Comparative Advantages , Poverty, and Trade : A Socio -Economic Argumentative Essay

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Project Link:
•
https://comtrade.un.org/pb/downloads/2017/VolI2017.pdf
•
Content:
The International Trade Statistics Yearbook 2017
•
Publisher:
United Nations’ Statistics Division –
Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
How to read the report
:
•
Open the above link, and download the PDF file to your computer.
•
When you skim reading the report you will notice the following:
o
Starting
page number “
1” you find “Part 1”, which shows the
merchandise trade profiles for the world (regional and
selected trade or economic groupings).
o
Starting  page  31
(index  of  countries)  until  page
371,  the  report  provides  a  country  by  country  trade
profile,
alphabetically
, for most countries in the world.
o
In
each country’s trade profile,
there exist summary profile on the first page, and at the end of the page you can see
“Table 1” which shows each country’s
“
top 10 export commodities
”
for the different  periods  
between 2015 and
2017.
Project File:
•
In D2L (under Content), you can find tab called “Project”, under this “Project” tab you can find a file named “UN Table 1.”
This PDF file includes data on selected countries with different percentages of poverties (poverty gap) for the year 2015.
The Proj
ect:
•
You  will  have  to  write  a  socio
-economic  essay  on  the  link  between  different  poverty  levels  of  different  countries  and  the  
countries’ comparative advantages of different products, or group of products.
Step
-by
-Step Instructions (Mandatory):
(
required to pass the project
).
•
Compare at least 1
0 countries of your choice
with different poverty gaps
(preferred: include both developed and developing
countries).
•
Investigate  whether  
there
exists
a  trend  between  the  change  in
the  poverty  gaps
 (%)  and  the
specific  products  that  the  
country exports the most (In this project you always assume that countries export most the products in which they enjoy
comparative advantages in producing them.
•
Conduct an academic literature review on your analysis
(required
: at least three academic articles).
•
Using your own
conducted
literature review, explain why such trends
exist or do
-not
-exist.
•
Use your analysis to investigate
which are the most significant products that high
-poverty countries export?
which are the
most significant products that low
-poverty countries export, which are the most significant products that medium
-poverty
countries export, and try to investigate if there is a trend. Compare your analysis by your findings from the literature review.
•
Do not use the
“top 10 imported
commodities”
in the International Trade Statistics Yearbook 2017 (usually table 4 at the
end  of  the  country-
by-
country  profiles),  as  some  countries  may  still  import  products  with  high  rate  of  comparative  
advantages du
e to other reasons.
•
You will have to provide table(s) and/or chart(s) that show your summary of the countries you have selected. Be creative.
•
Close to the end of the project, explain how your analysis depended
on
your understanding of the textbook’s materials (only
required topics of chapter 2 and chapter 1
5).    Textbook:
Principles of M
icroeconomics
, 7th edition, by Robert H. Frank, Ben
Bernanke, Kate Antonovics, and Ori Heffetz. McGraw-
Hill Education, 2018.
•
Minimum
of 2500 words
is required
, excluding the
abstract, titles
, charts, and tables
. An abstract is optional.
•
In  your  writing,  presume  that  the  reader  never  took  an  economics  class.  When  talking  about  certain  definition  or  topic,  
assume the reader have never learn
ed about it before, therefore, do not forget to define your terms, explain them (at least
briefly), and never assume that the reader knows!

