Category: Economics

Topic: Should the government intervene in healthcare by implementing a universal healthcare system, or should healthcare be primarily left to private market forces?
Research and gather evidence: Conduct research to gather relevant information and evidence to support your arguments.
– Write the introduction:
• Start with an attention-grabbing hook to engage the reader.
• Provide background information on the topic.
• Present a clear thesis statement that expresses your main argument or position on the topic. Italicize the thesis statement to emphasize its significance.
Example: Thesis Statement: The government should implement stricter regulations on campaign finance to reduce the influence of money in politics and uphold the integrity of the democratic process.
-Develop three body paragraphs:
• Each paragraph should focus on one supporting point or argument.
• Begin each paragraph with a clear topic sentence that presents the main idea of that paragraph.
• Provide evidence, facts, examples, or logical reasoning to support each argument.
• Connect your supporting points to your thesis statement and demonstrate their relevance to your overall argument.
-Write the conclusion:
• Restate your thesis statement in different words.
• Summarize your main arguments briefly.
• Provide a concluding statement that leaves a lasting impact on the reader.

Section A: Introduction and Guidelines
For this assignment, select a company and create a 1-2 page essay-style paper comprising an introduction, body, and conclusion. The paper should adhere to the following formatting criteria: double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, cover sheet, reference page, and a professional appearance. Utilize an academic format such as APA (American Psychological Association) or the format subscribed to by your university. Submission dates are fixed as per the schedule and must be strictly adhered to.
The primary focus of the paper should be on the analytical assessment of the chosen company based on the provided questions. Strive for a balance between description and analysis, ensuring all questions are comprehensively addressed. The intention of this project is to engage in a hands-on strategic analysis, simulating the scenario of presenting your analysis to the CEO of the company. Submit the paper online by 11:59 pm on the deadline day, in either MS Word or PDF format.
Section B: Recommended Sources of Information
The following sources are recommended for gathering information:
SEC’s Edgar Database: Access the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) database of public company filings, particularly the 10-K reports that encompass valuable information akin to annual reports. Website: http://www.sec.gov/edgarhp.htm
Links to an external site.
Yahoo! Finance Company and Fund Index: Explore company profiles, financial data, and resource links available on this platform. Begin with the “Profile” link. Other portals like MSN Money offer similar resources. Website: http://biz.yahoo.com/i/
Links to an external site. Alternative: http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp
Links to an external site.
Mergent Online: A platform that offers company-level financial information for your analysis.
REVISIONS
(Include a revised version of milestone paper for this section if there are any)
Section C: Questions
Identify the Company: Clearly state the company’s name and location.
Primary Industry Identification: Identify the company’s primary industry, including its Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code and its North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.
Sources:
OSHA’s SIC Codes Search: http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html
U.S. Census Bureau NAICS Information: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
Links to an external site.
Customer Description: Describe the company’s customer base, encompassing households, businesses, schools, governments, etc. Analyze the extent to which the company relies on international customers.
Sources:
Company’s Website and Annual Reports (10Ks)
Demand Determinants: Analyze the major determinants driving demand for the company’s primary product. Explain your chosen variables. If applicable, discuss how these determinants vary across different customer segments. Propose observable variables the company might employ to track changes in these demand determinants.
Sources:
Company’s Website and Annual Reports
Relevant Trade Organizations: http://www.yahoo.com/business_and_economy/organizations/trade_associations/
Links to an external site.
Price Elasticity Analysis: Assess the factors affecting price elasticity, which include the number of substitutes, market definition, necessity/luxury status, and adjustment period. Based on this evaluation, ascertain whether the company faces elastic or inelastic demand concerning its primary product.
NEW QUESTIONS
Market Structure and Pricing Power Analysis: Provide an analysis of the market structure within which your firm operates. Consider the following aspects to formulate your answer: (1) the number of competitors, (2) product similarity, (3) barriers to entry, and (4) market shares. Clarify the geographic scope of the market, categorizing it as local, national, or international. Assess the degree of pricing power that the firm possesses.
Sources of Information:
Factiva, Mergent databases
Company’s Annual Report
Concentration Ratios from the 1997 Economic Census: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/concentration.htmlLinks to an external site.
Sales and Profit Growth Calculation and Performance Comparison: Calculate the sales and profit growth rates for your company over (1) the past year and (2) the past three years. Perform the same calculations for your company’s industry rivals (firms sharing the same industry classification). Compare your firm’s growth rates with those of its rivals. Summarize your company’s performance in relation to its competitors.
Sources of Information:
Mergent Online
Annual Reports
D. A note on documentation
You should document print and online information sources. No one formatting style for online sources is universally accepted but you can use the following examples as guidelines.
Examples:
Author. (Year). Title, Type of medium

