ECX2953-ECX5953 Economics

Assignment: Essay and Video

Kindly note that the tasks and guidelines for ECX2953 (undergraduate) and ECX5953 (postgraduate) differ. Refer below for further information

Instructions

Assignment: Essay and video

Due Date: Saturday of Week 10, 5 October 2024
Weighting/Value: 15%

Word limit: For ECX2950 students, must not exceed 1,000 words; For ECX5953 students, must not exceed 1,500 words (excluding references)

Video length:?For ECX2953 students, one minute; for ECX5953 students, two minutes?
Submission details: Submit one essay and one video via Moodle Assignment Submission.

Academic integrity:

The Moodle Submission will have the integrated Turnitin to check the similarity score (Pease see https://guides.lib.monash.edu/turnitin for more information). Please ensure the similarity score is lower than 20%; otherwise, essay will be returned for rewriting and late submission penalty will apply (see below).

·To reduce the similarity,

oFirst and foremost, complete your assignment by yourself independently.

oSecondly, you should NOT repeat the questions in your assignment tasks. This assignment is an essay, not answers to questions - so please embed these questions in your essay.

oThirdly, you may put all references in a separate document to be uploaded along with your main text.

oFourthly, make sure to upload your assignment coversheet separately along with your main text.

·Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. You should familiarise yourself with what is plagiarism and university guidelines on plagiarism available here.

Condition for use of generative AI: Generative AI tools are restricted for certain functions in this assessment task: In this assessment, you can use generative artificial intelligence (AI) for brainstorming only. Please do not copy/paste text. Any use of generative AI must be appropriately acknowledged (see Learn HQ).

·Penalties for late lodgement: Please read the following policy document for details:

Marking-and-Feedback-Procedure.pdf

In particular:

1.12 Unless an extension or special consideration has been granted, or otherwise specified in the learning management system, students who submit an assessment task after the due date will receive a late-submission penalty of 5 per cent of the available marks in that task. A further penalty of 5 per cent of the available marks will be applied for each additional day (24-hour period), or part thereof, the assessment task is overdue.

1.13 Tasks submitted more than seven days after the due date will not be marked.

·Assessment coversheet: Work submitted for assessment must be accompanied by a completed copy of the Faculty Cover Sheet which has been signed by the student. No assignment will be accepted or marked if it is not accompanied by a signed Cover Sheet. Your name, I.D. number, and the name of the staff member should be shown on the Cover Sheet.

Assignment cover link: https://www.monash.edu/business/current-students/course-planning-admin- resources-and-advice

·Assessment coversheet should be submitted as a SEPERATE document via Moodle Submission; otherwise, you may fail the compliance check.

·Please use the material available on how to write a good essay on the university website here:

·You should retain a copy of the work submitted until results are finalised.

Estimated return date: Marked assignments will be returned to students before the final exam.?Please retain the marked assignment until the result is finalised.

Additional information: Special Consideration: applications for special consideration for within semester assessment must be submitted to the Chief Examiner no later than two (2) university working days before the assignment due date. Please check eligibility requirements carefully. See http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html

Criteria for marking:

Citation requirements: Please follow Section 3.2 of Monash University Q Manual?for referencing and citation.

Details of task

Technology is having profound effects on long-term economic growth. Automation and digital advances are shifting labour demand away from routine low- to middle-level skills to higher-level and more sophisticated analytical, technical, and managerial skills. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world and blurring the difference between robots and human beings in terms of thinking capacities.

Since its release in November 2022, OpenAI's ChatGPT has been used to write cover letters, create a children's book, and even help students cheat on their essays (read Monash’s academic integrity policies?again).

However, more than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk, have urged artificial intelligence labs to pause development of the most advanced systems, warning in an open letter that A.I. tools present “profound risks to society and humanity.”

This assignment is to ask our economics students to research into the impact of technological advances on long-term economic growth, in particular, jobs, skills, and wages.

You may start with a classical economics paper by Richard Ball on the impact of technology on economic growth to get some economics backgrounds on this topic. The 2016 Economist paper is to address this issue in the context of IT revolution. A recent article by the Noble-prize winner Paul Krugman discusses the impacts of ChatGPT on skilled jobs. The 2023 McKinsey report updates the context by examining the impacts of AI and machine learning.

You need to search for more reference to enhance your understanding of this broad issue.

Reference

·Richard E. Ball (1957), “The Impact of Technology on Economic Growth”, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1957, Vol. 16, No. 3 pp. 281-290

·Economist (2016), The return of the machinery question

·Paul Krugman (2022), “Does ChatGPT Mean Robots Are Coming For the Skilled Jobs?”?The New York Times, Dec 6, 2022.

·McKinsey & Company (2023), Generative AI: How will it affect future jobs and workflows?

Task No 1

Write an essay to address the following issues/questions (this is not a comprehensive list and please feel free to add any issue you want to investigate):

·Within the macroeconomic context, explain the mechanism in which technological advances impact long-term economic growth.

·What is the “machinery question”? Is the question concerning current advances in AI (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Llama) different from the traditional “machinery question”?

·Do you agree that AI has the potential to replace the labour force in some professions? Use one or two real world examples to support your arguments [For ECX5953 students only].

·Why did Elon Musk, one of the original investors of OpenAI and the CEO of Tesla (which is an AI-intensive manufactory) argue that A.I. tools present “profound risks to society and humanity”?

·How will your own profession be affected by the advances in AI?

·From your reading, highlight some policy recommendations to alleviate the negative impact of AI on jobs, skills, and wages [For ECX5953 students only].

·Critically evaluate these policy recommendations [For ECX5953 students only].

Please note: students must write an essay to address these questions in a coherent way, rather than a Q&A style. writing.

Task No 2:

Please create a video [For ECX2953 students, one minute in length; for ECX5953 students, 2 minutes in length]?to succinctly encapsulate your primary research outcomes. Ensure that your face is clearly visible, alongside a legible Monash ID card, akin to a TV presenter, as depicted in the image. During the video, explain the principal narrative of your essay in words without?using PowerPoint slides.?