Required Format:
•
Strictly use the same format of one of your reviewed studies.
Important Hints:
1.
Read
online about how to conduct an “argumentative essay
.”
2.
Every research has a research problem, so s
tart by identifying
the research problem. The research problem is
telling the reader why this essay is important to read. You can use recent trends in trade to
justify the research
problem, or maybe a recent change in global competitiveness that has major impacts on the economies you
are analyzing, in which your essay is imposing important analysis and significant findings.
In the very beginning
of your introduc
tion, try to get the reader attentive to your research problem.
3.
You  can  choose  your  own  essay’s  title  that  relates  to  the  rule  of  socio
-economic  measures  in  global  
competitiveness,  or  simply  use  the  title  of  the  project  as  your  essay’s  title.  The  tile  of  the  project  is  
”
Comparative Advantages, Poverty, and Trade: A Socio-
Economic Argumentative Essay.
”
4.
” If using your own topic, make your topic as focused as possible, and avoid using broad or far-
reaching topics.
5.
You need to look at many published
academic  articles,  not  articles  published  in  journals  like  The  New  York  
Times,  or  similar  journals.  Then  review  the  articles  that  are  as  close  to  your  topic  as  it  can  get.  To  find  the  
published academic articles, use academic search engines such as:
https://scholar.google.com/
https://www.jstor.org/
6.
Use the structure of the citation exactly matching the paper or journal you chosen to follow its format. For
example, either “Sa
m  et  al.,  2000”  or  “Sam,  David,  and  Tom,  2000”,  or  any  other  known  academic  citation  
used in social sciences.
7.
Do not use strong claims without proper citation, even if it makes a lot of logic to you.
8.
Do  not  claim  accuracy  of  a  statement  or  an  idea  simply  b
ecause  it  was  mentioned,  or  even  proven,  by  the  
literature.
9.
Do  not  forget  about  the  rules  of  assumptions,  where  you  can  observe  concepts  varying  when  changing  the  
model assumptions.
10.
Do not ever forget to quote in bold text when you retype a statement from
of a reference. For example; Sam
et  el.,  2000  define  this  word  as  
“social  and  behavioral  aspect  of  any  topic.”
 As  you  see,  the  statement  is  
quoted in bold text.
11.
You have to use the rule of microeconomics by
not
analyzing the total trade of all goods and s
ervices between
the  economies,  you  will  have  to  select  few  products
 or  specific  type  of  products.  For  example,  the  
international market for ice cream, or international market frozen desserts in general.
12.
You do not have to use the most recent data or articl
es, but try to relate your work to more recent data
(such
as academic articles published after the year 2012)
.
13.
Make sure to use clear wordings, avoid syntax errors, and use correct punctuations.
14.
Do not retype same statement over and over again in different
structures.
15.
Revise  your  work  more  than  one  time,  as  many  times  as  possible.  You  will  always  see  something  to  adjust  
every time you revise your work. This is a continuous process in practical research, and the more revising you
do, the better the work you
will produced.
16.
Draw an outline in the beginning, and end up with a draft before typing the project.
17.
Use prime times of the day to work in your essay.
18.
It is good to have
subtitles in your essay
.  
19.
While  working  on  the  project,  avoid  printing/considering  the  whole  report.  Only  print/consider  required  
pages. For example, only print the individual front profile pages for the selected countries (one front
-page for
each country).
20.
Read the grading rubrics to know how your project will be evaluated. Maximum points for the project equal
100 points.

Specific Objective(s):
•
Read online about how to conduct an
“argumentative essay.”
•
Analyze a narrowed topic related to
“the rule of socio
-economic measures in
international
trade
.
”
•
Collect references of at least three published academic studies on the topic.
•
Identify the main argument(s) of the essay.
•
Discuss whether the argument(s) being the same and/or different among the collected literature.
•
Recognize the rule of assumptions in modeling and a
rgumentative perceptions.
•
Discuss how the argument(s) may change under different assumptions/environments.
•
Use
the
learning form
Chapters 2 and 1
5
to analyze comparative advantages
and
international trade.
Foundational Component Area (FCA)
:
•
“Social &
Behavioral Sciences”
– ECO
N 2302
– Microeconomics
Core Objective(s):
•
Critical Thinking (CT
H)
– This is a sub
-objective of the
Intellectual and Practical Objective
– Critical thinking is a habit
of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating
an opinion or conclusion.
Definition Source:
https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/critical
-thinking
•
Written  Communication
(WRC)
–  This  is  a  sub
-objective  of  the  
Intellectual  and  Practical  Objective  
–  Written
communication is the development and expression of ideas in writing. Written communication invo
lves learning to work in
many genres and styles. It can involve working with many different writing technologies, and mixing texts, data, and images.
Written communication abilities develop through iterative experiences across the curriculum
.
Definition Source
:
https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/written
-communication
•
Quantitative  Literacy
 (QL
)
–  This  is  a  sub
-objective  of  the  
Intellectual  and  Practical  Objective  
–
also  known  as  
Numeracy or Quantitative Reasoning (QR) –
is a “habit of mind,” competency, and comfort in working with numerical data.
Individuals with strong QL skills possess the ability to reason and solve quantitat
ive problems from a wide array of authentic
contexts  and  everyday  life  situations.  They  understand  and  can  create  sophisticated  arguments  supported  by  quantitative  
evidence  and  they  can  clearly  communicate  those  arguments  in  a  variety  of  formats  (using  wor
ds,  tables,  graphs,  
mathematical equations, etc., as appropriate).
Definition
Source
:
https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/quantitative
-literacy
•
Intercultural Knowledge and Competence
(IKC)
– This is a sub
-objective of the
Social Responsibility
Objective
–
Intercultural Knowledge and Competence is “a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support
effective  and  appropriate  interaction  in  a  variety  of  cultural  contexts.”  (Bennett,  J.  M.  2008.  Transformative  training:  
Designing  programs  for  culture  learning.  In
Contemporary
 leadership
and
intercultural
 competence:
 Understanding
and
utilizing
cultural
diversity
to build
successful
organizations
, ed. M. A. Moodian, 95
-110. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.)
Definition Source:
https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/intercultural
-knowledge