General Rules for participating in projects:
Capitalization
must occur in advance. Payment may be
made electronically or with cash. If a
project is taken, or your request cannot be approved for some other reason,
your start up capital will be refunded.
Payment for goods
or services will be rendered electronically in most circumstances. Because many of the projects require grading
and evaluation time, there may be a time lag before payment is made. Inform the instructor if payment is urgently
needed and efforts will be made to expedite matters. Try not to bring in projects right before the grading date, you
may not get your money in time.
jResearch
Papers for money: Pay
$10 to reserve a topic, plus $10 for each week that it will take you to
research, write and type your paper.
Reports may only be done on the topics listed below. Students may collaborate on a report, but
only one cash payment will be made for each topic. Division of money will be conducted according to the economic
rules of the class.
Category 1-
Reports: ($50 - $500 with an average of $300)
Reports must be at
least five pages typed, Times roman 10 point DS or the equivalent, not
including the bibliography. If pictures
or illustrations are included, the paper will need to be appropriately
longer. Footnotes are required, but
parenthetical notes are allowed.
1. The economic status of a country: Include
things like the following:
demographics, history, culture, resources, industries, current economic
situation, trade, hindrances to development, fiscal and monetary policies,
currency issues, international issues and hidden economic activities as they
apply. Include stats on GDP, GDP
growth, inflation rate, population and GPD per person.
|
Topic |
Student(s) |
Topic |
Student(s) |
|
Austria |
|
New Zealand |
|
|
Belgium |
|
Pakistan |
|
|
Bulgaria |
|
Philippines |
|
|
Czech Republic |
|
Singapore |
|
|
Denmark |
|
South Korea |
|
|
Estonia |
|
Taiwan |
|
|
Finland |
|
Thailand |
|
|
France |
|
Vietnam |
|
|
Germany |
|
Canada |
|
|
Greece |
|
Mexico |
|
|
Hungary |
|
United States |
|
|
Ireland |
|
Argentina |
|
|
Italy |
|
Brazil |
|
|
Latvia |
|
Chile |
|
|
Lithuania |
|
Colombia |
|
|
Netherlands |
|
Venezuela |
|
|
Norway |
|
Algeria |
|
|
Poland |
|
Egypt |
|
|
Portugal |
|
Iran |
|
|
Romania |
|
Iraq |
|
|
Russia |
|
Israel |
|
|
Slovakia |
|
Jordan |
|
|
Slovakia |
|
Kenya |
|
|
Spain |
|
Lebanon |
|
|
Sweden |
|
Nigeria |
|
|
Switzerland |
|
Saudi Arabia |
|
|
Turkey |
|
South Africa |
|
|
Ukraine |
|
|
|
|
United Kingdom |
|
|
|
|
Australia |
|
|
|
|
China |
|
|
|
|
Hong Kong |
|
|
|
|
India |
|
|
|
|
Indonesia |
|
|
|
|
Japan |
|
|
|
|
Kazakhstan |
|
|
|
|
Malaysia |
|
|
|
2. The historical significance of a person: Include
things like: family background,
education, historical and economic context, achievements, controversy,
publications, implications of his or her work and successors.
|
Topic |
Student(s) |
Topic |
Student(s) |
|
Enrico Barone |
|
John Stuart Mill |
|
|
John Bates Clark |
|
François Quesnay |
|
|
Jean-Baptiste
Colbert |
|
David Ricardo |
|
|
Milton Fiedman |
|
Joseph A.
Schumpeter |
|
|
Friedrich Hayek |
|
Adam Smith |
|
|
David Hume |
|
Anne Robert
Jaques |
|
|
WilliamStanley
Jevons |
|
Jacques Turgot |
|
|
John Maynard
Keynes |
|
|
|
|
Nikolai
Kondratiev |
|
|
|
|
Oskas Lange |
|
|
|
|
Arthur W. Lewis |
|
|
|
|
Thomas Robert |
|
|
|
|
Thomas Robert
Malthus |
|
|
|
|
Alfred Marshall |
|
|
|
|
Karl Marx |
|
|
|
Category 2-
Reports: ($80 - $1000 with an average of $600)
Reports may only
be done on topic listed below. Reports
must be at least eight pages typed, Times roman 10 point DS or the equivalent,
not including the bibliography. If
pictures or illustrations are included, the paper will need to be appropriately
longer. Footnotes are required, but
parenthetical notes are allowed.
1.
Beliefs
and practices of a particular economic model or school of thought: Include
things like a history of the school, major contributors, operational theories
held by its proponents, policies the school or model promotes, interpretation
of economic history and prediction of future economic events, the
role of price mechanisms in allocating resources, analysis of consumer behavior
and production theories, evaluation of business performance and theory of
economic justice or welfare.
|
Topic |
Student(s) |
|
Classical Model |
|
|
Neo-Classical
Model |
|
|
Marxist Model |
|
|
Keynesian Model |
|
|
Austrian School |
|
|
New classical
Model |
|
|
Neo-Keynesian Model |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other Topics
for Student Papers: Cash awards will vary for these papers.
