Economics

Consider the maquiladoras as a economic basis for social (human) development.  Look at all sides of the maquiladora phenomenon, go through all the pros and cons, look at the multiple perspectives, and then come to a carefully reasoned overall assessment of them. Using the book Lives on the Line: Dispatches from the U.S.-Mexico Border society by Miriam Davidson.

On this assignment, you will develop your capacity to effectively and clearly summarize the main argument of a text and develop your critical reading skills. You will also use the information from the article to create your own thoughts about the issue and improve your capacity to develop your own ideas and expressing them in writing.. TASK Read the article from the link below. https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-coming-current-account-deficit (https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-comingcurrent-account-deficit) After reading the article make a summary of no more than 500 words. To do an effective summary, you must make a choice on what information you include and which you leave out, so that you don’t exceed the word limit. Begin by stating what is the main hypothesis/claim of the article and discuss the facts and arguments presented to support the main hypothesis. Then discuss your own thoughts on the perspective for the future of China’s current account balance. What policy would you recommend? Give a brief justification for your recommendation (please try to use mostly economic arguments). You can work on the assignment with others but everyone should write and submit their separate assignment answers. Put your name, student ID number on your answer. Tips for writing a Summary Start by looking at the text overall structure. Read the introduction for the main claim and the conclusion to see what was the article’s contribution to understanding the main claim or hypothesis. Find points supporting the main claim. The first sentence is typically enough to get the general meaning of a paragraph. 27/01/2021 Written Assignment 1 (Due January 31st) https://canvas.sfu.ca/courses/60680/assignments/607692 2/2 An effective summary: Conveys the basic point of the text in a short and easy to understand format. Only includes content from the original text Does not include quotes or citations Does not include your opinion. FORMAT Your commentary should be 300- ?600 words. Assignments that are shorter or longer will lose marks. The last item in your commentary should be a word count in parentheses – e.g. “(490 words).” Prepare your assignment in any format – you will submit it by cutting and pasting what you write into a text box in Canvas. No pictures or graphs can be included. All words.

Please provide an instance in time where GDP of a country dramatically increased and then another example where GDP dramatically decreased. Include your understanding of why these changes took place. Feel free to use any country.

Read the case “The Role of Labor Costs in Retail Electronics”, and answer the questions below: 1. What are the differences in the cost cutting measures implemented at Best Buy and Circuit City? Do you believe that the compensation changes at Best Buy are a major reason for its current difficulties? 2. Are there larger problems in the competitive landscape for Best Buy that cannot be solved by compensation strategy changes alone? When customers look to buy electronics, what options do they have other than Best Buy and why would they choose these options over Best Buy? Where do customers “test drive” the product and where do they buy it? Can compensation changes address these challenges? Explain.

Below are two competing views (Proposition #1 and Proposition #2) on why income inequality has been rising (even among the lower 99%) in the United States since the 1970’s. Proposition #1: “More people are falling behind today because they’re lazy. In the U.S. anyone willing to work can earn a decent living. The income distribution is the same as the effort distribution. People who work hard earn a good living. Lazy people stay poor. The income distribution has been skewing because of a growing culture of dependency. It used to be shameful to accept handouts from the government, but now it’s perfectly acceptable. So more people opt out of the labor force and sit around collecting handouts from the rest of us. Of course their incomes are going to be lower than those in the top tiers.” Proposition #2: “The incomes of the rich and poor have been growing farther apart due to purposeful policy decisions that have favored the rich at the expense of the poor. Starting with Ronald Reagan’s financial deregulation, and continuing with successive Republican attacks on New Deal and Great Society social programs to finance tax cuts for their Wall Street cronies, government policy in this country has systematically channeled the rewards of our immensely productive economy towards the rich and away from the poor. America needs to open the gateway to prosperity for all through fair tax policies, decent minimum wages, better public schools, aid to low-income college students, and a universal health care system.” Here are the questions I want you to address: 1. What is actually driving the observed changes in the income distribution, according to David H. Autor’s analysis? In the first paragraph, summarize Autor’s analysis. What does he identify as the major cause of rising inequality? What are some of the factors Autor identifies as having contributed to an increase in the demand for highly-educated workers and a decrease in the demand for less-educated workers? 2. Which proposition’s policy prescriptions are more consistent with the policies that Autor recommends? The two propositions have very different policy implications. If you believe that income inequality is being driven by laziness and a culture of dependency, and your roommate believes it’s being driven by tax and spending policies that systematically favor the rich, you will disagree about the kinds of policies that might address the problem. While neither of the propositions above is wholly consistent with Autor’s analysis, in your second paragraph, tell me which proposition’s policy prescriptions are more consistent with the policies that Autor recommends. Use specific examples from the article to support your conclusion. (Autor discusses policy prescriptions in the very last paragraph of the article.)

