ECON90015 2026 S1 ASSIGNMENT
ECON90015 2026 S1 ASSIGNMENT
Due: Sunday, May 10th, 11:59 pm
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS (please read carefully)
1. The is an INDIVIDUAL assignment and contributes 30% to your final mark in this
subject. It will be marked out of 40 possible marks.
2. There is a total word limit of 2,000 words for the assignment: 1,500 words for Part A
and 500 words for Part B. The word limit does not count tables, diagrams, footnotes,
and bibliography. Marks may be deducted if the assignment is too long.
3. The assignment is to be submitted electronically in the Assignments module on the
LMS subject home page in PDF format, by Sunday, May 10th, 11:59 pm. Penalties
for late assignments apply. Please remember to keep a copy of your assignment.
4. Unless you have an APA, extensions are NOT granted by the subject’s lecturers or
tutors. See the instructions for requesting an extension in the subject outline.
5. All figures and graphs should be drawn digitally wherever possible. We accept
scanned graphs that are drawn by hand as long as they are drawn clearly and
labelled appropriately. Any graphs must be submitted as part of the assignment in a
single document. DO NOT print your assignment, draw the graphs, and then scan it:
Turnitin will not accept your submission, and you will risk accruing late penalties.
Instead, scan your graphs and merge them with the main text of your assignment
into a single file.
6. The submission system automatically collects your name and identifying information
so do not include a cover page with your assignment. Do not include the prompts for
Part A or Part B in your assignment: it is enough to label your answer to Part A with
“Part A” or “Case Study,” and for Part B with “Part B” or “Essay.” It does not matter
what name you give to the file you submit. When uploading to Canvas, do not write
anything in the comment field.
7. We expect that your topics and approaches will differ substantially between the two
parts of the assignment. This should be clear from the prompts: Part A asks you
formally analyse a market, while Part B is much more informal and concerns an
every-day phenomenon of your choice. Do not write the same essay twice and just
change the question.
8. Particular importance will be given to the application of economic concepts and
diagrams to your research.
9. Maintain academic integrity by avoiding plagiarism and collusion. Familiarise
yourself with the university’s Academic Integrity policy. Students, whose
assignments are assigned a high similarity score by Turnitin indicating plagiarism or
unattributed use of Artificial Intelligence, will be referred for an academic
misconduct investigation and may face disciplinary action.
ECON90015 2026 S1 ASSIGNMENT
Using AI
Please familiarise yourself with our AI policy as stated in the ECON90015 2026 S1 Subject
Guide available on the ECON90015 LMS website in the ECON90015 Subject Information
module. It includes both how AI can be used and how to attribute your use of AI.
Assignment Submission
Please familiarise yourself with the assignment submission guidelines as stated in the
ECON90015 2026 S1 Subject Guide available on the ECON90015 LMS website in the
ECON90015 Subject Information module. It includes the procedures for the submission of
the assignment and the procedures related to late submissions (assignment extensions and
late submissions penalties).
Academic Integrity
Please familiarise yourself with our AI policy as stated in the ECON90015 2026 S1 Subject
Guide available on the ECON90015 LMS website in the ECON90015 Subject Information
module. It includes our policy on Academic Honesty, Artificial Intelligence, Plagiarism and
Collusion, and Referencing.
ECON90015 2026 S1 ASSIGNMENT
PART A – Case Study (30 marks; word limit: 1,500 words)
Choose an industry and analyse the most important factors affecting its profitability by
using the relevant concepts and theories we have studied in lectures (including future
lecture topics if you like eg oligopoly).
Note: if you choose a foreign industry, eg the Spanish olive oil market or the Chinese EV
market, your references must be in English.
You should choose the three or four of the most-important factors influencing profitability.
You can choose factors that are currently affecting your chosen industry, or factors that
seem likely to affect the industry’s profitability in the near future. Some possibilities to
consider are:
• Internal rivalry and the market structure:
• Barriers to entry
• Substitutes and complements
• Bargaining power of buyers
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Cost structures
• Technological change
• Government policy
• Price discrimination
• Elasticity of supply/demand
• COVID-19
The above list is not exhaustive. If you think there are other significant microeconomic
factors, feel free to analyse them. Remember that you do not need to discuss all of the
above points. It is enough to discuss the 3-4 factors that you consider to be the most
important for your chosen industry.
The library's Industry Information databases can be an excellent source of information and
assistance in your research and can be accessed here. Some of the databases indexed there
include “Porter’s five forces analysis” (PFFA) of Australian industries. Note that we are NOT
asking you to perform a five forces analysis! Assignments that follow the five forces
framework will lose marks as that framework is not a good fit for this case study’s prompt.