Antitrust and the
Economy
ASEAN (Association
of Southeast Asian Nations)
Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC)
Austrian School of
Economics
Bank of England
Banking History
British Economic
History
Budget Deficit
Business and
Economic Forecasting
Business
Monopolies
Business
Oligopolies
Canadian Economic
History
Capitalism
Classical
Economics
Communism
Communist
Manifesto
Comparative
Economics
Eastern European
Economic Reform
Econometrics
Economic
Anthropology
Economic
Depressions
Economic
Development in Africa
Economic Growth
Economic Growth
(U.S.)
Economic Justice
Economic Modeling
Economic
Recessions
Economic Sociology
Economics of War
Electric Utilities
Deregulation
Entrepreneurship
Environmental
Economics
European Economic
History
European Monetary
Union
Federal Budget
Federal Reserve
System
Free Market
Economy
Free Trade
French Economic
History
Friedrich A. Hayek
Full Employment
Game Theory
GATT (General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
Global Economy
Globalization
Gold Standard
Historical School
of Economics
History of
Economics
History of Money
IMF (International
Monetary Fund)
Income
Distribution
Income Tax (U.S.)
Inflation
Institutional
Economics
Jay Gould
Job Creation
John Kenneth
Galbraith
Keynesian
Economics
Laissez-Faire
Macroeconomics
Market Socialism
Marxian Economics
Medieval Economic
History
Mercantilism
Microeconomics
Minimum Wage
Monetary Policy
Money Supply
NAFTA
Neoclassical Economics
OPEC
Political Economy
Privatization
Protectionism
Reaganomics
Socialism
Stock Market Crash
of 1929
Supply and Demand
Supply-Side
Economics
Syndicalism
Tax Reform
Taxation (non
U.S.)
Third World Debt
Trade Policy
(U.S.)
U. S. Economic
History
Urban Economics
Vilfredo Pareto
Wealth
Welfare Economics
World Bank
World Trade
Organization
Topics being
discussed on the internet:
Will Boeing Become
a Chinese Target?
Regulation of
Financial Derivatives
The Case Against
Equity in Educational Financing
The Link Between
Hong Kong and China, and Their Economic Future
Economics of
Residual Dumping: Analysis of Demand Shocks
An Economic
Analysis of the Death Penalty
An Overview of
State Enterprises in Singapore and the Current Trend of Privatization
Microsoft and
Antitrust
Insider Trading –
Should it be banned or legalized?
Motorola's
Emergence as an Electronics Leader
Now Comes the Hard
Part for China
Movement Toward a
Temporary Work Force
Increasing Global
Capital Flows and their Monetary Implications
The Effects of
Automobile Safety Regulations
Reforms in the
Indian Economy after 1990
Franchise
Relocation for Profits: A Professional Sports Epidemic
European Monetary
Union
West Indian and
U.S. Blacks
The Profits of
Airline
The Politics of
Healthcare
The Asian Currency
Crises
Economic
Development of Latin America
The Banking System
of Pakistan
The Causes of the
Great Depression
Why Purchase Life
Insurance
The Profitability
of the Olympics
The Theory of
Dynamic Preference
Tourist
Expenditure in Canada
The Indian Gem
Industry
The Economics of
the NFL's TV Blackout
A Cashless Economy
The Regulatory Push
Patents and contract theory
Economic Growth: Convergence, Divergence and Technology
Technical Protections for intellectual property
Open source software and collective invention
kNotebooks Containing Class Notes for
money: Pay $10 to
take part in this project. Take notes
in class; type them into a computer, and print them up. Excellent notes are worth $60; good notes
are worth $45; ok notes are worth $30; poor notes are worthless.
Extra money will be granted to notebooks with illustrations or
pictures relevant to the information.
lVirtual Stock Market Investment: Costs $20 to
play. You can act as financial advisor
for a wealthy friend with $100,000 to invest.
If you do well, you can convert 10% of your earnings into WCS
money. If you go bust, you are just out
the $20 capitalization fee.
How to do it:
1.
Run the Internet and go to http://www.stocksquest.com
2. Follow the “Game Tour” on the left side of the MyStocks
page to get familiar with the game.
3.
Click the “Sign-up” link on the left side of the
MyStocks page.
4.
Complete the registration form.
5.
Click the “Login” link on the left side of the
MyStocks page.
6.
After you have logged in, you will see your
portfolio page. Review each of the items as noted on the page and get yourself
familiar with the stock portfolio.
7.
Click the “Join a Class” tab (upper left) after
you have logged in to your portfolio page. Your class name is wcs (in
all small letters) and your password is pass (also in all small
letters).
