Country Report Project

General Guidelines

The country report project let us practice complex thinking, collecting information, analyzing data, and writing based on material from the class

Each group will choose a country and collect and analyze data regarding the country’s macroeconomic indicators and the status of its economy. Students will also be asked to collect some information regarding the United States. The group can have 1-4 members. The country must be chosen from the list provided at the end (see page 9), and the group must seek the professor’s approval. Only one group can work in each country, so nobody else can write about it once a group/person has registered a country with the professor. The students must email the professor regarding the group and the country by Sunday, Nov 3rd at 11:59 PM CST. The report is due Wednesday, Dec 4th, at 11:59 PM CST. Students should use a free plagiarism checker to ensure that 90% and above is their writing before submitting. A project similar to others/online sources would get a 0 grade. Use In-text citations and references when needed. No late submission will be graded.

Because you will be asked to collect some data, here are a few data sources to use: 

Wikipedia’ https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world–development–indicators; https://oec.world/en

Other sources: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/Basic; https://www.worldbank.org/; https://tradingeconomics.com/; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

Note: These sources are just a starting point. You are welcome to use other reputable sources that are suitable for the project.

Grading

The Country Report Project is a total of 100 points, and it is graded on two components: (1) the content of the report and (2) peer evaluation. For the first part, the grade will be distributed as described below. The second aspect refers to the student’s contribution to the report, which your team’s peer will measure. By the deadline, each group member will answer an anonymous survey in which they will evaluate their peers. The survey will be available on Monday, Dec 2nd.  Content of the Report – 90%

Peer Evaluation – 10%

The Country Report Project is 10% of your class final grade +5% extra points (based on your final project grade)

Format of the Paper                             

Make sure to cite all references correctly in your submission (use APA styles). Please, proofread your essay to remove any typos or mechanical errors. For your text, use the following elements: 

•        Font: Calibri or Arial. 

•        Font size: 11 or 12.

•        Line and Paragraph spacing: 1 or 1.5.

You submission should be a Word document or a PDF document.

Details of the Project

The submission must include responses to the questions and the filled-in tables.

I: Understanding the country’s characteristics (6 points)

•        Write a basic introduction of the country you chose (such as geography, ethnicity, history, etc.), and find out their 5 main trading partners and their trade restriction policies (e.g., tariff, quota, etc.) What currency do they use? No more than 2 paragraphs.

II: Collecting and Analyzing Data (34 points)

For the chosen country, find the information below and fill out the corresponding rows with the requested data in Table 1 below (page 4). Calculate when required.

•        Collecting data (14 points):  

o   Exchange Rate (2 points): Find the exchange rate between the country’s currency and USD. 

o   GDP (6 points): 

▪ Find the real GDP and population (2 points)

▪ Calculate GDP growth rate (2 points)

▪ Calculate GDP per capita. Then, calculate the GDP per capita growth rate. (2 points) o Unemployment (2 points): Find the country’s unemployment rate and labor force participation rate. 

o   Inflation (4 points): 

▪ Find the country’s CPI and inflation rate (2 points)

▪ In addition, calculate the inflation rate using the CPI you reported (2 points)

•        Comparing the data (10 points): Briefly compare the unemployment rate trend with the GDP growth rate and compare the inflation rate that you calculated with the inflation rate you found. No more than two paragraphs.

•        GDP per capita (5 points):  Is there a big difference between the GDP growth rate and the GDP per capita growth rate? No more than one paragraph.

•        Business Cycles (5 points): Identify whether the country has experienced business cycle changes through the years in the table. Identify the periods of expansion and recession. Justify your answer with the data you have found. No more than one paragraph.

Table 1

III: Economic Growth Relative to the United States (10 points)

For the US, find the information below and fill out the corresponding rows with the requested data in Table 2 below.

Calculate when required.

•        Collecting data:  

o Find the US real GDP per capita (2 points) o Calculate the GDP per capita growth rate (2 points)

•        Comparing the data (6 points): Based on the GDP per capita, how does Economic growth in the US compares to your chosen country?  No more than one paragraph

Table 2 – United States

IV: Economic growth and Standard of Living (35 points)

This part of the country report largely followed the activity presented in Maximova, A., Muchiri, S., & Paraschiv, M. (2023). For this, we will use information available on Dollar Street on Gapminder website, which presents picture and information of families around the world living at different levels of income.

Dollar Street can be accessed here: https://www.gapminder.org/dollar–street/matrix,

For both the US and your chosen country, you will select four households/families in Dollar Street at different levels of income (If any information is unavailable, just leave it blank). 

•        Family #1: a household/family living on an income less than $60/month.

•        Family #2: a household/family living on an income of $61 – $240 dollars/month. 

•        Family #3: a household/family living on an income of $241 – $960/ month. 

•        Family #4: a household/family living with an income of more than $960/month. 

To do so, you need to select the income level, which will then show you picture of a family or families who are said to live on this income level. Then, you can choose a family by clicking on the picture and, on the page that will open, click on “visit this home” (right-hand side of the screen next to the photo). In this page, you will be able to see the information of the family (e.g., income, access to necessities).  

Using the information for the family you selected, 

a)    (10 points; 5 each table) Fill out the tables before for your country (Table 3) and the US (Table 4). For each cell in the tables, fill out exact information whenever possible (i.e., country, family size, income) and write key words (e.g., no fridge, no processed food) that capture relevant information about the families in terms of the key characteristics (i.e., bedroom, kitchen/food, next big thing to purchase, health/personal hygiene).

Table 3 – Country Selected

Table 4 – United States

b)    Use the data collected to summarize/report the similarities and differences in living conditions for same income level households between the US and your selected country (5 points) No more than one paragraph.

c)     Comparing real GDP per capita and living conditions (20 points; 10 each sub question): 

i.            Contrast how similarities/differences in real GDP per capita correlate with similarities/ differences in living conditions within countries? Hint: compare households located on different income levels within the same country. No more than two paragraphs.

ii.          Contrast how similarities/differences in real GDP per capita correlate with similarities/ differences in living conditions across countries? Hint: compare households located at the same income level across countries. No more than two paragraphs.

Be sure to cite the references you use (5 points).

References:

Maximova, A., Muchiri, S., & Paraschiv, M. (2023). A Stroll Down the Dollar Street: Teaching Per-Capita GDP Using Internationally Comparable

Photographs. Journal of Economics Teaching, 8(2), 87-113. DOI: 10.58311/jeconteach/178c166014597b60b1f4b7463ef0d55842b8996b

List of Countries