To summarise, in this case study you should:
• Introduce and define the industry that you will analyse.
• Briefly describe the first factor you will study and analyse it to determine how it affects
the industry’s profitability. Where possible, provide evidence.
• Perform the same steps with the second factor you are considering.
ECON90015 2026 S1 ASSIGNMENT
• Perform the same steps with the third and fourth factors you are considering (if there is
a fourth one).
• Provide any concluding remarks.
• Add a bibliography, collecting all references cited in the text. (Use the 7th-edition
American Psychological Association style, also known as APA 7th citation style. Our
library’s excellent citation guide is here.)
The main factors considered in marking will be:
a) Research: For example, does the essay display sound and extensive research of the
industry chosen? Note: in the AI era, less weight is given to research now.
b) Knowledge of economic concepts: Has the essay used the appropriate economic
concepts? Does the essay show a thorough understanding of those concepts?
c) Quality of the analysis and application of economic concepts: Is there a logical and
thorough supporting argument or description of how conclusions have been drawn?
Have economic concepts been applied in an effective manner? Are the assumptions
clearly described? Is an understanding shown of any relevant qualifications to the
conclusion?
d) Presentation: Has the industry been properly defined and identified? Are the writing
style and organisation of material such that the main ideas and arguments can be
understood? Note that diagrams are often useful for illustrating key economic
models and concepts.
Remember, we are looking for sound applications of the key economic concepts that have
been taught in the subject.
ECON90015 2026 S1 ASSIGNMENT
PART B - Essay (10 marks; word limit: 500 words)
Choose a pattern of events or behaviour that you have personally observed and that you
are intrigued by and explain it using an economic concept or concepts we have covered in
the subject.
Your limit is 500 words. Please do not stuff your essay with complex terminology. Imagine
yourself talking to a relative who has never studied economics. The best essays are ones
that would be clearly intelligible to such a person. You can include graphs supporting your
argument but that is not mandatory. You need not include a bibliography.
This assignment is not a PhD dissertation. You are not expected to do voluminous research
in support of your argument, although a relevant fact or two might help convince yourself
and others that you are on the right track. It makes no difference whether your topic is
“important,” but try, as best you can, to choose something interesting. A really successful
essay is one that begins with a really interesting question (one that makes the listener
instantly curious to learn the answer) and then uses an economic principle or principles to
construct an answer. It also does not matter whether your answer is “correct” as long as it is
plausible and follows logically from the economic reasons you propose.
You might find it helpful to consider the following prompts while thinking about, writing,
and structuring your essay:
1. Has an interesting phenomenon ever caught your eye and made you wonder what
the reasons behind it were?
2. Why is this phenomenon interesting to you?
3. Are there some economic concepts covered in class that can explain it? If so, analyse
it using these concepts.
4. How does your economic analysis allow you to better understand the phenomenon
in question?
5. Having applied your analysis, what conclusions can you reach?
The marking criteria in rough order of importance are originality of the question, correct
identification and application of the relevant economic concepts, quality of the writing and
of the analysis, difficulty of the question/non-obviousness of the question’s answer, and
appropriateness of the topic for a 500-word essay.
We strongly encourage you to read Chapter 2 of Robert H. Frank’s The Economic
Naturalist1, accessible through LMS’ Readings Online. The chapter contains a number of
questions that would be a great fit for this essay, together with short answers. Of course,
you cannot use those for your essay: you must find your own original question. Note also
1 Credit where credit is due: Prof. Frank is the originator of this part of the assignment.
ECON90015 2026 S1 ASSIGNMENT
that the answers in Frank’s book tend to be shorter than what we are looking for here.
Some other examples of good questions are:
• Why do drive-up ATMs have Braille dots on their keypads?
• Why do female models earn so much more than male models?
• Why do retailers put Christmas decorations on display in September?
• Why are child safety seats required in cars but not on airplanes?
• Why are there luggage stores in airports’ airside areas (i.e. after security)?
• Why do many legal professionals offer free initial consultations, while medical
services tend to charge more for the initial diagnostic evaluation?
• Why does Coles tend to price limes and lemons per unit, while Woolworths prices
them per weight?
• Why do airlines charge more for last-minute ticket purchases while theatres follow
exactly the opposite practice?
• Why are designer denim shorts/T-shirts/shower slides so expensive? (Again, you
need to find your own ORIGINAL question!)
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