Project Written Description
This project is designed to let you apply the knowledge you are gaining from the book and from class to a real world situation. As I stated in the course introduction I hope this course is one of the most timely you take at UF and this project is designed to let you show that you can apply the knowledge you are gaining to extremely current and pressing issues. As stated in the syllabus: You will choose a topic from one of the three major areas discussed in the course: Taxation (Chap 18-25), Externalities/Public Goods (Chap 5-11), or Social Insurance/Redistribution (Chap 12-17). You will then find a substantial article (from a respected newspaper or magazine) that is related to this field. Note that a purely internet source (fivethirtyeight.com or huffingtonpost.com for example) will not be accepted. Your task is to write a paper (1.5-2 pages single-spaced and attach a copy of the article you chose to your paper) that does the following: 1. Describes the issue at hand (summarizing the article in a paragraph) 2. Discusses the connection between the article and the economic tools we discussed in class 3. Analyzes the issue using those economic tools. This is the most important item! Note that analysis is what I am looking for. I want you to show that you can take the concepts we have learned and apply them to thinking about a real world situation. I want a critique of the author's article. A summary will not suffice! I am looking to see that you can apply knowledge not just regurgitate what the author said. For example suppose I wanted to find an article relating to Externality/Public Goods. Note well that this is an old article used only for example sake; you should find a more current article. I found an article in the NY Times from Sunday, August 27, 2000 entitled A Tale of Two Fisheries By John Tierney. This is a great article on the public good of lobster fishing areas and how they are handled differently in different parts of the world. It can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/27/magazine/a-tale-of-two-fisheries.html?pagewanted=all For your project first you would summarize what the article says in a paragraph or so. If I was writing the report I would talk about how in the US the lobster fishing grounds are a public good so all the fisherman compete to take as many lobsters as possible while in Australia they have assigned property rights in the form of licenses which has allowed them to get around the public goods problem. Any other you summary may want to include is fine but remember this is a short summary paragraph. The bulk of the paper would then be relating this article to the tools we discussed in class. I would expect you to argue that in the US the fisherman were creating a negative externality by taking out lobsters that was increasing society's marginal cost relative to private marginal costs. This lead to overproduction in the US. I would include a graph (on a separate piece of paper) similar to the graph on page 123 of your book. I would then argue that Australia set up a quota scheme by implementing the licenses. I would show on another graph how this quota has eliminated the overproduction that occurs in the US. I would talk about how the price of the licenses is a measure of the difference between the social marginal cost and the private marginal
cost. Obviously, it should not be hard to get a page or two single spaced applying the concepts to the article and doing a good job of analyzing the story from an economics perspective. The bulk of your grade for this project will be selecting an appropriate article, doing a good job of discussing the connections to what we are learning, and analyzing the issue using the tools we have learned. A minor part of your grade will be spelling, grammar, presentation, etc. I am available during office hours and by email if you would like to discuss any portion of your assignment anytime before the due date including article selection or if you are heading in the right direction etc. There have been questions about where to find a good article from an academic journal for the extra challenge option. The Journal of Public Economics is an obvious choice. The Journal of Economic Perspectives uses a format that is less technical than other academic journals so it too would be a good source. Obviously an article from a journal will be much more focused on the economics of the issue than an article in a print source. Thus your paper will analyze in detail how their interpretations either reinforce or detract from what was said in class and in the text. A paper that just states that this article says what we learned in class would not be acceptable. I want you to use what you have learned and thoroughly analyze the article. Therefore, this is a tougher challenge in order to receive the extra credit. Also I know these articles are quite long so for this option only you may email me a copy of the paper rather than attaching one to your paper that you turn in.