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ECO2001
ECONOMIC GROWTH
FINAL ESSAY ASSIGNMENT:
ANALYSING LONG-RUN ECONOMIC GROWTH
(50% of overall module mark)
Deadline: Friday 16th December 2022 (Week 13) by 11.59pm
Submission: Canvas
Word Limit: 1500 words (give or take 10% and excluding bibliography.
Graphs do not count towards the word count)
Referencing: Harvard system
ASSIGNMENT AIMS & INSTRUCTIONS
This assignment will develop writing and analysis skills using real-world data in a
case study format. It will assess how well you understand and can communicate the
different factors influencing economic growth over the long run. You will be required
to submit an essay based on a case study of long-run economic growth in one country
of your choice. You are free to choose any country except for the countries on this list
(as these have been covered to a greater or lesser extent in class):
1. Sweden
2. Argentina
3. Chile
4. Spain
5. Japan
6. United Kingdom
7. Northern Ireland
8. China
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While you are free to choose any other country you wish for your analysis, you should
be mindful of data availability before you choose a country to ensure adequate data
is available to complete the assignment.
Criteria for Assessment
• Essays should make full use of empirical evidence (using Our World in Data or
other sources), theoretical support (covered in the course e.g. the Solow Model
and its extensions) and relevant literature to identify, describe and understand
the proximate and ultimate causes of long-run economic growth in your
chosen country over the last 100 years (approx.).
• Essays should demonstrate a clear understanding of the relevant course
content and the ability to critically evaluate the material. Excellent essays will
do this in a way that goes beyond the course content and reading materials.
• In doing this, you are free to use comparative analysis (comparing to other
countries in the past or contemporaneously).
• The final section before the conclusion should provide some policy
recommendations for government or development bodies to increase or
maintain the rate of economic growth. These recommendations should be
based on your analysis.
• Writing should be clear and concise and the essay should be logically
structured. The word count is intentionally low to encourage clear and concise
writing and discourage the inclusion of less relevant material. As the quote
goes, “I wrote you a long letter because I didn’t have time to write you a short
one”.
• The essay should have a standard structure in that it should contain an
introduction, conclusion, correct referencing and a bibliography.
The essay will be assessed holistically based on the elements above and the QUB
Conceptual Equivalents scale.
Your first draft should not be your submitted essay. Please make sure to revise and
redraft a number of times before final submission. This will greatly improve the
quality of your writing. The best advice on writing that I ever received was to “write
without fear, edit without mercy”.
You should be aware of the QUB regulations regarding plagiarism and other academic
offences and should take care to reference appropriately. Some guidance on avoiding
plagiarism is available here.
Best of luck!

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