TU-91.2043 International Economics

1. TU-91.2043International Economics Guidelines about the group assignment and the poster presentation 2014

2. Written Report About 10-15 pages, • depends a lot on how many people are in the group and • how much tables, graphs and the like are used Should be topical so that new material (e.g. recent news articles, press releases etc.) can be used. • However, understanding the present requires understanding the past so a historical introduction is also important (although there is a lot of discretion as to how much history is emphasized) To receive good points requires you to • Engage in economic analysis: mere reporting of events is not enough but you must use economic theory to make sense of those events • Write clearly and explain thoroughly • Use sources appropriately

3. Rough Outline of the Report In a more abstract sense the report could look something like • Introduction: a brief outline of what you are going to do • Historical outlook of the topic at hand • Current events with an explanation of the economics at play • Synthesis: analysis of the events using economic theory • Conclusions: what have you learnt, how do you see the future unveiling?

4. Written Report If something puzzles you about the structure/content of your report, ask in advance: we are very flexible ex-ante but not always so much ex-post However, there is a lot of wiggle room: we don’t want to constrain your creativity! Just remember to • Discuss both history and current events, • Use an analytical, economics-based approach • Formulate your findings in a logical order

5. Posterexamples NOT likethis: YES, this[1] is better: Takenfrom: http://www.lehigh.edu/symposium/2009/cbe/attach/LuPoster.pdf

6. The Posters Your poster should be a large (A1, or so, you may use your own judgment) piece of paper where you present the findings and background information of your Event Assignment • You may put together your poster from smaller pieces of paper, but the Department of Computer Science allows for the printing of large posters. More information about this will be coming as soon. • The poster should be more or less self-contained so don’t just list random pieces of material. A reader should get something out of it even without you explaining the content in person • You can also limit yourself to covering something particularly interesting or topical so there is no need to present all your findings: use your judgment as to what would make for an interesting presentation! To make it interesting, the poster should include pictures, graphs etc.: no one wants to stop in front of a poster containing just text

7. The Poster Session Each group will get a stand where their poster will be hung (in the TUAS-building lobby) Groups will present their posters by explaining the content and answering to questions made by other students circulating around • First, half of the groups will stand in front of their posters while the other half circulates around them, asking questions and listening to the presentations • Then, the roles will be reversed so that each group will both get the chance to present their findings and listen to the findings of others

8. Use of References 1/2 References have two main functions • Convey information about the source of ideas i.e. Are you writing down your own thoughts or are you using ideas that come from someone else? This is usually well understood and there are rarely any problems • Distinguishing between one’s own and someone else’s text i.e. Are you writing down your own words or are you using the direct text of another author? Here it is often forgotten that whenever direct text is copy-pasted from another source, the reader has to be aware of this and so e.g. quotation marks must be used. Otherwise you are crediting someone else’s work to yourself and are guilty of plagiarism! Note: Minor modifications to another person’s text still constitutes plagiarism!

9. Use of References 2/2 For more information about the use of references and academic misconduct at Aalto, see the following document: https://into.aalto.fi/display/enregulations/Aalto+University+Code+of+Academic+Integrity+and+Handling+Violations+Thereof

10. Bad Example from a Previous Year Taken from Stark J. (2009). Monetary Policy Before, During and After the Financial Crisis. Speech at the University of Tübingen. 9.11.2009.http://www.bis.org/review/r091113e.pdf “Technically speaking, you could say that the ECB used its balance sheet to grant banks access to liquidity that was no longer available in the interbank market. Seen from a more philosophical perspective, the ECB employed the trust euro area citizens have in the institution and its currency to overcome a situation in which trust was scarce and badly needed. With trust comes responsibility to use it only for worthy causes. The ECB is well aware of this enormous responsibility, and its decisions are guided by it.” “The decision to buy covered bonds, for example, was based on the insight that this asset class deserved our support as its underlying incentive structure was, and is, sound and its economic basis robust.” ” Most of our liquidity provision rests on refinancing operations, which have the character of repurchase agreements, and are thus temporary loans.“ Note: question marks were not used and the original source was not identified

11. Using sources Quoting a sourcedirectly • Samewords, sameorder • Quotesareabsolutelynecessary • Mentioningsource is absolutelynecessary Paraphrasing • Samecontent, differentwords • Mentioningsource is absolutelynecessary

12. So what if a report contains plagiarism? Even if your analysis gives no reason to suspect foul play, we will nevertheless check a few ”most likely” sentences from all reports. So the likelihood of getting caught is not small! In case the material turns out to be plagiarized, we will check the rest of the report in detail. • Because accidents do happen, if the report contains no more problems, all is well. • However, in case there is more widespread and systematic misconduct, an official process will be started immediately, without exceptions.

13. So what if a report contains plagiarism? continued The process goes roughly as follows • Course staff collects preliminary evidence concerning academic misconduct • The evidence is handed over to the head of student services who starts an official inquiry • All group members will be heard and treated as individuals, not group members • Each student is either found guilty of misconduct or not (again, as individuals) If receiving the course credits as soon as possible is really important for you, then you can convince me that you had no part in any wrongdoing and you will be granted the credits in time, which are ex-post taken away in case the official inquiry finds you guilty.

14. Dates and Dead-Lines DL for the poster will be the poster session itself onTue April 8th, 14.15 DL for the written assignment will be April 14th Exams on April 11th, 9-12 and May 12th, 17-20