EC7101: Analyses Consumer and Producer Behaviour in an Industry: Applied Microeconomics for Business Assignment, NUI

Project Details:

Prepare a 2000-word report (excluding tables and charts) that analyses consumer and producer behaviour in an industry that you are familiar with. The report should be roughly evenly split between the consumer side and the producer side. You should try to incorporate most of the analytical concepts discussed in the module.

The first thing to do is to pick your industry. Be clever in your choice. Don’t pick an industry where nothing much happens. I recommend that you email me your choice of the industry before you start writing the assignment. A brief note explaining your choice would be useful as well.

Section 1 (100 words): Description of an industry that you will focus on and reason for doing so (re-use what you have written in number 3 above).

Section 2 (200 words): More detail on some of the key issues in the industry. Make sure you cover both the consumer and producer perspectives. Use economic data to inform the reader about the industry.

Section 3 (1,500 words): Identify and explain the various analytical concepts that you think are of interest to your industry. For example, if price discrimination is a relevant strategy explain to a non-specialist what price discrimination means. Likewise, if you think that the rational choice model cannot explain all aspects of consumer behaviour in this industry, explain why and outline how behavioural economics might be able to do so instead. Are there interesting strategic questions that could be analysed using game theory?

Section 4: (200 words): Brief wrap-up of main findings and a reflection on what you have learned.