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Essay: Markets in Action
Maximum 1,300 words — 35% of the course final mark due by
4:00pm, Friday 31 October 2025
Choose a real-world market and a real-world company that operates in that market. Write a
1,300-word essay using the tools of economic analysis describing and explaining how a recent or
upcoming domestic and/or international government policy could affect the company, its
consumers and, if applicable, broader social welfare. Graphs and figures should be included if
they support your analysis. You should summarise your analysis in a single paragraph in your
essay’s conclusion. Finally, you should briefly criticise your analysis, emphasising its strengths
and weaknesses for understanding and providing policy guidance in the real world. Provide a
properly formatted references section (not a bibliography) for all cited claims. You must write
the essay using the template provided. Failure to do so will attract a penalty.
Your essay must be saved as a Word document and submitted via the Turnitin assignment
folder on the ECON7002 Blackboard website by the due date and time.
This is an exercise in which, among other outcomes, you need to demonstrate your independence
in identifying and conducting an economic analysis of a relevant company+market+policy
scenario. All information you need is contained in this instruction sheet.
1.1Task Details
1) Briefly describe the nature and characteristics of your chosen company.
2) Briefly describe the prevailing market structure including (as applicable) relevant demand
side and supply-side elasticities, externalities, public goods features, price controls, taxes,
tariffs, subsidies, trade quotas and/or any other forces relevant to market efficiency and the
firm’s competitiveness.
3) Briefly describe the recently enacted or upcoming domestic and/or international government
policy facing the market.
4) Describe the announced reason and some other potentially plausible (possibly unannounced)
reasons why the government might want to enact the policy.
5) Using the tools of economic analysis, explain how the announced government intervention
will achieve its stated aims. Depending on the intervention, the analysis in both
macroeconomics as well as microeconomics perspectives may be required. For example, if
you use the macroeconomic policy such as unemployment benefits to analyse, then the
macroeconomic impacts must be discussed.
6) Note any unintended consequences of the policy, briefly describing how they might arise.
7) List and briefly describe any other reasonable means the government possesses for achieving
its stated aims. Include a short statement with each describing its likely market and welfare
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impacts. Explain why the government chose to implement its announced policy instead of
adopting another approach.
8) Find and briefly describe a real-life example of an essentially similar government intervention
in an essentially similar market at any time previously anywhere in the world. Did that
intervention produce its intended results? How can that example be used to inform your
economic analysis in item 5, above?
9) Conclude your essay with a critical reflection about how useful your economics approach is
for understanding and providing policy guidance in the analysed situation in the real world.
1.2Clarifications and Guidelines
• Item 5 is the centrepiece of your work.
• Market structure describes the conditions of the market, e.g., whether it is perfectly
competitive, a monopoly, monopolistic competition, or an oligopoly.
– You must clearly state the market structure on which you are basing your analysis. –
Justify your statement of the market structure model you use.
• Except for monopsonies and oligopsonies, you can choose a firm operating in any market
structure for your essay.
• Use proper and consistent referencing style, including in your citations. You need to provide
any in-text citation wherever applicable. You need to follow one of the referencing styles on
UQ Library’s web site. Guidelines for correct referencing techniques can be found in the UQ
library, which can be accessed on the website https://guides.library.uq. edu.au/referencing.
• Your essay’s word count must not exceed 1,300 words. Your word count excludes material
included in tables, figures, graphs and your essay’s References list. ALL other content
including section headings and in-text references are counted. You must indicate the word
counts in each section as per the template and ensure of the maximum 1,300 words in total.
• You will benefit by using diagrams similar to those presented in the course and textbook.
These should be fully and correctly labelled. Appropriate use of diagrams is essential for
receiving high marks.
The assignment is due by 4:00pm on Friday 31 October 2025. Unless prior agreement for
late submission has been formally provided by the Course Administrator, essays submitted
after the due date and time will be penalised according to the section 5.3 of the ECON7002
Electronic Course Profile. A description of the process required for obtaining an Extension
of Assessment Due Date can be found in section 6.1 of the ECON7002 Electronic Course
Profile.
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• Try to upload your assignment a few hours before the deadline since Blackboard and
Turnitin system overloads can occur close to the deadline time.
1.3Frequently Asked Questions
(a) What is a “recent or upcoming policy”?
A recent or upcoming policy is a policy that has been introduced in the last 12 months, i.e.,
15 August 2024 or later, or that is planned for the near future. The abolition within the
last 12 months or planned abolition of a government policy also counts as a recent or
upcoming policy.
(b) Does the market and company I choose have to be Australian?
No. However, all references must be in English (i.e., if you list a website, journal or
newspaper article as a reference that supports your description of a foreign market, it must
be in English).
(c) I do not have the data to exactly plot the aggregate demand/supply curve in my market. What
can I do?
In almost all cases, you will not have the time or resources to gather the data to exactly plot
the aggregate demand and supply curves for your market.1 Therefore, your figures will be
mostly qualitative rather than quantitative in nature.

