This is an individual paper done little by little every week in activities called sprints. Other students will act as peer reviewers of your sprints in weeks 1 and 3. As an author you will benefit from the comments received in weeks 1 and 3 from your peers and will be able to send a better paper at the end of the term in week 4. As a peer reviewer you will use critical thinking skills to help other authors to improve their papers.
Academic papers need to have a research question. There are only two types of research question for this assignment and you should select just ONE of them:
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?
The list of firms to choose from is the following:
Amazon, Boeing, Costco, Facebook, Gillette, Hachette, J.C. Penney, McDonalds, Priceline, Schick, Virgin Atlantic, and Wal-Mart.
All these firms appear as business cases in your textbook and the NU Library has a site for us to search for materials related to these firms (see Library Resources in this document).
The paper should focus on answering your research question in no more than 2 pages, quality rather than quantity. I expect students to apply and use key concepts, research about the firm using academic and business journals, and provide evidence that supports main findings.
Objectives
At the end of this assignment students will:
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, analytical and peer review skills.
Paper Structure
The structure follows the sections of a short paper. The paper should be no more than 2 pages (single spaced, Times New Roman, font 12) without including the pages for the title, references and appendices. It contains the following distinguishable sections:
Abstract. In a paragraph explain the argument of the paper, its logic and the concepts that are illustrated in it.
Introduction. The introduction should be just one paragraph long. It should set the relevance of the topic and finish with the main question you want to answer. The introduction must end with the research question paper in explicit question format.
Argument and Analysis of Evidence. The microeconomic analysis section should be the longest in the paper and it is the most important in terms of learning objectives. Do not include tables and figures here, those should be placed in the F section. In this section you should present the theoretical elements applied to your firm or industry and the evidence (quantitative and qualitative) that supports your arguments.
For a Demand-Supply paper make sure you apply key terms and concepts related to quantity demanded, shifts of demand, elasticity, marginal analysis, preferences of consumers, supply, shifts of supply, production process, cost structure, market equilibrium, consumer and producer surpluses.
For a Market Structure paper make sure you apply key terms and concepts related to price taker and price maker markets (perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopoly), profit maximization objective in the short run and long run, marginal analysis, price competition, non-price competition, determination of output level to maximize profit, firm interdependence, price control, consumer surplus, producer surplus, market equilibrium.
Make sure you explicitly use at least five key terms in this section from the list provided in ‘Theoretical Concepts that should be Included in your Paper.’
Conclusion. This is the section that shows your deep understanding of your case and must be directly related to the research questions in the introduction. The conclusion should be just one paragraph long and must answer the research question explicitly. You can also expand on the implications of your answer and predict something about the future.
References. Include all references used in the paper.
Tables and Figures. All visuals and tables are placed in this section.
Paper APA Style and Library Resources
All sections of the paper (Abstract, Introduction, Argument and Analysis of Evidence, Conclusion, References and Tables and Figures) must be APA as it is described below.
ECO203 where you can find library resources for our written activity.
If you need help to find additional materials for your research project, contact the Librarian assigned for the School of Business and Management.
Theoretical Concepts that should be Included in Your Paper
When describing the Demand or Supply or the market structure of the firm (industry) of your choice, I expect you will use key economics concepts learned in this class, mainly the concepts learned/discussed in the first three weeks. The list below contains the most relevant concepts you may use:
Law of demand, law of diminishing marginal utility
Law of supply, law of diminishing returns (increasing marginal costs)
Market equilibrium
Consumer surplus and producer surplus
Substitutes and Complements in Consumption
Substitutes and Complements in Production
Price elasticity
Income elasticity
Opportunity cost, explicit costs, implicit costs, sunk costs
Total cost, variable costs, fixed costs, average total cost, average variable costs, average fixed costs, marginal costs
Breakeven price, short run profit, long run profit
Profit maximization, marginal cost = marginal benefit
Price taker markets (Perfect competition)
Price searcher markets (Oligopoly, Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition)
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