ECON7001
Impact Report
Assessment Task Impact Report
Group or Individual Individual
Weighting 35% (100 marks reweighted to 35%)
Word Limit 1300 ± 100 words
DUE DATE 1.00 pm Tuesday May 16
Marking Guide (Rubric) Blackboard > Assessment > Impact Report > Rubric
Submission Turnitin via course BB site (see page 7 for further guidance).
The submission title of your report must be of the following format:
First Name Surname
(Note: No country name is required unlike the Country Report.)
Academic Integrity UQ has strict rules against cheating, including “colluding with other
students on individual assessment items”. You must read and be
familiar with these rules (PPL 3.60.04 Student Integrity and
Misconduct).
CONTEXT
An economist was given the task of completing an Impact Report for Australia:
(a) In 400 words, discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the economy of Australia in
2020-2022.
(b) In 350 words, explain what monetary policy actions Australia took to manage the COVID-19
shocks during 2020-2022.
(c) In 350 words, explain what fiscal policy actions Australia took to manage the COVID-19
shocks during 2020-2022.
The economist tried to reduce their effort by instructing ChatGPT, an AI software, to generate a
report, “Australia Impact Report by ChatGPT” (or “ChatGPT Report” for short), based on the task
descriptions. (Note: the ChatGPT Report is provided as the ‘RED’ text in the Template document.)
However, the supervisor was not satisfied with the quality of the ChatGPT Report and asked you
to improve it.
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YOUR TASKS
1. A Revised Impact Report (~1100 words)
• Improve on the ChatGPT Report in any way you see appropriate. This includes, but is not
limited to:
o Using two (2) to three (3) figures (diagram, graph, table) to illustrate and improve
the explanation of the ChatGDP Report. At least one of the figures must be an AD-AS
diagram with the x-axis labelled as “Real GDP of Australia” and the y-axis labelled
“Price level of Australia”. You must explain your figures.
o Adding statistics, citations and references to the Impact Report where appropriate.
(Note: In-text citations are included in the word count, but references are not.)
o Using the economic theories and concepts taught in ECON7001 to improve the
Impact Report.
• Keep the structure of the three sub-sections (1a, 1b and 1c) and roughly follow the original
word limit instructions (400, 350, 350). This means that you will need to delete, condense
or rewrite some old material to make room for new material (such as the explanation of
your figures, added statistics and citations).
2. Reflection (~200 words)
a. What aspects of the ChatGPT Report do you think the AI did well and why?
b. What aspects of the ChatGPT Report do you think the AI did not do well and why?
c. Assuming that you become a professional economist after graduation, how can you
maintain your employability in a world where people with no background in economics can
easily produce economic analysis using AI software?
3. References
References and citations must be in the APA 7th style.
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What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an interactive, text-generating Artificial Intelligence (AI) system created by OpenAI.
To learn more about it, visit: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/.
ChatGPT has limited knowledge of things happened after 2021. It sometimes fails to follow the
instruction, e.g., its draft of section 1c significantly exceeds the word limit.
You may want to check out the following resources provided by UQ Library:
• Should you use ChatGPT for your studies? (link here)
• Artificial Intelligence (link here)
Can I use AI for this assignment?
You are NOT allowed to use AI to help you complete this Impact Report assignment, except for
grammar checking.
You are NOT allowed to write the report in a language other than English and then use
translation software to translate it in English.
How do I differentiate my own writing from the text generated by ChatGPT?
In the Revised Impact Report, you must mark your own writing (including citations and
references) in BLACK, and any remaining text from the ChatGPT Report must be marked in
RED.
For example, the first paragraph of the ChatGPT report is:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the economy of Australia in
2020-2022. The initial outbreak of the virus in early 2020 led to a rapid decline in
economic activity, as businesses were forced to close and consumers reduced their
spending due to fears of infection and government-imposed lockdowns.”
Suppose a student changed it to the following in their submission, where the text in BLACK is
the student’s own work:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the Australian economy in
2020-2021. The outbreak of the virus in early 2020 led to a rapid decline in economic
activity, as businesses were forced to close and consumers reduced their travel-related
and outdoor spending due to fears of infection and government-imposed lockdowns. As a
result, Australia experienced its first recession in 29 years during the first half year of
2020 (ABS 2022).”
Figures (graphs, tables, diagrams) can be of any colours, and figures are supposed to be your
original work.
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WHAT YOU COULD DO TO IMPROVE THE CHATGPT REPORT:
Ø You could discuss how the government’s non-economic responses to the pandemic (e.g.
social distancing, closing the borders) and how it affects the economy.
Ø You could contrast the economic effects of other global shocks, e.g., GFC or Brexit.
Ø You could discuss the relative effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy actions in
dealing with the pandemic shocks as they have different limitations (e.g. effect lags;
ability to target specific sectors).
Ø You could discuss how the behaviours of households and businesses, and the pre-
pandemic macroeconomic conditions (e.g. very low interest rates) may affect the
effectiveness of the policy actions.
Ø You could discuss potential and actual drawbacks of a policy action (e.g. building up of
debts; inflating asset bubbles).
Ø You could contrast the policy actions of Australia with some other countries to explain the
pros and cons of the policy actions of Australia.
Ø You can change the structure the ChatGPT report if you come up with a better structure.
Ø There is no limit on to what extent you revise the ChatGPT report. If you want to, you can
write a completely different report! Please refer to the marking rubric for details.
TIPS for REFLECTION:
Ø Your assessment of the ChatGPT report should be consistent with your revision of the
report. For example, if you suggest that ChatGPT has not done a good job for a particular
issue, your revised report should have addressed that issue.
Ø You could discuss what employability means for economists, how AI might affect your
employability as an economist in the future, and what you can do to improve your
employability.
Ø You could also discuss what assumptions you need to make in your assessment.
Ø You could discuss different scenarios (based on different assumptions) rather than a
single scenario.
DIAGRAM:
Ø You must create your own AD-AS model diagram instead of cut-and-paste from other
sources. Otherwise, penalty applies (see the penalty section for details).
Ø You must keep a copy of the file that you use to create your figures as you could be
asked to provide it as proof that those figures are your own work.
Ø We recommend you draw the diagram using PowerPoint, and then copy-and-paste it as
an image in your report.
Ø Hand-drawing diagrams could be marked down for poor presentation quality.
