Writing your summative essay

Applied Micro
The essay
• Worth 30 per cent total mark

• Due noon on Monday May 13th

• Submission instructions will be sent out two weeks before the deadline

• MAX 1,500 words

• Excluding title and references
• Footnotes?
• Please include a word count
How does the essay fit into the course?

• What this course is about

• Using economic tools to think about real world problems
• Economic adviser, consultant etc….

• Essay
• Bring together models, evidence, welfare analysis to construct economic arguments
• Provide economic advice on whether the UK government should go ahead with the proposed increase in the National Living
Wage to 60% median wages. (Your answer should discuss possible effects on employment. Brexit uncertainty may be a factor
but shouldn’t dominate your essay).
• Provide a detailed assessment of the likely distributional effects of increasing a minimum wage. Explain what you would want
to measure in order to make a judgement about the extent to which such a policy is progressive.
• Present a social welfare (welfarist) case for or against reforming SNAP to include a narrower range of food, and/or replacing it
with Trump’s harvest boxes.
• Drawing on theory and evidence provide a careful economic analysis of whether SNAP is adding to the US’ obesity crisis
• Should the US move toward a national healthcare system like the NHS in the UK? Use theory and evidence to support your
argument.
• The US spends more as a % of GDP on healthcare than any other OECD country. Yet, the percentage of households without
healthcare is also the highest across OECD countries. Use theory and evidence to explain this dichotomy.
• Critically assess the cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Transport of London. Identify their most significant assumptions
and explain how they impact their conclusion about the scheme. Do you believe that the scheme was ultimately successful at
achieving its stated goals? Use theory and evidence to support your argument.
• Identify and explain the social welfare function used by Transport London in deciding the ultimate success or failure of the
congestion charge. How would their conclusions have changed if they had used other social welfare functions? Refer to two
other functions in your answer.
 How to approach writing the essay?
• (Imagine that) You are an economist being called on to give your expert view
• Use economic analysis to answer the question

• It will probably be a better essay if you argue a particular line

• Make it clear at the start where you are going in the essay
• In this essay I am going to examine ….
• In this essay I will argue that ……

• Your views should be based on economic theory, evidence

• You don’t have to cover everything that has ever been written on the topic. You will probably have to focus

• Make sure you answer the question

• Make sure that everything that follows is related (and links together)
 Introduction

• Doesn’t have to be long

• You only have 1,500 words. Don’t waste them.

• Should make it clear where the essay is going

• An economics essay is not a whodunit
 Body
• Draw on models, welfare analysis and evidence to make well-supported arguments
• Make sure all your points link together

• You need to show that you understand the material

• But the focus should be on applying the material, not replicate it directly from the lectures
• II:ii or III essays typically demonstrate gaps/ errors in understanding
• An essay that simply repeats lecture material is likely to get a II:ii

• Good essays apply the material to the specific question/ context

• Last year a lot of people wrote about minimum wage increases in general not an increase in the
national living wage (scale, scope)
 Body
• You need to look at a range of relevant evidence

• This means going beyond the core empirical papers

• There are suggested references in the course outline

• Feel free to follow-up (a few) other academic papers/ policy reports
• Policy reports may be more recent (good); they may not be so rigorous in terms of economic analysis (less good)
• Don’t try to cover so many sources that you lose sight of the main arguments
• You don’t need to go into the level of detail of the lectures/ part B questions
• Use findings from papers to support your arguments (comment briefly on method, internal
validity, external validity if it seems relevant).
 Reference
• Direct quotes are unusual in economics (outside HET)
• References can be used to substantiate a point
• Hoynes and Schanzenbach (2009) show that ….
• Schmidt (2009) argues that ….

• Also include in the references other papers you have looked at – even if not referred to explicitly

• Style of references
• In text (as above) with full list at the end of the essay
• http://www.citethisforme.com/harvard-referencing
 “How do I do well?” (UoB criteria)
• First class
• Excellent ..attainment of intended learning outcomes
• Ability to synthesise and employ ideas from across the subject
• Command of critical analysis and judgement
• Excellent presentation

• II(i)
• Attained all the intended learning outcomes for a unit
• Evidence of study, comprehension, and synthesis beyond the bounds of what has been explicitly
taught
• Able to employ critical analysis and judgement
• Very good presentation of material
• II(ii)
• Some limitations in attainment of learning objectives, but has managed to grasp most of them.
• Evidence of study and comprehension of what has been taught
• Some grasp of issues and concepts underlying the techniques and material taught
• Adequate presentation of material.

• III
• Limited attainment of intended learning outcomes.
• Evidence of study and comprehension of what has been taught, but grasp insecure.
• Poorly presented.
• Some grasp of the issues and concepts underlying the techniques and material taught, but weak and
incomplete
 Next steps
• Prepare an outline
• This should be NO MORE THAN ONE PAGE, 11 font
• It should have the points you want to cover and the main arguments you are going to make

• Deadline if you want any feedback is noon on 8th April

• Tutors will then arrange feedback sessions to discuss outlines
• You can hand in sooner and ask to receive feedback before this

• It’s a page, so tutors probably can’t tell you if you are going to get a first
• But they can point out some obvious issues and provide advice
• It should help you to plan for your essay