Comparative Analysis Paper Guidelines
One low income (less developed) country which is Ethiopia, one middle income (developing) country which is Greece, and one high-income (industrialized) country which is the UAE.
You will be asked to write a comparative analysis paper about these countries, discussing why these countries are different in their income levels and standards of living. You are expected to use information from reliable sources. The comparative analysis papers will be 7-double-spaced pages and will be evaluated for their substance and quality. You will be required to submit your papers to www.turnitin.com. The papers will be graded there.
Here are more instructions on your comparative analysis paper:
Introduce your paper with one or two paragraphs: What is the purpose of your paper, what is the main research question, and how does it proceed?
Introduce your countries with two paragraphs for each country-where are they located, when did they become independent, what are some demographics (i.e. population, composition of the population, urban versus rural population and so on), and what kinds of political systems do they have?
Compare your countries in terms of: sizes of their economies, per capital RGDP's, RGDP growth rates, per capita RGDP growth rates, and inflation and unemployment rates for the last 10 years. If you have data tables or big charts, you can place them in the appendix of your paper. As you compare these countries, indicate whether your countries faced any major economic problems during the last 10 years. What arepossible causes of those economic problems? How different are the standards of living (per capital RGDP plus other factors) in these countries?
Based on the above comparative information and based on what you learned in class, analyze these countries' macroeconomic differences (and similarities, if any). Explain why these countries have different sizes of RGDP, RGDP growth rates, per person RGDP growth rates, unemployment rates, inflation rates, poverty rates and so on. What helped (foreign aid, technological and productivity growth, education, population control, debt forgiveness) and/or hurt these countries? What kinds of government policies helped these countries and what kinds of government economic policies hurt them? Why did these countries' governments follow different policies? Did these countries' governments follow the IMF and World Bank's policy prescriptions?
Based on your analysis, discuss the main causes of economic development in your high income and middle income countries, as well as the main hindrance for economic development in your low income country. What is lacking in the low income country in comparison to the other two countries? Why was your middle income country not able to become a high income country? Will it become a high income country? Are there some cultural and historical reasons behind differences among these countries?
Finally, end your paper with your conclusions that summarize your comparative findings.