Research Essay
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic produced the largest macroeconomic shock to many economies since the Global Financial Crisis in 2007/2008. The pandemic resulted in many governments imposing lockdowns to protect the health of their citizens and mitigate the spread of the disease. These lockdowns began to be lifted in many countries during 2022.
Essay Question
Your task in this essay is to choose a country and:
Describe the current macroeconomic situation of that country, with particular reference to the ‘post-COVID’ period (from the beginning of 2022);
Discuss the macroeconomic policies the national government of the country of your choice has used to deal with any significant problems that have occurred since the lifting of COVID-related lockdowns. In your discussion, explain why they have implemented these policies; and
What has been the impact of these policies on the private sector, particularly firms?
In approaching the essay, think about what you have learned in the course. For example, since one person’s spending is someone’s income, what effect has the lifting of COVID-based lockdowns had on overall economic activity? What were the flow-on effects on the unemployment rate, real GDP and the inflation rate?
You then need to think about the types of policies that both the national government and the central bank have implemented in response to the macroeconomic impact of lifting COVID-related restrictions. What sort of policies were they?
Finally, what have been the implications of these policies on the private sector, particularly regarding the relevant components of Aggregate Expenditure? You should be thinking like a manager of a firm when addressing this part of the question.
You are required to use graphs, figures and/or tables to show/summarise the current economic environment.
