ECONOMIC ISSUE BRIEF (6 points)
I. Introduction to the Assignment
A 2-page section of your 8-page Policy Memo (due at the end of the semester) will analyze your
country’s most important economic issue. To help you prepare that section of your Policy Memo,
you will be writing a 2-page Economic Issue Brief that will analyze your country’s most important
economic issue. Once you have submitted a draft and completed a revised Economic Issue
Brief, you will have 2-page section of your 8-page Policy Memo ready before the end of the
semester.
In your Economic Issue Brief, you will present and analyze the most salient economic problem
preoccupying the public, or government, currently. An economic problem is any important
economic event or crisis that is occurring in your country. Do not choose an overly broad issue.
You will have to define the problem and its contributing factors as specifically as possible.
II. How to I identify an important economic issue for my brief?
A. First, as you do research, keep in mind what your potential economic issue might be:
a. labor exploitation in a specific industry
b. taxation issues
c. currency devaluation or rapid inflation
d. corporate misconduct or monopolies
e. stock market crash
f. pension losses
g. labor strike
h. banking crisis
i. unemployment
j. medical debt
k. wage gaps or income inequality
l. infrastructure problems
m. famine and hunger
n. serious trade dispute with the US or another country
o. This is not a complete list, if you feel you have a economic problem that you are not sure is
one, contact me to discuss.
B. Next, explore current events in your country by doing a News media Article Search. You must
find 2 news articles on your economic issue for this brief anyway
a. Start with New York Times and use the search bar at the type in your country name
b. Refine your search results to the Americas section and limit the time period from 2010-2020
- From the search results, read the headlines and first few sentences of the top 10-15 articles
a. You may need to read more if you are not finding articles you think are relevant) - Is there an economic issue that stands out to you? Choose 1-2 to consider
c. Next, search the Wall Street Journal and use the search bar at the type in your country name
and the 1-2 economic issues you found in the New York Times
d. Refine your search results to the Americas section and limit the time period from 2010-2020 - From the search results, read the headlines and first few sentences of the top 10-15 articles
- Try to decide on one economic issue to write about for this Political Issue Brief
e. If you need to continue to search, repeat above steps but use new sources - NPR, Latin America section
i. https://www.npr.org/sections/latin-america/
ii. Free - The Guardian, Americas section
i. https://www.theguardian.com/world/americas
ii. Free - The Economist, Americas section
i. Access through Academic One File on the Hostos library website using your CUNYfirst login
ii. On the Hostos library homepage type in the Economist in the search bar>click on the
Economist>click on Academic One File link>use your CUNYfirst login
f. Make sure you have at least 2 articles on the same economic issue from the sources above
for this assignment - You can have any combination of the above sources: 2 NYT, 1 NYT + 1 WSJ, etc.
C. After your news media search, do a Peer-Reviewed Article Search (using the Hostos library
databases). You must find 1 peer-reviewed article on your economic issue - Look at this guide on how to search for peer-reviewed article:
https://guides.hostos.cuny.edu/c.php?g=551837&p=4859356 - Use country name and a specific economic issue area as your search terms
- You might have to try a different combination of keywords and limit the publication dates
- From the search results, read the abstracts of the top 10-15 search results
a. You may need to read more if you are not finding articles you think are relevant) - Choose one article to use for this assignment
D. As you write up this Economic Issue Brief, you may need more information to complete the
assignment, you might have to resume your news media and peer-review article search.
III. APA Style
A. Create an APA bibliography for your 3 articles to place at the end of your Economic Issue
Brief. Do this now before you start writing so you have the information you need to add in-text
citations within your Economic Issue Brief.
B. Review how to paraphrase and put in APA in-text citations for anything you use from your
sources that is not common knowledge
C. If you are using the textbook or other course materials, you must cite them in APA style and
include them in the bibliography
IV. Components of your Economic Issue Brief
A. Introduce and outline the economic issue - Discuss the scope of the problem.
- Is the problem statewide, national, or international? How many people does this issue affect?
Daily? Annually?
B. Describe how this economic problem emerged and how it is being addressed currently by the
government - You should consult your textbook for the historical part of this section
- Then, include any information you have about how the government is acting or not acting
towards this issue
C. Discuss who is are the key actors in this issue. This means what parts of the government, the
private sector, and/or the public are affected by this political problem. - Identify the primary group being affected
- Who does this issue affect? Adult women? College-educated men? Children from? Native
populations? Public at large?
D. Propose a preliminary political solution(s) to this economic issue - A political solution must involve some kind of government action like passing a law, signing a
treaty, funding a program, etc - This does not have to be original. You can use any ideas proposed by the articles you found
or textbook/course materials
V. Tasks to Complete:
A. Find 2 news media and 1 scholarly peer-reviewed source about your economic problem
using the guides above.
B. Write up your Economic Issue Brief, a minimum of 500 words (not including headers, title,
and bibliography)
C. Use in-text citations and include an APA style bibliography of all of your sources and list in
last name alphabetical order with the correct spacing and indentation for each entry.
D. Upload your Economic Issue Brief as a PDF or Word doc to Blackboard DUE April 10th for
an on-time submission. Late submissions accepted with late penalties until April 24th.
VI. Grading Rubric: The full rubric with point breakdown can be found on Blackboard