Competency 1 Assessment Instructions

You’re a business consultant, and your new task is to teach a group of interns how economic events impact economic activity and economic concentration. You’ve decided to present the information in writing with visual aids. (Tip: Use charts and tables to help illustrate data for the interns.)

Create a 2-part report.

Part 1: Economic Events & Activity Analysis

Review the Learning Resources folder.

Write a 500- to 750-word analysis assessing how 2 major economic events influenced supply, demand, and economic equilibrium in U.S. economic activity. Choose your 2 events from the list:

• Rapid price increases (examples: the 1973 oil embargo; the aftermath of a major hurricane)
• Dramatic employment drops (example: the 2006 housing bubble burst and the Great Recession that followed)
• Crippling interest rates imposed by the Federal Reserve (example: 1975–1985)
• 1991 Collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the “peace dividend”
• The dot-com bubble from 1994 to 2000 and the dot-com crash that followed

Part 2: Economic Concentration Evaluation

Select 1 economic concentration (or “cluster”) from the list:

• Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA aerospace/defense industry
• Central California winemaking industry
• Hollywood movie industry
• Silicon Valley technology hub
• Texas renewable energy cluster
• U.S. auto and light truck production (pre-1994 versus post-1994)
• Global innovation hubs
• Advanced logistics and supply-chain hubs in the U.S.

Write a 700- to 1,050-word evaluation of how your chosen economic concentration evolved. Specifically, focus on the role of the 4 factors of production. Complete the following in your evaluation:

• Analyze how the economic concentration was influenced by competition and pricing.
• Analyze how the economic concentration influenced the supply chain.
• Analyze which of the 4 factors of production were the most and least important in determining the economic concentration.
• Predict changes you anticipate for the area of economic concentration you chose. Support your predictions.

Note: You may need to do additional research outside of course resources for some of the above topics.

Download and review the rubric. Use it as a guide when completing the assessment.

Submit your completed assessment using the Competency 1 Assessment submission area that will open after you complete the Competency 1 Reflection.

Competency 2 Assessment Instructions

A colleague of yours is an Economics professor. She has asked you to write a report for her students about ways the government can interact with the economy. You’ve decided to use actions by the Federal Reserve and a government intervention program to illustrate the issue.

(Tip: Use charts and graphs to help illustrate data for the students. Only include charts or graphs from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED website if the data came from U.S. government sources, such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis or the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

Create a two-part report.

Part 1: Federal Reserve

Choose 1 of the following topic areas related to the Great Recession:

• The housing price bubble, collapse, foreclosures, bailout of underwater mortgages
• Subprime mortgages and derivatives, bailout of FNMA, Freddie Mac, and AIG
• The banking industry crisis, bailout of commercial and investment banks

Write a 500- to 750-word analysis of 1 of the following corrective actions taken by the Federal Reserve:

• Quantitative easing
• Purchase of toxic assets from financial institutions
• Paying interest on reserve balances

Address the following in your analysis:

• Actions taken by the Federal Reserve to mitigate the crisis
• How the corrective action helped stabilize the financial system
• How the corrective action should prevent a similar crisis from happening

Part 2: Government Intervention Program

Analyze 1 of the following government intervention programs. Evaluate how your chosen program has adapted or struggled to address increased demand (due to job loss and economic uncertainty). Consider both the immediate and long-term economic implications of the intervention.

• Countercyclical fiscal policies. These are programs that counter economic disruptions such as the housing bubble, the Great Recession, or the COVID-19 pandemic (example: the American Rescue Plan).
• U.S. agriculture support programs
• Assistance for low-income families (choose 1): housing vouchers; earned Income Tax Credit (including Child Tax Credit); Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• Low-income health care (choose 1): Medicaid (including Children’s Health Insurance Program); Affordable Care Act expansion
• Social insurance programs (choose 1): Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI); Medicare; Unemployment insurance

Write a 750- to 1,050-word summary of your analysis. Address the following in your summary:

• Analyze the arguments for your chosen government intervention versus those for market-based solutions. (Hint: See the information about market failures.)
• Examine who the government intervention has helped and who it has hurt.
• Examine externalities and unintended consequences of the intervention.
• Explain whether the cost of the intervention, as a share of GDP or the number of participants, is increasing, decreasing, or varying with the state of the economy. Your analysis should be based on the cost trend (or number of participants) since 2000 (or since the program started, if after 2000).
• Analyze credible economists’ opinions on the success or failure of the intervention.
• Recommend whether the program should be continued as is, discontinued, or modified based on your conclusions. Defend your recommendation.

Download and review the rubric. Use it as a guide when completing the assessment.

Submit your completed assessment using the Competency 2 Assessment submission area that will open after you complete the Competency 2 Reflection.

Competency 3 Assessment Instructions

Why do economies develop differently? Economics, politics, and culture can all play a role. For this assessment, you’ll create a presentation to compare the development of 2 different countries or economies since 1992.

Step 1: Select 2 Economies

Review the pairs of economies listed below. Except for NAFTA/EU, each pair has 1 highly successful country and 1 less successful country.

• NAFTA vs. European Union (world’s two largest economic entities)
• China vs. India (world’s two most populous countries)
• South Korea vs. North Korea (two polar economic opposites, one people)
• Venezuela vs. Saudi Arabia (world’s two largest sources of oil reserves)
• Nigeria vs. Democratic Republic of the Congo (functioning government and civil order vs. struggling government and violent clashes among factions; note: the Republic of the Congo is not the same country as the Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Research the economies of your chosen pair.

Compare similarities and differences between the economies.

Step 2: Create a Presentation

Create a 12- to 16-slide presentation about the two economies. Explain how their economic, political, and cultural development since 1992 has influenced their economic growth and trade competitiveness.

Include tables and graphs in your presentation. Use these visual elements to support your analysis of the following economic statistics/indicators for your 2 chosen economies. Show data from 2009 through the most recent year available (the trough of the last economic cycle). Whenever possible, plot the metric for both economies on the same chart.

• GDP per capita growth over time
• Inflation rate over time
• Unemployment rate over time
• Exports as a percentage of GDP over time
• National government debt as a percentage of GDP

Evaluate the reasons why the economic growth of the 2 economies/countries differed. Discuss how international trade influenced the strength of each economy. Discuss the role of value chains and value-added production.

Analyze how the failure to use value-added trade measures distorts trade statistics.

Examine at least 2 industries that have given each economy a comparative advantage in world trade.

Include detailed speaker’s notes in your presentation.

Download and review the rubric. Use it as a guide when completing the assessment.

Submit your completed assessment using the Competency 3 Assessment submission area that will open after you complete the Competency 3 Reflection.

Make sure to give credit to any sources you use by including both in-text citations and a list of references. You can see how to do this in the APA 7 manual or in the University Library.