ECON928 – Fundamentals of Economics

Comparative Economic Analysis

Aim: Each student has to carry out a Comparative Economic Analysis on behalf of a
market research company on the description and comparison of the economies of
the UAE and Australia or Norway.

You are working for a market research company that specialises in the economic
analysis of different nations. You just have been assigned to the research department
and your first assignment is to write a quantitative research paper about the
determinants of and difference between the economics of the UAE and either
Australia or Norway.

You are supposed to support your qualitative arguments with real-life economic data
from one or more of the data sources your supervisor supplied you with, see below.
That is, you are to find economic characteristics of two economies by selecting a
limited number of variables which best describe their similarities and differences.

Your supervisor suggests that you obtain data, describe its characteristics, and
interpret their values in order to present a picture of the real economy as straight
forward as possible. He also mentions that he needs you to link the data to some of
the qualitative research you have been doing on these countries.

He mentions that another important link is to discuss the current economic climate of
these countries. That is, what are the any economic trends going on, how the growth
rate has been behaving, what are the future prospects, etc.

Your supervisor gives you free range in terms of the economic focus of the study.
That is, he lets you decide whether you want to analyse the economy from a(n):
a) human
b) social
c) business
d) finance
e) economic
f) development
perspective.
Assessment Task Major Assignment: Comparative Analysis
Type Individual
Topic Describe and compare the economies of the UAE and Australia
Marking Criteria Critical analysis 55%; research depth 30%; presentation/creativity 15%
Length 3,000 to 4,000 words
Weighting 30%
Due date:
- Turnitin: NO later than 6pm Wednesday, the 22nd of June (Week 11) in Turnitin
Other information Data sources and hints are published on lecture slides of week 6
Assessment Major Assignment – Report
Objective of the The objective of the assignment is to contribute to the learning outcomes
assignment for this subject by providing practice in:

(a) Researching the economic characteristics of two economies, and

selecting a limited number of variables which best describe their
similarities and differences.

(b) Obtaining data describing those characteristics, interpreting and

presenting them clearly and simply as a ‘picture’ of a real economy – data
will be accessed from Zawya and World Bank databases.

(c) Researching critical background on the two economies in order to

explain their current economic situation and suggest their likely future
states.

(d) Using this material to illustrate the factors at work in the two
economies, focusing on the differences and similarities between them, and
what this may suggest in terms of their respective business environments.
Coverage of 1, 3, 4, and 5
learning outcomes
Main data sources

Data:
1. World Development Indicators:
http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators

2. Zawya (Note: you will only be able to access this on campus)

http://www.zawya.com/cs/wollongongUni/

Economic Information:
• Central Bank UAE website
• The Economist
• Gulf Business
• Middle East Economic Digest
• Financial Times
• Harvard Business Review (HBR)
• Asian Wall Street Journal
• Far Eastern Economic Review
• Business Review Weekly

Additional Sources:
• Google Scholar – www.scholar.google.com (for more academic material)
• World Trade Organization (WTO) - www.wto.org
• UNCTAD - www.unctad.org
• World Bank - www.worldbank.org
• IMF - www.imf.org
• Asian Development Bank - www.adb.org
• Gulf Research Centre - www.grc.ae
• OECD - www.oecd.org
• UN - http://www.un.org/esa/progareas/trade.html
• PENN World Tables -
http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt62/pwt62_form.php
• Middle East Economic Survey - http://www.mees.com/
• Arab Monetary Fund - http://www.amf.org.ae/pages/page.aspx
• Arabian Business - www.arabianbusiness.com
• MENA Global Development Network -
http://www.gdnet.org/middle.php?oid=264
• GCC - http://www.gcc-sg.org/eng/index.php
• Peterson Institute for International Economics - http://www.iie.com/
• The Emirates Economist - http://emirateseconomist.blogspot.com/
• The McKinsey Quarterly - http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/home.aspx