Guidelines for paper                   Econ 5

 

DUE: 5/5/2008

 

LENGTH 2-3  pages, double spaced, (10 or 12 font) 

 

Please prepare your paper in the form of a policy brief.  Write the brief as if you were addressing a policy maker, and informing him or her about a particular issue. In your paper:

  1. Draw on the articles to identify and describe the main issues related to your topic.
  2. Identify the economic concepts  (public goods, externalities, taxes, monopoly power, supply and demand factors, elasticity, equity, efficiency, etc.) discussed in class that are relevant to your readings.
  3. Discuss who the winners and losers are in the case of the status quo.
  4. Identify policy prescriptions recommended by the authors.

 

You may choose from the following four topics, and should use ALL the readings listed below (although if you have other material you are also welcome to reference it as well):

 

1. Globalization.

           a. Chapter Three of UNDP Human Development Report, 1999

            http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1999/en/pdf/hdr_1999_ch3.pdf (assigned for class)

            b. UN, Overview of UNDP Human Development Report, 1998, "Changing today's consumption patterns - for tomorrow's human development"

            http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_1998_overview.pdf (assigned for class)

            c. “Know-Nothings And Know-It-Alls - What's Wrong With The Hype About Globalization,” by Jessica Collins and John Miller

            http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2000/0900collins.html

            d. Genetic Engineering and the Privitization of Seeds by Anuradha Mittal and Peter Rosset

            http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2001/0301mittal.html (assigned for class)

e. Cigarettes - Global Value Chains

http://www.duke.edu/web/soc142/team11/globalvaluechain.htm (assigned for class)

f. Global Media

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1406

g. Stiglitz articles (see my web page for links)

h. Alternatives to Corporate Globalization
http://www.ifg.org/programs/alternatives.htm

 

2. Economics of Sports

            a. Supply and Demand: An Economist Goes to the Superbowl, by Alan Krueger

            http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/review/2001_6/22-29.pdf

            b. Sports, Jobs, & Taxes: Are New Stadiums Worth the Cost? by Roger G. Noll and Andrew Zimbalist             http://www.brook.edu/press/review/summer97/noll.htm

            c.  Public Teams, Private Profits, by D. Stanley Eitzen,

            http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2000/0300eitzen.html

            d.Teen Herbicide, By Chris Mooney, Mother Jones, May/June 2003

            http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2003/05/ma_378_01.html

            e. The Puzzling Economics of Sports, by Allen R. Sanderson

            http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2004/Sandersonsports.html

           

3. Drug legalization:

a. Don’t Legalize Drugs, by Theodore Dalrymple

http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_2_a1.html

b. Drug Control or Biowarfare? By Sharon Stevenson and Jeremy Bigwood, Mother Jones, May 2000.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/05/coca.html

c. Drug Legalization? Time for Real Debate, by Paul Stares

http://www.brookings.edu/press/review/spring96/stares.htm

d.The Fumigation Programme of Plan Colombia, by the Transnational Institute

http://www.tni.org/drugscolombia-docs/plan-e.htm
e. USA: Critics Detail Risks of Colombian Coca Spraying, by Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=4229

f. Teen Herbicide, By Chris Mooney, Mother Jones, May/June 2003

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2003/05/ma_378_01.html

 

4. The Environment

a. Behind Gold's Glitter (see class web page for link)

b. e. USA: Critics Detail Risks of Colombian Coca Spraying, by Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=4229

c. Gas tax now!

http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/mankiw/files/may99.html

d. NJPP Reports on Gas tax

http://www.njpp.org/rpt_gastax.html

e. UN data on the environment

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/qindicators.htm

f.Sierra Club, "Drilling For Oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Won't Address National Security or Consumer Needs," http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/arctic/oilfactsheet.asp

g. Chapter Six of UNDP Human Development Report, 2003
http://www.undp.org/hdr2003/pdf/hdr03_chapter_6.pdf

h. Denmark Shows the Way, by Laurie Dougherty http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/1997/0597dougherty.html