Overview on how to Write an Economics Essay
Economics essays are a requisite in the examination of individuals pursuing economics or other related fields. They are used as an avenue for scholars to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts, theories, and relevant bodies of knowledge and their application in real life scenarios.
Due to the nature of economics as a discipline, economics essays are some on the most engaging essays. They are quite technical in approach and have to consider a multitude of factors in the development of their arguments.
This is a critical consideration when it comes to how to write an essay. Such essays have to focus on some areas that determine their quality. Some of these areas include:
a) Understanding the Economics Essay Requirements
Usually, economics essays seek to evaluate the relationships between different economic variables. Such questions demands that you correctly determine the number of relationships that need to explored. A typical economics question could be as illustrated below.
Q. Explore the impacts of an increase in commodity prices coupled with a decline in individual incomes on the market demand.
The above question is good example of the type of relationships economics essays seek to examine. Per se, this question requires you to examine two sets of relationships.
a) The relationship between increase in commodity prices and demand.
b) The relationship between decline in individual incomes and demand.
Answering the above essay questions requires you to first consider the two sets of questions separately. Keeping in mind that you need to address both of these questions is critical in ensuring that you remain on course in your answer.
Then you are supposed to go ahead and combine the two questions in one essay answer, ensuring that each set of question is addressed equally and adequately. It is important to ensure that all the sentences and paragraphs written answer specific question(s).
Content that does not answer the question(s) should be avoided.
b) Evaluation in Answering the Economics Essay Question
This is the most important part of an economics essay. It is essential to understand that shifts in and interactions between different economics variables is likely to result into a multitude of economic situations. To begin with, economics essays could require you to conduct either a macro evaluation or a micro evaluation.
In economics, both types of analyses are likely to yield different and numerous situations.
In the above question for instance, evaluation of the first set of question (The relationship between increase in commodity prices and demand should explore how increase in product prices influences the consumer’s purchase power).
In this case, it will be important to note that some commodities do not obey the normal demand and supply curves (Giffen goods). Precious commodities like gold, diamonds, and art are likely to experience an increase in demand with increase in prices.
Demand Curve for Normal Goods
Figure 1. Demand Curve for Normal Goods (As price of a good increases, its demand declines).
Demand Curve for Giffen Goods
Figure 2. Demand Curve for Giffen Goods (As the price of the good increases, its demand increases as well).
As illustrated above, an answer arguing that increase in the price of commodities results into a decline in demand could be correct. As well, an opposite argument could be correct. It is therefore important to consider both scenarios when answering the economics essay question.