The Subject Of The Second Economic Reasoning Paper Will Be

The Subject Of The Second Economic Reasoning Paper Will Be A News Arti

The subject of the second economic reasoning paper will be a news article (NOT an editorial or a blog post!) on an externality or public good topic that you locate and select. Good places to look for articles include The New York Times, The High Country News, and the Oregonian, but there are many, many more possible sources. Write a 500-word paper to describe the externality or public good issue in the article and to argue in favor of a government policy measure that would be an appropriate response to the problem.

Paper For Above instruction

The objective of this assignment is to analyze a news article focusing on an externality or public good and to formulate a reasoned argument supporting a government policy intervention. This task requires selecting a relevant, non-editorial news article from reputable sources such as The New York Times, High Country News, or The Oregonian, among others. The selected article must clearly detail an externality or public good issue—such as pollution, public parks, or knowledge spillovers—and should not be an opinion piece or blog post.

The core of the paper entails a comprehensive description of the externality or public good issue highlighted in the article. To do this effectively, one must summarize the key points of the article, emphasizing the economic problem presented. For example, if the article discusses air pollution caused by industrial activity, the paper should explain how this externality affects society, markets, and individual welfare. Alternatively, if the issue involves a public good like a clean environment or national defense, the paper should clarify how the nature of the good leads to potential underprovision and the associated economic rationale.

Following this description, the paper should present a well-reasoned argument in favor of a specific government policy measure that could address the identified externality or public good challenge. For pollution, this might involve proposing regulations or taxes that internalize the externality; for a public good, suggestions could include subsidies, provision by government, or collective action frameworks. The explanation must include economic reasoning, demonstrating why the proposed policy would improve overall social welfare without causing undue inefficiencies or unintended consequences.

In developing the argument, it is essential to incorporate relevant economic concepts such as marginal external costs, public goods characteristics, free rider problems, externalities' spillover effects, and market failures. Supporting the reasoning with scholarly references and empirical evidence would strengthen the analysis. The paper should be approximately 500 words long, concise, focused, and clearly articulated, reflecting a thoughtful application of economic theory to real-world problems.

The ultimate goal is to produce an insightful piece that not only describes a concrete externality or public good problem but also convincingly advocates for an appropriate and economically justified policy response. This exercise builds on previous economic reasoning coursework and demonstrates analytical skills in connecting theory to current societal issues.

References

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• Tietenberg, T. H., & Lewis, L. (2016). Environmental & Natural Resource Economics (11th ed.). Routledge.
• Arrow, K. J. (1969). The Organization of Economic Activity: Issues Pertaining to the Theory of the Firm. In The Analysis of Discrete Systems (pp. 45-62). North-Holland.
• Lindenberg, S., & Otte, G. (1981). Economics of the Environment. Springer.
• OECD. (2019). Environmental Policy Tools and Instruments. OECD Publishing.
• Varian, H. R. (2010). Intermediate Economics: A Modern Approach (8th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.