You are allowed to sell stocks short, but you are not allowed to
buy penny stocks. Each time you do a
transaction it costs $15 out of your client’s account, so be careful. Diversify, but do not atomize.
When you are ready to cash in your portfolio, contact the
teacher. Ten percent of the money over
$100,000 will be transferred to your bank account and that stock portfolio will
be ignored for the rest of the class.
mTry
to balance the federal budget:
Costs $30 to capitalize. Worth
$50 to $1000; an average report would receive $100.
1. Go to http://www.nathannewman.org/nbs/
2. Balance the budget or do your best on it.
3. Type up a two to three page report defining
the purpose of all the programs that you would cut. Look them up on the internet to get information on them.
4. Predict the economic impact of your
cuts. To do this, you will need to find
the current savings rate of the US on the internet, and calculate the Keynesian
Multiplier. Microsoft Excel would do a
good job of crunching the numbers for you.
Attach your calculations to your report. (Don’t worry, we know you are only in High School and will grade
you accordingly.)
5. Finally, Propose a monetary policy that
would augment your tax cuts, given the current condition of the US
economy. Your goal here is to keep the
economy from slumping into recession while not causing inflation.
nDebating Economic Issues: Use the Internet and library to research and
argue for an economic issue that you feel strongly about. Meet with some of your classmates and debate
the issue in front of your class. After
the debate, the class will vote on the issue and decide who won the debate and
who was effective at defending their viewpoint.
How to sign up:
1.
Select a topic on which
you and one or more of your classmates can take opposing viewpoints. (See the Taking Sides handout.)
2.
Inform the instructor so
time can be reserved for your debate.
3.
Each speaking
participant must pay a $10 capitalization fee to reserve a time.
4.
Each team needs to hire
someone to take notes on the board, highlighting important points. (This is office level work and requires
reimbursement.)
Money will be awarded on the basis of several factors.
1.
Which side won the debate and the margin of
victory. This is done by popular vote.
2.
Your individual contribution to the debate, as
determined by popular vote.
3.
The instructor’s evaluation of the debate.
4.
Special honors given to individuals by the
instructor for excellent work.
Typically, participants can expect to make between $50 and
$300. Of course, having more people on
your side makes individual pay-offs lower.
Some audience members may also receive money for the accuracy of their
vote.
In addition to money compensation, a popular and lauded debater
may be awarded the coveted Right of the First Born. This means that if both the instructor and
the students acknowledge you as a leading thinker in the class, , you will get
an extra share of profits in any partnership with other students.
To help you
understand this, let me give you an example.
If you are in a three person partner ship, the money earned by the
partnership would be divided four ways and you would get two shares.
oThe
Living Game Project: Costs $50 to participate. Roll a character using the living game rules
and the Make Character program.
You may reroll up to two times, but each time your previous character is
wiped out. If you roll the third
character, you must keep whatever you roll.
Now fill out the
Living Game Survey and submit the results to the instructor for filing.
You need to create
a budget on Excel to keep track of income, expenses and capital items
throughout the life of your character.
Number down the
right of your budget both months and years.
Your character is 18 years old and it is January, when the game starts.
Next label and
make columns for Events, Bank Account, Income items, Expense items and Capital
items. Each category except Events will
have many columns and a total that add all the items up for that month.
Income can come in
the form of salary, gifts from parents, interest, loans and other.
Expenses should
include things like Housing, Transportation, Utilities, Repairs, Insurance,
Living Expenses, Loan Maintenance, Tuition and Benevolence.
Capital items
track the age of cars and large owned items.
You will need to pay a maintenance fee for each item tracked equal using
this formula:
Fee=int((Used
Time/Life Expectancy)^2*.05)
The rest of the
formulas or cash equivalents, will be provided by the Living game rules packet
or your instructor.
You will need to
modify your budget as your character lives his or her life and goes to college,
gets married, has children and lives the life that you specified in your
survey.
Payment: Your
budget will be evaluated upon completion of the following items:
1.
Completion of
college $10-$50
2.
Land first
job. $10-$50
3.
Married,
stable job, kids in school, debt under control. $50-$100
4.
Living the
life in survey. $30 - $100
5.
Own a solvent
company. (2yr+) $50
6.
Children
through college, debt free. $30 per
child.
7.
$1,000,000 in
bank. $30
8.
Retire 20
years before death and maintain life style. $40
9.
Tithe all
your life. $50
pAnalyze the
School: Costs $30 to
participate. Payments range from
$40-$200, with an average of $90.
1.
List all the factors of production used by the
school.
2.
List approximate prices for the factors of
production.
3.
Sum the list and get and estimate of the school’s
operating cost.
4.
Find out how many students are in the school and
multiply by the 75% of the tuition to approximate the school’s income. (Some students get tuition breaks or
scholarships.)
5.
Suggest where cuts should be made to operate the
school if tuitions were cut by 20%.