TASK
You should create a report that compares the economic profile of Benin with the economic profile of the UK.
OBJECTIVE
Your report should demonstrate that you can use ICT skills to support your work as an economist using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. You will be assessed on the quality of your presentation (appearance of your submission DOES matter) as well as on written content. You should demonstrate awareness of important macroeconomic indicators and be able to draw meaningful comparisons between the two countries on the basis of these. You should be able to display AND discuss your data appropriately.
REQUIREMENTS
Your report should compare some key features of the two economies, Benin and the UK. Choose features that are important, rather than trivial, and for which you can find data; for example:
- Do the two countries have similar levels of economic activity?
- Are the two country's economies growing at the same rate?
- Are both countries equally open to international trade?
- Is the standard of living the same?
- Is labour productivity the same?
- Try to look at long-run trends, not just the most recent figures, so that you can report on whether the relationships you describe are increasing or decreasing or staying roughly constant.
The format of your report must be a word document and you should:
- Write a minimum of 800 words of text, maximum of 1300 words.
- Begin with a text-only summary of no more than 150 words in which you briefly summarise the comparison you have made.
- Explain your choice of variables and their meaning.
- Include tables imported from Microsoft Excel and graphs imported from Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint onto your Microsoft Word document.
At least one table should involve calculations, for example of growth rates or of ratios between two measurements.
- Use stylistic devices such as bold, underline, italics, or large font to add emphasis where suitable, e.g. to titles.
- Follow your report with a list of references to web-sites where further information is available. Use Harvard referencing. Annotate each item in this list with a brief description of what sort of information is available.