Okay guys, here's what I wrote about in my essays - can you tell me if I was on the right track/what I should be looking at? I had a massive migraine and almost threw up during the exam so I'm concerned that I just didn't write appropriate things, especially for the second essay. I'm just super concerned I won't get a band 6 :/
Question 25
Fiscal Policy
9 pages (8-9 words a line)
- goal to target aggregate demand, good during emergency shocks to raise economic activity, comparison to MEP and MP, discretionary changes for economic activity and non-discretionary automatic stabilisers for income distribution
- context paragraph about the role of FP in recent years, how it played a significant role in the GFC and has moved back to fiscal consolidation
- two/three paragraphs about the effectiveness of the GFC stimulus in targeting consumption through government spending, related to AD equation/circular flow (good use of stats here for the stimulus)
- a paragraph about how it targets long-term economic activity (defined as growth) directly and indirectly through improving resource allocation (example of changes to subsidies and tariffs as spending and tax to specialise in comparative advantage)
- two paragraphs about how it is the main policy option for targeting income distribution through the automatic stabilisers, used Gini coefficient stats and just generally stated that they work to simultaneously moderate aggregate demand (i.e. economic activity) and achieve better distribution of income
- concluding statement about the effectiveness of fiscal policy in achieving those objectives
Question 27
Microeconomic Policy
7 pages (8-9 words a line)
- aim of MER to increase aggregate supply, achieving long-term growth through productivity gains in both product and factor markets
- context paragraph about the history of MER, 2.5% pa productivity growth in the 1990s, now plays a lessened role in comparison
- trade liberalisation and its impact on Australia achieving its comparative advantage of resources ("allocative efficiency"), higher international competitiveness overall and reduced inflation
- financial deregulation as a factor market, allows increased access to finance etc through the floating of the dollar, removal of foreign ownership restrictions which again contributes to a low-inflation, competitive environment and greater technical efficiency
- labour market decentralisation in terms of a factor market - significant productivity gains, tying productivity increases to wage increases to incentivise working harder, talked about enterprise bargaining and stuff, as well as the flexible working hours increasing underemployment during the GFC but maintaining a low unemployment rate
- national competition policy (product market) to encourage competition to ensure consumers have access to a wider range of goods and to mitigate inflation
- concluding statement about the COAG reform agenda to achieve a "seamless national economy" and the necessity of further MER in the future to achieve a long-term expansion in growth