Students will find a current (within the last 3 months) controversial issue in American national politics or California politics. The paper will describe the issue, discuss both/all sides of the issues, and provide the student’s position on the issue. The paper should be written as an unbiased report, think of me as an elected official and I need to come up with a position on the issue. I assign you to research and develop a position on the issue. You will want to make sure that I know the opposing sides’ best arguments so I can defend the position taken in the paper. Three outside sources are required for this assignment, course materials, encyclopedias and dictionaries do not count as sources.
Topics that are excluded for this course: Gun control, Abortion, Climate Change, Homelessness, and the War in Israel. Crimes even those dealing with the former President or the current President and his family, natural disasters, and discrimination are not good topics for this assignment. Each paper MUST be a minimum of 1500 words and should not exceed 2500 words. All papers must be written in paragraph format, typed double spaced, with one inch margins, a 12 cpi times new roman font, using in-text citations, including page numbers, and a references page. Direct quotes should be kept to a minimum, on average a sentence or two or about four lines per page. Paper Format and Expectations:
Section 1. The paper will thoroughly describe a contemporary controversial issue in American or California politics. The paper will describe the facts related to the issue along with why the issue is important. Topic selection is very important for this paper make sure that you pick a topic that you can make arguments on both sides and is current within the last 3 months. This section should be roughly 1 page in length.
Section 2. The paper will discuss both/all sides of the issue and describe the controversy surrounding the issue. The paper will utilize sources related to the issue in order to describe and discuss the controversial issue. State what both sides determine is the issue and the best arguments as to why that side is the correct outcome for the controversy. It is important to use the best arguments of both sides, do not leave out arguments that hurt the policy outcome you prefer. This section should be roughly 3 pages in length.
Section 3. Students must provide an opinion (pick a side) on the issue that is related to the arguments provided in the paper. Students should write this section as an argumentative paper arguing for your position. You must pick a side and defend that side, essentially arguing for your opinion. This section should be roughly 2 pages in length. Students should avoid personal experience or observation in the opinion section instead rely upon the arguments (sides) presented in the paper.
Sources:
Three sources are required for the papers. Sources should only be from the period covered by the paper. The best source for this type of paper is news and magazine articles. Here is a partial list of online sources from reputable news outlets: (Remember dictionaries or encyclopedia’s like Wikipedia do not count as a source)
ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOXN
NY Times, LA Times, Vox, Reuters, The Hill (Government)
Time, The Economist, Newsweek, U.S. News and world report
Citation and references:
Students should use in text citation and a legitimate and consistent format.

Recall that a spectroscope spreads out light into its component colors, or WAVELENGTHS. A laser pointer emits light at just one wavelength. A light bulb emits a mix of countless wavelengths. A spectroscope spreads them out so you can see the colors, or wavelengths, separately.
Let the light from the source shine in through the vertical slit in the spectroscope. Concentrate on seeing the light come through the vertical slit first, then move your eyes to the left or right to see the colorful spectrum. It takes some practice to produce a nice rainbow, or spectrum. For example, the Sun delivers way more light than you need, but the Moon’s spectrum is tough to see because the Moon is much fainter than the Sun and only a narrow slit allows the light through. You will be able to see rainbows on the left and right, and even on top of the wavelength scale, depending on how you hold the spectroscope.
Sources with a small angular size in your field of view (like a pen light, candle flame, the Sun,) produce the best spectra. Big sources like a TV screen or your roof on fire will be difficult: There will be fat, overlapping spectra.
Try observing the Sun, an incandescent light bulb, an LED light, a fluorescent light, a candle flame, gas flame from stove or propane torch, streetlight, red light from electric stove coil. When you observe the Sun, do not put the slit directly on the Sun. It is too bright. Protect your eyes by putting the slit near the Sun, but not directly on it. Keep the Sun just out of the slit. You will still get plenty of light and a bright spectrum. Pay attention to the dark absorption lines you see against the Sun’s spectrum (rainbow). Draw them in on your diagram.
Draw me a picture of your observations of six light sources. Make it look like a long bar, with sections showing the different colors. One bar for each spectrum/light source observed. Use colored pencils. Label the parts of the spectrum indicating colors and brightnesses. Send me a photo or scan of your picture.
Make comments on what you’ve seen. You will need them for your report in the next project. For example, “I was surprised how little yellow light I saw in the spectrum of a candle flame. There definitely wasn’t much blue, but there was a lot of RED.”
I expect you to draw me at least SIX SPECTRA (rainbows). Be a careful observer and recorder. Don’t just make a kindergarten mess with your crayons. I know what these spectra are supposed to look like, so pay attention. This is easy points if you follow instructions the first time. Many of your predecessors did not and brought great pain upon themselves.

While many schools of macroeconomic thought exist, the two major schools are arguably Austrian Economics and Keynesian Economics. Research these two schools of economic thought, and provide the following:
Identify at least 2 major thinkers of each school of economics, Austrian and Keynesian.
Identify at least 3 major differences between these two schools of economics regarding macroeconomic policy.
For each difference, thoroughly explain the (often) opposing viewpoint from each school, Austrian and Keynesian.
For each difference, state whether you agree with the Austrian principle or the Keynesian principle and why.
Parameters:
Submissions must be in a Word document format and submitted via this assignment in Moodle.
Submissions must be no more than 2 pages (excluding charts, graphs, or tables and references), double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12pt font.
The sources of your research must be referenced using APA citation guidelines.