The quantitative figure above exactly specifies where the demand and supply curves lie,
whereas the mostly qualitative figure only specifies that the equilibrium price is 2, but leaves
open the exact slopes of D and S, etc. The qualitative figure is nonetheless useful:
e.g., by demonstrating that D and S still satisfy the laws of demand and supply, depicting
relative price elasticities of demand and supply, etc.

1 Of course, if you can access such data, that is fantastic!
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Despite the absence of detailed information, qualitative figures allow you to draw important
conclusions. E.g., you may be able to conclude from your qualitative figures that after the
government intervention, the market price will fall and consumer surplus will increase, or
that the burden of a tax might fall unevenly on suppliers or consumers, even though you will
not be able to determine by exactly how many dollars the price will fall, exactly how the tax
burden will be split, or by exactly how many dollars consumer or producer surplus will
change.
(d) Do I have to format my essay in a particular way?
Yes. Please use the template.
• Include your personal name, your family name and your student ID number on top
section. Also indicate the word counts in each section. Your word count should exclude
material included in tables, figures, graphs and your essay’s References section.
• Use 1.5 line spacing or double line spacing.
• Fonts must be easily readable, including those used for figure captions.
(e) My essay is 1,305 words long. Do I have to cut it down to 1,300 words?
Yes, you have to. We are strict with the word limit.
(f) How do I submit my essay?
Instructions for the submission of the essay via Turnitin will be posted on blackboard closer
to the submission deadline. The submission will be electronic in Word format only (no
hardcopies or pdf format).
(g) The Turnitin “similarity report” shows a similarity of x%. Is this still acceptable?
Short answer: I do not know. Long answer: The similarity report is a tool that assists essay
graders in recognising if a part of your essay has been plagiarised. In some cases, the report
mistakenly picks up passages that have been correctly cited. In other cases, the report fails to
pick up plagiarised passages. If your similarity score is 0% but you plagiarised and it is
discovered by another method, I will refer your case for investigation. If your essay contains
a correct quote that the report picks up, this will be ignored. What matters is not primarily
the similarity score but that the quotations are properly cited and included in the references
— this is an important responsibility that you have as an author.
1.4Marking Guidelines
Your submission will be graded on your performance in these areas:
• Content: relevance to the question, sound interpretation and understanding of economic
theory.
• Clarity and robustness of argument: logical thinking, clarity, succinctness and coherence.
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• Fit of the theoretical model and analysis to the presented policy situation.
• Use of clear, well-labelled, relevant diagrams that support your arguments.
• Evidence of reading outside of your main source article and textbook.
• Use of references: correct and consistent citation format in the body of your essay; correct
and consistent referencing format in the References section at the end of your essay. You
should support your arguments with at least five (5) references. Note that the References
section is just that. It is not a Bibliography (enter “references section vs bibliography” into
your favourite internet search engine to see the difference).
The following are useful to avoid losing marks:
• Answer the question clearly (see Task Details, above).
• Writing style: use correct grammar or spelling. Avoid the following: long or disconnected
sentences, incoherence, and over-use of quoted material.
• Address the core concepts or ideas.
• Effectively and well-structured essay.
• Clear and Logical flow of ideas.
• Effective, well-composed and clear arguments.
• Make sure you have clear and informative Introduction and Conclusion sections.
• Include a well-structured and informative Critique of your analysis in your Conclusion
section.
• Proper and complete citations and references.
• Well-structured References section.
• Avoid any amount of plagiarism.
• Submit on time, before the due date and time.
• Please use the template.
• Do not exceed the word count.
• Choosing a suitable recent or upcoming policy; make sure the policy is relevant and is not
a made up policy.
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1.5Checklist and Hints
I recommend that you check your essay against the following bullet points.
• The main goal of your essay is not to reproduce a textbook or toy model analysis, but rather
to apply your knowledge of (theoretical) economic models in one specific, real-world case.
Ask yourself whether your analysis of the real-world scenario is the centrepiece of your
work?


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