Ø You do not need to put actual data figures on the diagram.
Ø You do not need to provide a reference for the AD-AS diagram(s) that you create
because it does not include any actual data.
GENERAL TIPS:
Ø Do not consider what happen in 2023.
Ø You can discuss issues before 2020, but only if they are relevant to the tasks at hand.
Ø You can use a single direct quote or multiple direct quotes in your report, but the total
number of words of all quotes combined must be 20 words or less. Any direct quote must be
properly referenced.
Ø Read the mistakes students tend to make: Blackboard > Assessment > Impact Report > Past
Common Feedback. However, please notice that in the past students were asked to write the
Impact Report rather than to improve one generated by AI. Therefore, caution should be
exercised when using the past feedback.
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Ø You should follow the word limit guide as close as possible. For example, if you write lot
more than 1100 words for Section 1 and lot less than 200 words for Section 2, the extra mark
you gain from Section 1 may fall short of covering the mark you lose in Section 2.
Ø The IMF Policy Tracker records the policy responses to COVID-19 by country.
Ø If there are many policy actions, you could list all of them but focus on the key ones for
discussion.
Ø The government may take multiple actions (e.g. subsidising firms; providing cash handouts to
households) and each action may have different impacts and effectiveness.
Ø Typically, graphs have stronger visual impacts than tables.
Ø If you provide a figure (diagram, graph, table), make sure that you explain/discuss it.
The marker will not interpret it for you.
Ø You can include more than one variable in a graph.
TIPS FOR DATA:
Ø You can include data before 2020 in your report only if they are relevant.
Ø World Development Indicators may not have 2022 data.
Ø You can look for the latest data on the websites of the Statistical Bureau, Treasury, the
Central Bank, or other government departments.
Ø The OECD and IMF/World Bank’s World Economic Outlook reports may also provide the
latest data.
Ø Data from secondary sources can still be used as a supplement only if those data are not
available from any primary sources. Using non-primary data can lead to loss of marks
when primary source data is available for your country.
Ø Do not falsely claim that certain data are not readily available from a primary source
without doing your due diligence. For most data at the national level (e.g. GDP,
unemployment rate), only national or multinational agencies have the capacity to collect
those data. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that they are available from a secondary
source but not from a primary source.
Ø If you use data from a source (e.g. a report) that indicates that it drew the data from a
government statistical bureau, the data is considered to have come from a secondary
source, not a primary source. However, if you go to the government statistical bureau
and extract the same data (and verify what you read is indeed accurate), then it is
considered to have come from a primary source.
Ø Trading Economics (https://tradingeconomics.com) is a secondary source, not a primary
source. You should not use it for your report.
TIPS for References:
ü Having more in-text citations and references will reduce the number of words for the main
body, while having too few in-text citations and references will reduce the credibility of the
report. Therefore, you need to balance the two.
ü Use a variety of sources (rather than just one or two) and use sources that are credible, e.g.,
WDI indicators by the World Bank, official government websites and academic journals.
ü Consult UQ’s referencing style guide for the APA 7th styles.
ü You must reference sources that you use for your text, graphs or tables.
ü You must reference even when you have paraphrased the original content.
ü You can refer to non-English material sources if no equivalent English sources are available,
but you should keep such sources to a minimum.
ü If you refer to non-English material sources, you need to provide the English translated
references with a note at the end, e.g., “(original in German)”. The marker will consider the
availability of English material sources for your country to ensure fairness in marking.
ü You could use the EndNote program (downloadable from UQ library) to manage your
references instead of doing it manually.
ü The UQ APA 7th style guide does not provide an explicit example of how to cite the World
Development Indicators. You can use the following format:
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World Bank (2020a). World Development Indicators. GDP (current US$) [Data file].
https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators
World Bank (2020b). World Development Indicators. GDP growth (annual %) [Data file].
https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators
(Note: You don’t need to insert anything in [Data file]; it is to indicate that the source is a data
file.)
Penalty Rates
FAIL TO USE COLOUR-CODE:
• Do not colour the materials generated by AI in RED: a penalty of 10 marks (out of 100).
• Do not colour the materials generated by the student themselves in BLACK: a penalty of
10 marks (out of 100).
LATE SUBMISSION:
● When an extension has not been previously approved, a penalty of 10 marks (out of 100)
will be deducted for every 24-hour block up to 7 calendar days, at which point any
submission will not receive any marks. That is:
o 10 marks penalty if submitted within 24 hours after the deadline.
o 20 marks penalty if submitted between 24 to 48 hours after the deadline.
o …
o 60 marks penalty if submitted between 120 to 144 hours after the deadline.
o 70 marks penalty if submitted between 144 to 168 hours after the deadline.
o After 168 hours, a zero mark will be given.
HIGH TURNITIN SIMILARITY INDEX VALUE:
● 8-10: as much as 5 marks (out of 100) may be deducted.
● 11-15: as much as 10 marks (out of 100) may be deducted.
● 16-20: as much as 15 marks (out of 100) may be deducted.
● > 20: as much as 30 or more marks (out of 100) may be deducted.
Besides mark deduction, cases of alleged plagiarism will be reported to the School’s Integrity
Officer for investigation following the University’s policy.
Similarity index values change slightly over time as Turnitin continuously add new materials into
its database. The best strategy is to keep your similarity index value sufficiently low, e.g., below
5, so that even though it goes up a little bit after submission it will not exceed 7.
You are given a buffer of 7% for the Similarity Index Value to cover some unavoidable
similarity. In addition, the ChatGPT Report, anything on the template and references are
excluded from the index, and Turnitin will ignore a small amount of unavoidable similarity.
COPYING or EXTRA FIGURES:
● 10 marks (out of 100) penalty for one copied figure (diagrams, graphs, or tables) and 20
marks penalty for two or more copied figures.
● The penalty remains the same even if references are provided for the copied figures.
● 5 marks (out of 100) penalty for one extra figure and 10 marks penalty for two or more
extra figures.
Besides mark deduction, cases of alleged plagiarism will be reported to the School’s Integrity
Officer for investigation following the University’s policy.
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OMITTING FIGURES:
• Less than 2 figures: 10 marks (out of 100) will be deducted for every missing figure.
• No including an AD-AS diagram: 10 marks (out of 100) will be deducted. (This penalty is
in addition to any penalty of including less than 2 figures.)

