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Blair XXXXXXXXXXDepartment of Economics Macquarie University 2020
DEPARTMENT OF
ECONOMICS
Macquarie Business
School
ECON3098
THE ASIAN ECONOMIES
GUIDE TO THE FINAL EXAMINATION
SESSION 2 2020
This is a checklist of what you will need to study for the Final Examination. If a topic is not on this
list, it will not be examinable. This Guide will direct you to the material on which you need to
focus, but it still leaves you with the task of returning to the lectures, tutorial readings, and other
materials and making yourself thoroughly familiar with that material. During the exam itself, you
will not have time to search for answers, you will need to know them already. All the Exam
questions will relate to specific articles, handouts and lectures, so generic discussions that might
for example be found in an Internet search will not serve the purpose. You have experienced
this already in the Mid-Session Test, and you know this to be a large but manageable task, and
you can use the experience of the Introductory and Mid-Session Test to guide you in your
preparations for the Final Exam.
As you prepare for the Exam, keep in mind that part of its purpose is to assess your ability to
accurately assimilate and discuss a particular argument. The ability to do this is a powerful
usiness and academic skill. To gauge this, we need you to address the particular arguments
presented in the lectures or articles. As regards for example the Miracle growth of our core
economy Japan, you will need to address not some generic explanation of Japan’s success, but
the particular explanation as presented in the lectures. You will be free to argue for or against
that explanation, and again, demonstrating your skill in doing so is part of the purpose, but you
will need to know the lecture or the article first in order to do so. Once again, you will need to be
familiar with those lectures before the Final Exam to be able to answer the Exam questions in
the time available.
Concepts, Diagrams and Simple Equations: By now you are familiar with preparing and
animating diagrams in PowerPoint. Make sure to prepare beforehand the diagrams for the key
examinable models, and submit these rather than static hand drawn diagrams, which will not
serve the purpose.
1) Know the diagram is, for and be able to explain, the two different types of Liquidity Trap.
Again, prepare the diagrams beforehand.
2) You need the IS-LM maths and the accompanying diagram (including for example the
Neo-Classical and Keynesian interpretations of the curves). Practice these calculations and
diagrams, and show your practice responses in the forums online – these maths and
diagram questions are an excellent source of marks as well as a means to a fuller
understanding of basic economic concepts.
3) You will need the equation for the marginal efficiency of capital (know also the school of
economics with which it is associated).
4) You must be able to explain the concept and the associated equation for intra-industry
trade (this may require some simple calculations).
Blair XXXXXXXXXXDepartment of Economics Macquarie University 2020
DEPARTMENT OF
ECONOMICS
Macquarie Business
School
Articles and Lectures in essay-style answers:
Answers to essay questions always vary greatly, and you need to know the style of essay
esponse that works for you in exam conditions. So as with the Mid-Session Test, practice this
type of answer beforehand. Assume you have around 30 minutes to answer a question on an
article; do a trial run, see what you can do in that time. Well structured answers can be quite
short.
As regards the lecture modules, we will focus on those that refer to the path to
industrialisation taken by our core economy Japan. Therefore you should know Modules
Three and Six (the latter the last to be released). But note that some of the concepts and
diagrams listed above come from other modules – this focus on Modules Three and Six
doesn’t exclude that other material.
As regards the articles, be familiar (such that you do not need to search for answers,
which will be impossible during the Exam) with the readings for Weeks Six, Twelve, and
Thirteen.
This is not a long list of topics. You will have seen already that much of the material that has
een presented in the lectures, and many of the articles that you have read, have been omitted
from this list. This is partly because some of the material has already been covered in the Mid-
Session Test, and because we want to give you a manageable study load in recognition of your
other commitments.
But omitting the other material also has the trade-off that you must know the topics on this list
easonably well, again such that you will know the answers, know the articles, and the
arguments presented in the lectures, well before you start the Exam. Our priority in the weeks
efore the Final Exam will be to help you prepare; posting questions, and answering the
questions of other students, is a great way of preparing for the Exam so make you full use of the
forums for this purpose.
Any questions? Post them in the Questions forum.
Alex Blair
Economics 2020