The paper should reflect that the course emphasizes achieving a conceptual understanding of crypto assets and less on specific blockchain techniques. Your job is to write a five-page financial analyst report on a specific crypto asset. You may not use either Bitcoin or Ethereum. You will need at least four charts in your paper. There are a number of good sites to use including Dune. The paper aims to convince the reader to accept your judgments regarding the investment potential of the crypto asset chosen. You must discuss the community of users, its “accountants,” and how the ledger works from a risk perspective. The design in terms of its user interface should also be discussed. Also, explain the outcomes and price movements, and is this a good investment? If so, why?

(1) Using the Excel file to calculate the Cost and Output in the spreadsheet “Data”. Be careful, and you MUST show the Excel calculation rather than simply put a number in the cells. Otherwise, you will get ZERO even your values are all correct. I do not need the values, which I can easily find in the textbook. What we need is Excel calculation!!! (2) In the spreadsheet “Figure 5.1”, you can see I have inserted a graph (“Total visit” against “Total nursing hours”) there, which is an example. First, you replicate the Figure 5.1 (my example graph) and insert your own graph. Second, you need to graph “Total Cost” against “Total nursing hours” by yourself using the value in the “Data” you calculated. (Hint: you must use “Scatter (X, Y)” if you have only 2 factors. Otherwise, if you use the “Line” graph, your figure will be wrong). Be careful, this assignment should be in an “Excel” document! If you turn in a document with other versions (like word, pdf…etc.) than Excel, you will get ZERO.

Short Answer Questions
1.
Cindy gains utility from consumption C and leisure L. The most leisure she can consume in any
given week is 110 hours. Her utility function is U(C, L) = C * L. This functional form implies
that Cindy’s marginal rate of substitution is C / L. Cindy receives $660 each week from her
great-grandmother–regardless of how much Cindy works. What is Cindy’s reservation wage?
2.
Shelly’s preferences for consumption and leisure can be expressed as
U(C, L) = (C – 100) * (L – 40).
This utility function implies that Shelly’s marginal utility of leisure is C – 100 and her marginal
utility of consumption is L – 40. There are 110 (non-sleeping) hours in the week available to split
between work and leisure. Shelly earns $10 per hour after taxes. She also receives $320 worth of
welfare benefits each week regardless of how much she works.
(a) Graph Shelly’s budget line.
(b) What is Shelly’s marginal rate of substitution when L = 100 and she is on her budget
line?
(c) What is Shelly’s reservation wage?
(d) Find Shelly’s optimal amount of consumption and leisure.

Leadership is best learnt when one gets a chance to reflect on how what they have learnt may or may not be applied to his/her life. Therefore, you are required to submit a reflection journal for ONE topic we covered between Week 2 and Week 10. The reflection journal should focus on how what you learnt in classes influences your thoughts about effective leadership and your personal leadership development plan based on the reflection. Your reflection journal should include the following: – Provide a very brief summary of the contents you learned in that session. – Reflect on how (1) the key concepts and theories you learnt based on the lecture and your additional self-learning, and (2) the in-class activities and discussion you participated in influence your thoughts about effective leadership. – Take a step back and think about how these reflections can guide you to further prepare yourself to be an effective leader in the future. Develop a plan with concrete examples of what you will do to become an effective leader, based on the reflections above in requirement 3

Suppose the closed economy Catbuktu has the following production function:
Y = A×Kα×L(1 – α ) , where 1 > α > 0.
a) Derive the marginal product of capital, and country’s optimal capital demand curve as a
function of (A, L, (R/P)). In your answer submitted show your objective function and some of
the steps used to derive your answer. (6 points)
b) Suppose in equilibrium that the real rental price of capital is equal to the real interest rate (r).
Demonstrate that the capital demand function is a downward sloping function of the real
interest rate. (4 points)
c) Treat the demand for capital curve as the investment curve in the loanable funds market.
Suppose the national saving curve is given by:
SNAT = 2r Where r is written in percentage points, so that if r = 5.5 this would be
interpreted as 5.5%
If total factor productivity is equal to 2, capital’s income share is 50%, and there are 16
workers in the economy. Find the long-run equilibrium real interest rate and levels of national
saving and investment. (6 points)
d) Suppose the capital stock is currently equal to the long-run equilibrium level demanded as
determined in part c above AND that the economy is presently in a steady state. We are also
told that capital depreciates at a rate of 10% per year, the population and technology are both
constant. Solve for the saving rate, the steady state level of income per worker and consumption
per worker. Show some of the steps used to obtain/derive these figures. (6 points)
e) Is the economy at its golden rule steady state? Explain why or why not. If not, explain what
the agents within this economy would need to do with respect to its saving in order to move to
the golden rule steady state