put in the citation—simple cost/benefit analysis indicates that excessive
documentation is less costly than inadequate documentation (aka plagiarism).
Finally, do not cheat or plagiarise on your essay in any way, shape or form. The use of
online artificial “intelligence” things (such as ChatGPT) for writing your paper is
prohibited. Do not turn in an essay identical to one that you have done for another class.
Any formal complaints I receive or evidence I find of a student cheating, plagiarizing or
attempting to free-ride off the work of another student will be treated as an academic
integrity offense. This assignment is subject to the University’s policies on academic
integrity, as specified in the syllabus. Submissions will be automatically checked for
plagiarism and AI when submitted to Canvas.