OMITTING THE COVER SHEET:
● Omitting the whole cover sheet: 10 marks (out of 100) will be deducted.
● Omitting some parts of the cover sheet: 5 marks (out of 100) will be deducted.

EXCEEDING THE WORDCOUNT LIMIT (1300 ± 100):
● 5 marks for every 50 words exceeding 1400.
● E.g. 5 marks for 1428; 10 marks for 1470 etc.
● No penalty for less than 1200 words. But students probably will lose marks for insufficient
content.



REPORT STRUCTURE

The following is your guide to researching and writing each section of your report. Word limits are
also suggested.

PLEASE NOTE: You must use the report template on Blackboard > Assessment > Impact
Report > Report Template.

The recommended formats are:

• Font type: Arial
• Font size: 11
• Line space: 1.15
• 1300 ± 100 words

The original text by ChatGPT should be marked in RED and your own text (including citations
and references) should be marked in BLACK. Your own figures (graphs, tables, diagrams) can
be of any colour.

You must include the cover sheet (in the template) in your submission. Do not write your
answer on the cover page.

The wordcount does not include:
• the coversheet
• the bibliography
• section headings
• figures
• figure headings
• short notes underneath figures (e.g. Source: WDI, 2021).

The wordcount includes in-text citations.

Submission title structure: First Name Surname. (Note: No country name is required unlike the
Country Report.)



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SUBMITTING YOUR REPORT

o Check if you tick all the items on the submission checklist provided on Blackboard >
Assessment > Impact Report > Submission Checklist. (Note: you do not need to submit
the checklist.)

o Your report must be submitted through Turnitin on Blackboard to check for plagiarism.
While most instances of plagiarism are unintentional, any form of plagiarism (intentional
or unintentional) will be revealed in the originality report.

o From the originality report, the marker will check whether any part of your report is
considered as having potentially plagiarised from other sources, rather than a similarity
index value or colour. Therefore, you are expected to carefully check the originality
report before your final submission. (Also see the Penalty section above.)

o You can resubmit your report unlimited times before the due date. However, after three
resubmissions, the similarity report is generated after 24 hours.

o Turnitin will not provide you a confirmation email after successful submission. However,
you can download a digital receipt as proof of submission. UQ Library provides a
guide on how to submit Turnitin assignment, get a digital receipt, and view Similarity
Report and marks.

o The time of submission is based on the time your report was successfully uploaded on
Turnitin as recorded by Turnitin, not the time you tried to upload it.

o Many students fail to meet the deadline because they have internet connection problems
on their side, but they mistake it as an IT problem of UQ. If UQ has any internet
connection problems, there will be a record of it.

o The only way to guarantee not missing the deadline is to submit your report well before
the deadline.