Extended Essay Economics

I have just met with the pupils that I will be supervising for the extended essay in economics. Here are some of the key points that I stressed to them.

The final title should be as narrow as possible. Wide ranging titles in economics, although they may appear very interesting are often very difficult to score highly on. It is recommended that primary and secondary sources of data are used. With a wide ranging macro title getting hold of primary data is often very difficult.

For example an essay title that I would say is too broad and therefore data collection difficult would be:

What impact does the shadow economy have on Bulgaria’s macroeconomic performance?

A narrower question and one where data collection would be much easier:

To what extent can fast food restuarants in Warminster be seen as firms in Monopolistic Competition?

I tend to push my students towards mico based topics that focus on individual firms or markets.

At this stage the precise structure of the finished piece is less of a concern. It is vital though that students do have a pretty precise research question to take away with them for the summer holidays so that they can use this long break to collect valuable data. Early in Autumn term I will sit down with the students that I am supervising to discuss/analyse the data they have collected.

As well as there data they should return in September with an outline of the economics they intended to use (diagrams, sections of the syllabus etc) This tends to be in list format, I don’t expect them to have made significant in roads into the required 4,000 words.

In short the best extended essays come from students who have a narrow and precise title and undertake significant data collection during the summer break. Over the coming months I will post further blogs with regards to the extended essay in terms of structure, do’s and don’ts etc.