On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1	Acquire economic insights relevant to policy issues
2	Apply economic analysis to local, state, national and international policy issues
3	Prepare material on and present economic insights with policy relevance
4	Provide and respond to constructive criticism of economic policy analysis
5	Evaluate and synthesize research-based and scholarly literature
6	Demonstrate specialist knowledge in an area of economic policy and research

Not applicable

Access to textbooks from Intermediate Microeconomics and Intermediate Macroeconomics may be helpful: The content of these two courses is the assumed knowledge of this course.

Additional material will be provided during the course.

This course will be delivered primarily in a blended mode, with students present in Adelaide expected to attend classes face-to-face as well as accessing resources online.

Students who are not present in Adelaide who require an online-only engagement with the course will be accommodated in some cases, and should contact the lecturer to discuss.

The course also makes extensive use of MyUni to post notes, task assignments, and student project papers, and for communication with the students.

The contact time in this course is made up mainly of one three-hour lecture per week. Given the small class size and important role of student projects, the "lecture" time will have significant student input, including presentations and discussions of projects. In addition to the lecture, individual guidance is provided to the students as they work on their projects. A workshop may also be offered to the students to help them develop their research skills, writing skills and presentation skills. Information about the workshop will be provided on MyUni. Participation in the workshop is optional.

The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This translates to 12 hours per week for a 3-unit semester course.

The course's agenda will be influenced by topical policy issues and by the students’ and the lecturer’s more specific policy interests. The aim is to be flexible and maximise the course's core objective of real-world relevance through building the needed analysis and evidence-base for well-informed policy. From the beginning of the course, each student is encouraged to think about their individual project, the core elements of which are a literature review, an oral presentation and a policy paper. Please read the learning activities that follow together with the overall timeline of the course, including its assignments.

Weeks 1-3: Introduction, discussions and choice of topic;
Weerks 4-5: Development of draft literature review;
Weeks 6-8: Completion of literature review and commencement of public policy paper's foundation work;
Weeks 9-12: Submission of draft policy paper and oral presentation of draft policy paper;
End Week 15: Submission of final policy paper. 

The early part of the course (Weeks 1 to 3) will begin with building two main conversations, both general in their nature. First, we will explore the way research outputs can serve different purposes for different audiences and using different methodologies. We will stress the “real-world” relevance of these activities in managing to provide the needed evidence-base for informed policy. Second, we will discuss and explore several specific policies that could be used as the research topic/material for the students’ individual projects. The conversation here will be about finding a topic that can inform an existing policy problem in a useful way. The range of policies we can discuss will only be limited to what we jointly think is worth pursuing and we can do so practically. At the end of this early part the student is expected to propose the broad topic of their chosen literature review for approval.

The next stage of the course (Weeks 4 and 5) will see the student apply the starting conversations of the course towards the development of a draft literature review. This will be an intensive reading, thinking, and writing formative experience. A draft is where one can define questions, find the focus of the review, and do the hard work of finding what others have written about the chosen topic/questions. It is also a time when, in view of reading new material, the student may want to discuss changing your question/topic towards something more relevant, or more important, or even more practically feasible. Finally, it is the time to decide on the focus of the whole exercise of review/presentation/policy paper. On the practical side of things, the student is advised of the need to plan well for undisturbed longer periods of time for the draft. At the end of this part the student can submit the draft paper for comments, but the submission is not a formal course requirement.

After completing the draft literature review phase, students will have three weeks (Weeks 6 to 8) during which their main activity will be to complete the Literature review and their secondary activity will be to lay the foundations for the policy paper’s particular focus. Whereas the draft literature review phase will have been a time to put together the relevant material in a way that will allow the student to focus, writing the final version of the literature review will be the time to present the important questions, to explore and critique some of the answers and arguments and, importantly, to refine the paper for its target audience. An important objective is for the readership to feel well-informed about where the literature currently stands on the chosen topic. The lectures during this period will introduce several practical public policy examples, in order to facilitate the progression to the next stage of the course, which is the policy paper.

With the submission of the literature review (a formal requirement of the course), the focus turns to the policy paper. Students will have to work on your first draft of the policy paper (Week 9 to 10) and on their oral presentation (Weeks 11 and 12). Students present the current stand of their policy project before finalizing it with the feedback from the presentation and discussion. Student presentations will be scheduled as the course progresses. Every student will be a presenter and a discussant. Every presenter will be matched with a discussant. After the presentations, students will use the rest of the time for completing their final policy paper by the end of Week 15.

This course is ideally suited for a small-group discovery experience. This small-numbers experience allows the student to make a choice of policy topic that relates to their own interests, but also to observe closely other students doing the same and learn from each other.

The course also offers the opportunity of highly personalised in-depth learning through participation in classroom discussions. The importance of team learning and development of ideas will be clearer after taking this course.

Finally, the lecturer's decades-long experience in building and delivering policy reports to governments and organisations nationally and internationally will be shared with the students throughout the course offering valuable advice and practical tips about developing evidence-based policy analysis and reporting.  

Assessment Task	Due	Weighting	Learning Outcome
Draft Literature Review (Optional)	Week 5	--	1,5,6
Final Literature Review	Week 8	35%	1,5,6
Draft policy paper	Week 10	--	1,2,3,6
Presentations of policy paper draft	Weeks 11, 12	10%	4,6
Final Policy Paper	Week 15	55%	1,2,3,6

Legible hand-writing and the quality of English expression are considered to be integral parts of the assessment process, and may affect marks. Marks cannot be awarded for answers that cannot be read or understood.

Assignment (Final Literature Review):
This assignment challenges you to gain an understanding of a range of real-world issues by:
- tracking down and discussing the relevant economic literature
- summarizing and synthesizing the state of knowledge on a particular topic
- contributing your own insights.

Research project (Oral Presentation of Policy Paper and Final Policy Paper)
The project focuses on a key policy issue. Your aim should be to build on the Literature Review and become a "house expert" on that particular issue.
Your project comprises:
- a written report about a particular policy question
- an associated presentation

The exact details for each assessment will be posted on MyUni.

The exact due dates of the submission of the Final Literature Review and the Final Policy Paper will be posted on MyUni before the start of the course.

Dates for individual presentations will be coordinated in class.

Dates for submission of drafts will be posted on MyUni before the start of the course.

The draft version of your Policy Paper is expected to be ready in time one week before your presentation and the date will be posted in MyUni at the start of the course.. This will give your fellow students - especially your discussant - time to read it before your presentation. 

Late submissions will not be accepted, unless they are due to medical or compassionate reasons and are accompanied by appropriate documents.