IA (Eco) Economics Internal Assessment: Evaluation part

[dniviE]

Even though there are several guides here on IBS on how to write the Evaluation in Economics Internal Assessment I thought I could add this to it! There is a very useful acronym that can be used for evaluating in Economics IAs called CLASPP. Under is the explanation of the different letters and what you should aim at doing in the evaluation and the individual points/letters.

(d.) — A clasp is some­thing that holds things together. But (spelled with 2 P’s) it’s also an acronym for the 6 types of eval­u­a­tion in IB Economics.

Try to do all 6 parts.

Con­clu­sions

• What can we con­clude from the the­ory (that you’ve explained in your analysis)?
  

Long-term and short-term effects

• Is the change good in the short-term, but over in a few years it will have unde­sir­able consequences?
  
• Will the pol­icy be really hard on peo­ple in the short-run, but it fixes the long-term problem?
  
• Will this pol­icy fix one prob­lem, but cre­ate another?
  

Assump­tions

• Are there some assump­tions being made, that the the­ory depends on that may not hold true? This is the same as “ceteris paribus” –the assump­tion that all other things are being held equal, when in fact they might not stay con­stant. Explain what might change and how that would effect your analysis.
  
• Tell us the weak­nesses in the theory?
  
• What is unre­al­is­tic about the theory?
  

Stake­hold­ers

• What effects would this pol­icy (i.e. an indi­rect tax) have on the gov­ern­ment, con­sumers, pro­duc­ers and the rest of society?
  
• Poli­cies (i.e. price ceil­ings) are often made with par­tic­u­lar stake­hold­ers in mind, so are there unde­sir­able effects on other par­ties (i.e. price increases for consumers)?
  
• Is the pol­icy great for some groups, but bad for others?
  

Pri­or­i­ties

• Dis­cussing the pri­or­i­ties of a soci­ety, or the gov­ern­ment is also a good way to keep things in per­spec­tive. A pol­icy like sub­si­diz­ing schools is good for fam­i­lies, good for the long-term macro econ­omy, but bad for tax pay­ers who don’t have chil­dren, what are the pri­or­i­ties as a society?
  
• Is there an impor­tant nor­ma­tive (i.e. val­ues aspect) that the the­ory doesn’t consider?
  

Pros and Cons

• What are the advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of this policy?
  
• What are the costs and the ben­e­fits of this policy?
  
• What are the argu­ments for and the argu­ments against this policy?
  
• This one is to double-check that you haven’t left any­thing out in the pre­ced­ing ones.
  

Just a heads-up; this is not actually my work - this is the work of IB Economics teacher Tim Woods. This particular part is taken from this webpage: http://www.timwoods....n-in-economics/. He also has other great resources on IB Economics, TOK, Extended Essay among other on his webpages. Check it out at http://www.timwoods.org/ (PS: the website can be a bit hard to navigate on, so be patient)!

Anyways, I found it and I thought it was great so I thought "Why not share it with fellow IBSers?". Enjoy.

EDIT: This has helped me a lot while writing my commentaries!

EDIT 2: THANKS FOR THE PINNING!

Edited December 18, 2012 by dniviE

[will_master_IB]

How can you manage to write everything necessary under 750 words?

[cricketcrazynerd]

In addition to CLASPP, my teacher also gave my class something called the PAST approach...here it is:

Prioritise existing arguments/solutions in order of importance, costs/benefits, effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses, advantages/disadvantages

Alternatives: examine the alternative arguments/solutions/viewpoints

Stakeholders: impact on different groups

Timeframes: weigh up short term vs long term impacts

[ibsurfer]

Alot of detail covered in the previous posts but I think the critical thing is not to be so binary in terms of the advantages and disadvantages.  Because it will become quite additive in nature and your IA will become quite superficial.  For example, some people likes to say that fiscal policy is "bad" because it uses up the government budget but doesn't this depend on whether the government is rich or not.  For governments that are rich e.g. Saudi Arabia, then they don't really care because they have lots of money and do not need to borrow money to finance their activities (which may lead to the rachet effect). 

[examfighter]

 

I have made several videos about how to get a level 7 in IB Economics. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCx2pJo1RXDDNdRGDGu1MFqAJuS31u15a