PERFORMANCE TASK
Defining “your community” on any scale (Micro or Macro), identify one of the most pressing issues facing your community. Applying Economics concepts including but not limited to Supply, Demand, Inflation, Unemployment and GDP, critically analyze the issue from multiple perspectives, incorporating at least 3 academic peer-reviewed articles pertaining to the issue. Propose Micro- and/or Macro-economic policy recommendations to resolve your identified issue, being sure to provide detail for rationale, challenges, and specific implementation. Your argument should be written to be accessible/understandable for a general audience while providing sufficient academic evidence to influence policymakers (e.g. legislators) who could address an issue of this scale.
ANNOTATION
Student analyzes patterns across centuries, locations and levels of analysis (Micro & Macro) to propose specific, well-researched and actionable policy recommendations. This is evidenced by student direct quotes as shown below:
Pattern Evidence
“According to the most current data recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the volunteer rate declined in the range of 0.4 and 29.4 percent for the ending year of September 2015 (“Volunteering in the United States News Release”, 2016). It is noted that approximately 62. 4 million people in the United States had volunteered at least once. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports that women have volunteered more than men. Age wise, individuals ages 35-54 were most likely to volunteer, where in comparison, volunteers who age in the range of teenagers and mid-twenties to early thirties were at its lowest for volunteering.”
“Volunteerism deals with labor that is uncompensated, therefore would mean that it does not affect GDP. If there is “no money exchanged in hands, it is not counted as part of the GDP” (Hahn 2014). On the contrary, as previously stated, volunteers have provided difficult tasks that mirror employees works.”
“For example, scholarly article, More Than An Act of Kindness, authors interviewed an unemployed volunteer named Jake. Through Kelemen, Moffat and Mangan’s interview, Jake responded ‘Volunteering was completely invaluable to get the job I now have because I was able to display the attributes required to work in this department’ (2018, p.16). Jake had volunteered his way into the labor force, while volunteering, he was unemployed, but was then pushed into a job through his voluntary actions.”
“If compensated today, volunteers would receive $24.69 per hour (“Value of Volunteer Time — Independent Sector”, 2018). Further for success, volunteerism could help add positive gross domestic product to the economy, being that there is productivity done through the volunteers.”
Addressing the pattern of volunteerism over time through different generations and through different economic lenses represents a pattern.
However, for this to be an advanced piece, the depth and focus of analysis needs improvement. In addition, the piece ends with “it would need a concrete and strategized solution.” If the student clearly articulates a viable, well thought-out solution based on the pattern analysis and then applies possible outcomes of the solution, it would meet advanced.