OLET1143- How Economic Policy Remade Australia - Final Assignment
You are required to submit an essay of 1000 words and a five minute recorded presentation sum-
marising your main findings by 19 April 2024, 23:59.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has increased the cash rate to 4.35%, the highest level since late-
2011. The high cash rate has been affecting the Australian economy and financial markets.
You have been asked by the government to prepare a short essay and a brief presentation using
economic arguments to provide an economic outlook for Australia in the upcoming years. In your
answer, you should discuss the following:
A. What are the main reasons why the RBA has increased, and maintained, the interest
rate in the Australian Economy?
Use relevant model(s) and monetary/fiscal policy for your discussion
B. How would these interest rate increases impact the Australian economy including con-
sumption, investments, trade and labour market? Use AD-AS model in your discussion
C. Provide background on the level of inflation from 2021 to 2023. How did the RBA’s
assessment of future inflation levels adjust over this period?
D. Was the course of action taken by the RBA correct? In hindsight, should the RBA have
acted differently? Explain why or why not.
E. What is your expectation about the future path of the interest rate and the economic
outlook for Australia in the upcoming years?
In your answer you should use economic arguments drawing on the lessons learnt in OLET1143.
Below are a series of starter references that may be useful in considering each of the issues to be
discussed listed above.
The current state of the Australian economy:
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/annual-reports/rba/2023/pdf/
rba-annual-report-2023.pdf
Monetary policy and economic outlook in Australia
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/smp/2024/feb/
Financial stability https://www.rba.gov.au/fin-stability/
The Transmission of Monetary Policy
https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/pdf/the-transmission-of-monetary-policy.
pdf?v=2024-04-07-17-26-49
You are also encouraged to undertake other independent research and draw on the resources
that have been provided throughout the course of OLET1143.
1
Guidelines: Essay
• The essay should be at most 1000 words.
• The essay should follow the following structure:
Title Page:
A title page that includes the title of the essay and student ID (not included in word
count).
I. Introduction
Issue and Facts and Context – the current state of Australian economy and interest rate.
II. What are the main reasons for the high interest rate in the Australian economy?
Use relevant model(s) and monetary/fiscal policy for your discussion.
This section must contain a discussion of main causes of the high interest rate. You
should use relevant model(s) and policies for your discussion.
Include graphs where relevant.
III. How would these interest rate increases impact the Australian economy including
consumption, investments, trade and labour market? Use AD-AS model in your
discussion.
IV. Provide background on the level of inflation from 2021 to 2023. How did the RBA’s
assessment of future inflation levels adjust over this period?
V. Was the course of action taken by the RBA correct? In hindsight, should the RBA
have acted differently? Explain why or why not.
VI. What is your expectation about the future path of the interest rate and the eco-
nomic outlook for Australia in the upcoming years?
VII. Conclusion (50 words recommended)
References[This section is not included in the word count] This section should list
the references used in the paper. Use APA reference and citation style (7th edition). For
more information about the APA reference and citation style, please refer to the APA
7th referencing guide, which is available on the Canvas site and on the USyd Library’s
APA style site: https://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/citation/apa7
Below is a simple example of an in-text reference and a reference list entry:
In-Text Reference:
[...] In contract to most other introductory microeconomics textbooks, Nguyen and
Wait (2016) discuss all economic concepts in a very concise manner. [...]
Reference List:
Nguyen, B. & Wait, A. (2016). Essentials of Microeconomics.
London, UK: Taylor & Francis
Submission Instructions: Essays must be submitted electronically via the Turnitin submis-
sion inbox on Canvas by 23:59 on 19 April 2024.
2
Guidelines: Presentation
• The presentation should be a 5 minute recording which presents the main findings of the
essay.
– Students are not required to have their face recorded during the presentation. Simply
their voice over the presentation.
• The structure of the presentation should be as follows:
Slide 1: Title Page
Slide 2: Introduction of their essay
Slide 3-6: Summary of main findings.
Slide 7: Discussion of any use of AI tools to improve essay.
• Please be advised that we are aware of the use of AI tools by students in assignments. We
encourage you to demonstrate in the presentation how these tools have assisted you in pro-
ducing high quality work.
• For recording your presentation, I recommend entering a zoom call and using the share
screen function to display your slides. You can then record yourself providing the presenta-
tion and upload this recording.
Submission Instructions: Presentations must be submitted electronically via the Turnitin
submission inbox on Canvas by 23:59 on 19 April 2024.
3
Grading the Essays
• The essay represents 30% of your final grade for OLET1143
• Essays will be graded on the basis of the substantive arguments you make, along with the
clarity of your exposition. The discussion that you set out may be enhanced by any research
that you refer to in your paper. We would encourage you to search for other relevant infor-
mation about the question. Government reports and academic research papers are a good
place to look.
• Your discussion should draw on the economic concepts and reasoning that have been devel-
oped in this unit.
Grading the Presentation
• The presentation represents 10% of your final grade for OLET1143
• Presentations will be graded on the basis of the quality of presentation and how well the
students are able to highlight the key findings of their essay.
• Particular emphasis on students showing a capability to enhance the presented material of
their presentation within the slides by providing additional verbal context to their findings.
• Graders will stop marking presentations after the 6 minute mark.
4
Rubric
Essays will be graded using the following grading table:
1) Content and Organization Score
Essay is 1000 words maximum (excluding references) /5
Issue and Facts and Context – the current state of Australian economy and
interest rate.
Discussion addresses issues listed. Discussion is clear, persuasive, and
cites sources of information that are appropriate. There is evidence of
research.
/10
Discussions of main questions listed in the guidelines above
The discussion uses appropriate economic concepts and reasoning to set
out a logical reasoned argument
/70
Conclusion /5
2) Grammar and Mechanics
Sentences are well constructed, in terms of style, logical organization,
clarity, and succinctness. There are few grammatical/spelling errors
/5
References are correctly formatted, accurately represent the source mate-
rial, and comprehensive
/5
3) Presentation
Presentation summarises the main findings of essay /10
The presentation is engaging and the presenters provide additional discus-
sion on top of the material present in the slides
/10
If AI use is detected, the students present a discussion of how AI was
utilised to improve their essay
/5
Presentation is timed well to be roughly 5 minutes. /5