International Macroeconomic
Data Hunt Project
ECON 121 H
Fall 2003
Dr. Stephanie M. Jozefowicz
Select a country from the table below that you would like to further investigate. (Dr. Jozefowicz must approve your country choice so that everyone in the class chooses a different country.)  Based on preferences, you will be assigned a partner with whom you will complete this project. Follow the exercises below in parts (a) - (e) for your country.  Consider the following scenario:  after graduation, the company who hires you wants to investigate increasing its exports and/or possibly locating additional production facilities abroad.  Your manager assigns you the project of researching a given country so that he can make a recommendation to other company executives. As you research  your country, ask yourselves what information would prove most valuable in this decision-making process for your company.  Be sure to consider not only current statistics, but trends over time.

Be prepared to make a 7-8 minute in-class presentation of your findings. Your presentation should include at least one handout (25 copies unless notified otherwise) or overhead transparency as a visual aid. Note: You will be expected to pay attention and take notes on one another's presentations.

Presentations will occur in class on Monday, December 9.

Your presentation will count as a project presentation in your final grade and is worth 35 points.
 

Data Resource Exercises:

a. U.S. Embassy staffs prepare the Country Commercial Guides once per year. It reports the business and economic situation of foreign countries and the political climate as it affects U.S. business. To get information on topics such as marketing, trade regulations, investment climate, and business travel, set your browser to URL: http://www.usatrade.gov/Website/ccg.nsf.

b. For information on individual developing nations, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's annual World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/) provides comprehensive information on many countries and territories, including geography, natural resources, demographics, government, and economic statistics.

c. To get a glimpse of U.S. foreign policy and U.S. relations with the countries in different regions, log onto the web site of the U.S. Department of State: Under Secretary for Political Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/). There are six geographically defined bureaus and one functional bureau that report to the Under Secretary -- bureaus for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. The geographic bureaus coordinate the conduct of bilateral U.S. foreign relations, and the Bureau of International Organization Affairs engages in multilateral diplomacy.

d. To access Country Reports prepared by PBS as part of the “Commanding Heights” production and web site, set your browser to URL:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/countries/index.html

e.  To conduct a search for web site materials prepared by government officials of your country, use a search engine like http://www.google.com.

Grading is as follows:
 

Delivery: 
5 points
V.A. Spelling:
1 point
Time Constraint:
1 point
V.A. Grammar: 
1 point
Visual Aid #1 Appearance:
2 points
Clarity: 
3 point
Visual Aid #2 Appearance:
2 points
Conciseness:
2 points
V.A. Title:
1 point
Organization:
6 points
V.A. Punctuation:
1 point
Economic Theory Content: 
10 points

Presentations will occur in class on Tuesday, November 25.
 

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