Extended Essay in Economics - Is the refugee crisis on the German economy a good idea? - Help with research question -

[TOM300]

Hello!

I am writing my extended essay in economics and on the topic of the refugee crisis on the German economy, of course this topic is too brought and I tried to narrow it down a little as the question can be seen below. At the moment I am concentrating to finish my essay, but since it's the first time for my school and teacher to have an EE in economics I am desperate for any good help or advise.

I need some input to my research question, I am struggling to find or change it properly, so that its not getting too long, but that also includes the topics from the syllabus that can be properly related to it. 

Also, should I emphasize and use many diagrams and is primary research important, I would like to have some input from some IB veterans or teachers that have experience with the examiner reports, since my school is in that regard useless.

- Here are some Topics I have included:

- Labour market and the refugee impacts- perhaps the cost of integration opportunity cost

- The political implications

- In regard to the ageing population and the new labour force

- Productivity

- Economic growth

- productivity

Research question: The effect of the refugee crisis on the German labour market and is it able to resolve the economic issue of the ageing population?

 

Thanks!

[Krodini]

- Primary research is not needed, it's nice to have but it's not required for a successful EE (albeit, the secondary research needs to be on point). Data from government websites and reputable sources. Find correlation and talk about it then explain why using economic theory. Most important thing is to explain using economic theory BUT relate it to both the data and don't make it general analysis. Also, make sure to evaluate the implications. What I mean is talk about the limitations of economic theory and your research. 

 

- You definitely don't need to talk about political implications unless its one of your short points. Its an ECON EE remember . 

- If you haven't started fully I would suggest you change your topic unless you know you can make it good. Just because I feel like its much easier to write an effective ECON EE on microeconomics with externalities as you could talk about external costs and elasticity etc. Do your own calculations on PED and XED and evaluate it etc. But if you think its good then go ahead. I personally did mine on elasticities of demand and externalities to determine if it truly had an impact by evaluating them relative to each other with economic theory. Soooooooooo yeah good luck fellow IB soldier lmao. It's gonna be an annoying task but if you finish it early it'll be a nice prospect. Good Luck! 😉 

[TOM300]

9 hours ago, Krodini said:

- Primary research is not needed, it's nice to have but it's not required for a successful EE (albeit, the secondary research needs to be on point). Data from government websites and reputable sources. Find correlation and talk about it then explain why using economic theory. Most important thing is to explain using economic theory BUT relate it to both the data and don't make it general analysis. Also, make sure to evaluate the implications. What I mean is talk about the limitations of economic theory and your research. 

- You definitely don't need to talk about political implications unless its one of your short points. Its an ECON EE remember . 

- If you haven't started fully I would suggest you change your topic unless you know you can make it good. Just because I feel like its much easier to write an effective ECON EE on microeconomics with externalities as you could talk about external costs and elasticity etc. Do your own calculations on PED and XED and evaluate it etc. But if you think its good then go ahead. I personally did mine on elasticities of demand and externalities to determine if it truly had an impact by evaluating them relative to each other with economic theory. Soooooooooo yeah good luck fellow IB soldier lmao. It's gonna be an annoying task but if you finish it early it'll be a nice prospect. Good Luck! 😉 

Thank you for your reply first overall

I have done some research and i have gotten up to about 2400words, i don’t know if i should turn back or not, there is lots of economic data from the EU and the german government and i like the topic. My problem was just the missing guidance from my teacher, thats why i messed up my research question in the first place, now i have to adapt my essay to my research question, but it should not be that difficult, i just have to condense it down and make it more concise on the topics i want to focus on. 
I mean i can always start new but what would be some alternative topics be? I like politics and recent scandals, i don't know the disel-gate would be one thing, Brexit of course or something free trade related like US and china, these are just some ideas.