ECO

Project:

For your macro project you need to pick a state. There will be a discussion board on D2L in the project module where you can list the state that you picked. Each state can only be used once, so please check before posting to make sure someone else hasn’t already posted the state you wanted to choose.

1. Find the unemployment rates for this state from Jan 2007 to Jan 2018 (each month)

2. Put this information into an excel chart and then graph this information – please ask if you are unsure on how to do this. There is an example on D2L. Your graphs do not need to be “fancy”, just show how unemployment has changed in your state over the years with 2 or 3 graphs.

3. Use this information to write a word document that addresses business cycles, unemployment, gross domestic product, inflation, consumer spending/saving, and monetary policy. You can find potential areas to look at in these categories below.

A. Looking at what is currently happening with the Coronavirus, what do you expect to happen to the unemployment rate nationally and in your state? If there is new unemployment data released, it would good to include that new information. Do you think that Coronavirus has impacted certain markets more than others (unemployment rates): food, healthcare, etc? How are the “essential” vs “non essential” businesses effected in terms of unemployment rates? Are we seeing changes in any of the three types of unemployment rates we discussed in class? Do you feel there will be a potential change in the business cycles resulting from the spread of Coronavirus?

B. What is the main type of business in your state, manufacturing, agriculture, etc? Given what is taking place and your explanation in part A, what do you think is happening to production in your state and Gross Domestic Product for the US? Do you think we will see an increase or decrease in overall GDP in the coming year? You could look at production of certain goods and services to back up your ideas here.

C. Given the information you provided in part A, B, and what you have learned in class, what do you think will happen to inflation in the near future? We will discuss different types of inflation in chapter 7, what do you think we are the most likely to experience and how will that effect consumers and the overall economy?

D. A stimulus package is being released to help both consumers and businesses. In chapters 8 and 9 we look at how consumer and business spending can affect the economy, why was this stimulus package put into place (you must explain more than to help the businesses and consumers)? Given what you know from chapter 9, explain why this is being done using economic terms.

E. Given the information you provided in parts A, B, C, and D how do you feel this would affect monetary policy actions? Actions were taken early on by the Federal Reserve, what were these actions and do you agree with them? If you were a member of the Federal Reserve, what would you have done in terms of monetary policy given what you have found?

4. Tie all the concepts together at the end of your paper to have a strong conclusion on what is currently happening in the economy given the ever changing environment due to the Coronavirus.

5. Have a works cited for the sources you used. Also make sure to have in text citations. Remember if the information is not common knowledge or direct statistics, you need to have in text citations. A lot of the information in your paper can be opinion, but you will have to have resources to back up your thoughts and these sources need to come from reputable places.

All requirements(paper length, number of sources, etc) and due dates/late penalties and plagiarism information remain the same as your other paper option that is listed in the class syllabus.