Overview This assignment is a short, individual reflective essay (800-1000 words

Overview
This assignment is a short, individual reflective essay (800-1000 words) that documents your learning experiences during the Econland simulation game. The main aim of the assignment is for you to apply your knowledge of monetary and fiscal policies in an authentic context, so you can think through how various policy decisions will impact aggregate demand (AD) and aggregate supply (AS) and how, in turn, changes in AD and AS affect real GDP and the general level of prices.
Guide to the assignment
While you are playing the simulation game (and each of its three scenarios: base case, rollercoaster, and stagnation), it is a good idea to keep notes on the decisions you made and the resulting outcomes, particularly when an outcome was not the one you expected (good or bad!) When this happens it presents a good opportunity to reflect on the possible explanations for the unexpected outcomes and what you learned as a consequence. Taking screenshots of these results could also be helpful as you might want to include some of them in your reflective essay.
It is also a good idea to incorporate AD/AS diagrams (which you draw yourself, rather than copy-paste!) to illustrate why a particular decision (or combination of decisions) produced the outcome it did. Note well: If this is done well, you will get a higher score than if you do not include diagrams.
If you are unsure what to include in your analyses, the following prompts may be of assistance. They are not questions that you must answer, but aspects of monetary and fiscal policy you might want to reflect upon:
Which policy is better for controlling inflation and why?
Which policy has a stronger effect on growth and why?
Which fiscal instrument(s) have a stronger effect in which circumstances and why?
Were certain policies more (or less) effective according to the scenario you were playing?
What other insights did you gain? Is there a blend of policies that deliver good ‘approval scores’ in certain scenarios, for example?
Familiarise yourself with the assessment rubric for this assignment before you start work on the Econland simulation.
Assignment Information
Length:
800-1000 words
Weight:
10%
Learning Outcomes Added
LO4_PublicPolicies: Evaluate, critically, public policies that aim to deliver social and economic stability.