Highlights
The assessment is an individual assignment to be prepared as a business essay. There are two steps for this assessment and completion of these steps are compulsory. In other words, if you decide not to complete one of these two steps, you will lose the marks of the particular step. For instance, say a student decided to skip Step 1 and only complete Step 2, he or she will lose 10% of the overall assessment mark.
PREPARATION
Before starting this assignment, you should read the relevant chapter(s). Please commence this task as early as possible. Please start straight after Week 3 so that you have time to decide a topic and complete step 1 of the assessment on time.
INSTRUCTIONS
Choose one of the two options below. Each topic has a list of questions, and these questions are designed to assist students in developing their essays.
Option A: Freshwater scarcity and its impacts on Australia’s economy
Water scarcity is one of the greatest challenges of our time.
Water is essential for agricultural production and food security. It is the lifeblood of ecosystems, including forests, lakes, and wetlands, on which our present and future food and nutritional security depend. Yet, our freshwater resources are dwindling at an alarming rate. Growing water scarcity is now one of the leading challenges for sustainable development. This challenge will become more pressing as the world's population continues to grow, their living standards increase, diets change, and the effects of climate change intensify.
The 'water we eat' daily through the food we consume is much more than what we drink. Did you know, depending on the diet, we need 2 000 to 5 000 litres of water to produce the food consumed daily by one person? Evidence suggests that two-thirds of the world population could be living in water-stressed countries by 2025 if current consumption patterns continue.
The following questions should be addressed in your essay:
Using appropriate economic theories, explain why freshwater is scarce and how economists determine the price of freshwater. Justify your arguments using appropriate diagrams.
What are the factors that cause the depletion of freshwater resources? Explain your answers in detail with supporting evidence (i.e. past academic research papers, books, government reports, statistical data from the World Bank, newspapers such as The Conversation).
Examine how freshwater scarcity can cause market failure and impact the economic performance of a region or a state in Australia. Using the water and economic dataset you have obtained, investigate whether water shortage has adverse effects on the population growth and performances of major industries in the region or state. Justify your arguments with appropriate diagrams and/or tables.
Based on the case study that you have selected, critically analyze whether the introduction of a freshwater policy can sustain water supply in the region or state. Has the regional government implemented such a policy? If so, discuss its effectiveness in tackling shortages in freshwater resources. If not, discuss how the government can implement a sustainable water policy for the future of a region or state.
Option B: Retail sales and its usefulness in predicting the performance of an economy.
Retail sales are an important economic indicator because consumer spending drives much of our economy. Think of all of the people and companies involved in producing, distributing, and selling the goods you use on a daily basis like food, clothes, fuel, and so on.
When consumers open their pocketbooks, the economy tends to hum along. Retail shelves empty and orders are placed for replacement merchandise. Plants make more widgets and order raw material for even more.
However, if consumers feel uncertain about their financial future and decide to hold off buying new refrigerators or blue jeans, the economy slows down. This is why politicians sometimes resort to tax rebates to give the economy a boost. By putting cash in consumers’ hands, they hope to spend their way out of a recession.
The following questions should be addressed in your essay:
Discuss the importance of retail sales in determining the economic performance of a country. Justify your answer using macroeconomic concepts.
Recently, the national newspapers reported that Australia’s retail sales dropped to the lowest point since the 1990s (Cranston, Nov 4, 2019; and Chau, Nov 4, 2019). Search the latest seasonal adjusted dataset from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Retail Trade Catalogue Number 8501.0, and describe the trends of the yearly retail turnover by industry group and by state between 2009 and 2019. Compare the data in the current year with the periods during the Global Financial Crisis between 2009 and 2011.
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