M3.2 Point/Counterpoint: Junk Food Tax GECC Should we implement a junk food tax?mM3 DB one image .png Discussion Instructions Be sure you have read pages 3.6 through 3.9 of Chapter 3 in the webtext prior to participating in the debate. Use this Tip Sheet for a Great Debate Preview the document make sure you are following best practices to engage in an academic debate effectively. (If your last name starts with A-K you will argue the “pro” position. If your last name starts with L-Z you will argue the “con” position.) Initial post: By Thursday of Module 3, make your argument about whether the United States should adopt a “junk food tax” to reduce consumption. Make sure your argument is informed by evidence that discusses this issue in at least one other country besides the US. Include in your initial post: An argument for why your side is correct. An argument for why the other side is incorrect. Make sure to back up your post with evidence from at least 1 credible, relevant source that addresses this issue in another country besides the US. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post. Replies: Then, from Friday through Sunday of Module 3, engage in respectful back and forth debate on your topic with your peers, offering additional arguments to rebut their points and bringing in further evidence from a global lens, addressing this topic beyond the US. At minimum, you should respond to the arguments of two of your peers. Evaluation This discussion will be graded according to the Cornerstone Discussion Board Rubric. Review the rubric and Discussion Board Expectations in advance to know how you will be assessed. All discussion boards combined are worth 20% of your course grade. This activity is used to assess one or more general education career competencies (GECC). You will see additional rows in your rubric from your instructor along with assessments of Above/Meets/Does Not Meet Expectations for each competency. These rows do not factor into your grade.

Explain why limited productive resources and unlimited wants result in scarcity, opportunity costs, and trade offs for individuals, businesses, and governments. Students must discuss 4 factors of production: five examples of productive resources (i.e. factors of production): natural resources (i.e. land), human resources (i.e. labor and human capital), physical capital and entrepreneurship.

Go to http://storyofstuff.org/ (Links to an external site.) Click “Watch now” to see list of videos Click “Story of” videos button to see list of videos Watch the first video, the oldest one called “The Story of Stuff”. This 20-minute movie is about economics and sustainability, written and narrated by Annie Leonard. It became famous because she is blunt and opinionated.  However, her statements are based on solid research. Well, it’s meant to be thought provoking, and there’s plenty you might either disagree with or wish to find out more about.

Answer these two economic questions with originality and precision. 1.    What is a key challenge or opportunity presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences? Short answers (no more than 300 words). Your answer might capture a seemingly simple detail of public or private sector practice that you think doesn’t make sense or could be made much better. Or it could describe a big change in how we could live – or are living – our lives, or how our economy or society works. You don’t have to have a solution: sometimes just identifying a problem or opportunity is an important insight in its own right. As such, we you need to be innovative, surprising, or incisive identification of a challenge or opportunity created by the current crisis. 2.    In the case of a problem,  how might we fix it? In the case of an opportunity, how do we capitalize on it?  Plus a heading for the question (No more than 1000 words). This could be a solution to a challenge you have identified, or it could be an idea in response to the challenges identified by others.  Your idea might be a quick plan for a fix of a frustrating but ubiquitous piece of bureaucracy, or a process linked to handling the current response to coronavirus. It could be an idea for a better way of getting the economy back on its feet faster or reducing the social or economic impact on a group or sector. Or perhaps it is an idea you have had for a while for improving our society, or environment, and that you think’s time has finally come.  As students, your ideas need to generate originality, practicality, and impact of ideas.

Prior to beginning work on the Final Paper, read Steven Strauss’ article, The Connection Between Education, Income Inequality, and Unemployment (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-connection-between-ed_b_1066401.). In your Final Paper, you should address the following based on the information presented in the article and other research: Describe how a country can measure its income inequality. Evaluate the effect of income inequality on the U.S. economy, such as unemployment, economic growth, and other economic factors. Estimate the gap between those who hold bachelor’s and higher (master or doctoral) degrees and those who do not. Explain reasons why the inequality gap between educated and less-educated workers has been widening. Evaluate whether increasing opportunities for higher education can reduce income inequality. Analyze what else causes U.S. income inequality to widen. Recommend how to reduce educationally based income inequality or other factors if you were a federal policy maker. The Education and Income Inequality Final Paper