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Economics: Is this article good for an IA commentary?


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So I'm working on my first IA commentary, which is on Microeconomics. I plan on using an article on a natural disaster causing crops to be destroyed or something similar since this news is quite common and I can find lots of variations on it. I'll be on describing how the drop in output leads to a drop in supply (and thus a shortage) of whatever product the crops go to create, and how the market finds equilibrium again with changes in price. In terms of stakeholders, I could talk about the higher prices and how people will be forced to buy substitutes and this could lead to changes in lifestyle etc. (Would it be worth talking about Giffen goods if applicable?)

However I am worried about this because 1) I can't find an article that gives quantifiable numbers in terms of price and quantity of the products, which means I'll have to talk about the economic changes in vague terms such as "going up", and 2) I am unsure if this essay would analyze deep enough to get good marks.

I searched these forums before posting this and I saw prv9450 say:

You should do a commentary on the following topics. They are the best and easiest to find articles for:

Micro-

Minimum price eg wages, Maximum prices

Market failure eg tax on cigarettes is the best one or negative externality of consumption: type of tax, why its put, effectiveness, other alterantives, weakness and effect of stake holders.

My question: do you think I should stick with my market equilibrium topic or do you think I should change to something else?

Edited by Charizard
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I'm going to give you a bit of a disclaimer before we begin: I did not take Economics when I was in IB and I don't know much about what you are and are not allowed to use source wise for your IA. I am taking Microeconomics now at the University level.

If you are allowed to use multiple sources, I would recommend that you consider using Hurricane Katrina as your example. Katrina hit the US in late August of 2005 and completely devastated Gulf Coast Area. Many forms of industry are still recuperating and many of the social aspects of devastation have still been insufficiently addressed. Notably, the Oil and Natural Gas Industry took a big hit. I think you you would be able to find a myriad of articles about this because it was such a big deal (in the States).

I did some quick googling and found a special Energy Information Administrations report that seems to quantify the impact of the hurricane. This website also seems to have Daily and Special Reports about Katrina's Impact on Oil.

Do you think this could possibly be what you are looking for?

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While hurricane Katrina would have been a good point to begin searching for an article - I don't recommend it because the incident would most likely force you to choose an article more than a year old (which IB economics does not allow). You may want to try looking for a more recent incident - for example something related to florida's orange industry situation after the recent extreme cold weather.

-You DON'T HAVE TO use numbers if the article does not have them (but use them if it does).

- Other good topics for articles relating to microeconomics can be about to price ceilings/price floors (which is what I did mine on 2 years ago), market failure or taxation (ie. negative externalities - smoking/alcohol etc) to name a few.

Hope thatt helps

Edited by master135
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I would certainly recommend you to write about market failure. There are many articles about it and it's an easy topic to analyze and evaluate. I got a 19/20 on my IAs and one was about externalities. If you do find an article and need some help I would be glad to help you via MSN.

G'luck finding!

Regards.

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While hurricane Katrina would have been a good point to begin searching for an article - I don't recommend it because the incident would most likely force you to choose an article more than a year old (which IB economics does not allow). You may want to try looking for a more recent incident - for example something related to florida's orange industry situation after the recent extreme cold weather.

-You DON'T HAVE TO use numbers if the article does not have them (but use them if it does).

- Other good topics for articles relating to microeconomics can be about to price ceilings/price floors (which is what I did mine on 2 years ago), market failure or taxation (ie. negative externalities - smoking/alcohol etc) to name a few.

Hope thatt helps

Thanks for the advice!

Yes I'm really aware(/terrified) of the commentary rules because my teacher keeps pointing them out. (...Is it really true that graph labels also go to the word count? :))

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I'm going to give you a bit of a disclaimer before we begin: I did not take Economics when I was in IB and I don't know much about what you are and are not allowed to use source wise for your IA. I am taking Microeconomics now at the University level.

If you are allowed to use multiple sources, I would recommend that you consider using Hurricane Katrina as your example. Katrina hit the US in late August of 2005 and completely devastated Gulf Coast Area. Many forms of industry are still recuperating and many of the social aspects of devastation have still been insufficiently addressed. Notably, the Oil and Natural Gas Industry took a big hit. I think you you would be able to find a myriad of articles about this because it was such a big deal (in the States).

I did some quick googling and found a special Energy Information Administrations report that seems to quantify the impact of the hurricane. This website also seems to have Daily and Special Reports about Katrina's Impact on Oil.

Do you think this could possibly be what you are looking for?

Wow, is economics a lot harder/very different from high school/IB Economics? A bit off topic but I was considering maybe applying to university for economics. :) The Hurricane Katrina thing seems like an excellent idea though it's too bad it was so long ago. If I'm lucky I could probably find recent articles reflecting on it, especially since the issues in the Oil industry etc haven't been resolved. Or I could always look for disasters with equivalent damage :P

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I would certainly recommend you to write about market failure. There are many articles about it and it's an easy topic to analyze and evaluate. I got a 19/20 on my IAs and one was about externalities. If you do find an article and need some help I would be glad to help you via MSN.

G'luck finding!

Regards.

Thank you so much for the kind offer! I was actually considering market failure (my friend is doing a cigarette tax and it seems to be going well) and now that you've recommended it, market failure has been the most commonly suggested topic. Will do more research. :)

Edited by Charizard
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