This course tackles the big questions of economic growth, inequality, and sustainability. It introduces students to a range of contemporary debates, frameworks, and insights and helps students to apply them to produce technically sound and politically attractive policy advice on real-world problems. Through a mix of lectures, interactive case workshops, and the writing of case papers, the course exposes students to the key policy debates of our time and helps them to improve their analytical and writing skills.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Use contemporary economic frameworks and ideas to understand some of the key challenges facing policymakers.
- Critically and accurately assess, construct, and communicate arguments on key economic policy issues.
- Integrate political considerations into policy analysis.
- Communicate arguments and evidence in a logical and structured manner.
- Effectively and accurately use and cite sources to support arguments.
Other Information
The course involves a mixture of lectures, seminars, and individual consultations.
Essays: Students must complete three essays - one per theme of the course. These provide a link between theory and practice and allow students to demonstrate not only an understanding of key frameworks, techniques and insights, and challenges facing policy makers, but also their ability to argue in favour of a particular approach or solution. The first essay is due in week 6.
A note about essay weightings for Essay 1 and 2: out of these two assessments, the strongest essay will be worth 40% and the weakest will be worth 10%.
Essay 1 and 2 are dependent on each other, 50% overall, with a 40/10 breakdown, with the choice being dependent on the results.
Essay 3: worth 40%.
Caveat: If for Essays 1 & 2, a student has been judged to have not made a genuine effort - or if there are issues with academic misconduct - then all three essays will carry the same weight (30% each).
Indicative Assessment
- Essay 1 (1,500 words; sliding weighting, either 40% or 10%) (40) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
- Essay 2 (1,500 words; sliding weighting, either 10% or 40%) (10) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
- Essay 3 (1,500 words) (40) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
- Debate and participation (10) [LO 1,2,3,4]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
The standard workload for a 6 unit course is 130 hours including in class time and independent study.
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable.
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Growth, Inequality and the Environment: An Introduction to Some of the Big Ideas and Debates of our Time by Stephen Howes, Vishesh Agarwal, and Matthew Woolf. This book has grown out of the lecture notes for the course and will be available on Wattle. Hard copies will also be made available to students.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 34
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $5280 | Standard Rate |
| 2025 | $3840 |
Grandfathered Rate*
*continuing students in nominated programs only. See fee website |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $6720 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.