PRICES AND MARKETS ECON1247/ECON 1275

Project Title: Life Project Analysis of Café and Coffee Shops (25%)

PROJECT – Team Submission Form

To be completed and given to your teacher by week ending Friday 13 March 2015 during class

1. Students within a team must be from the same class.
2. Three to five students may undertake the team submission. To begin with, you need to start off

with four students per team.

3. Each student within a team will be awarded the same result for this piece of assessment.
4. Students are advised to carefully consider team submission. Teachers will not consider requests

for special consideration in cases where students do not complete assessment requirements due to the failure of group members to participate in the completion of the project.

Student names and student numbers

1. ________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________________________

Student Signatures

1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

4. _______________________________________________________

5. _______________________________________________________

Teacher :

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Project Guidelines

Project Overview

This project provides students with an opportunity to research into life microeconomic aspects of the Café and Coffee Shops industry.

The aim of the project is to give students an opportunity to apply microeconomic concepts and tools covered in class to a practical context.

Project objectives.

This project covers the following course learning outcomes:

CLO 1: understand the basic microeconomic problems facing society

CLO 2: understand the interaction of demand and supply in the market place

CLO 3: demonstrate some familiarity with sources of business data

CLO 6: have an awareness of the possible causes of market failure and the role of the government CLO 7: understand concepts and analyse problems, both numerically and diagrammatically, rather

than attempting to memorise and quote correct answers

CLO 8: be able to apply simple microeconomic theory, using appropriate techniques, to some practical problems.

Submission Requirements

The project is to be completed and submitted by Thursday 16 April 2015 by 23:59 via

Turnitin. Turnitin will close thereafter. The project needs to be submitted by one student per team only.

Projects not received by the due date will be penalised at a rate of 10% of the overall

mark per day. For late submissions, permission needs to be granted by the Course Coordinator for obligatory submission through Turnitin.

Students are required to retain a copy of their project.

The project accounts for 25% of the total assessment for this course and should be 2200 words, plus/minus 10%. Project teams must provide a word count. Projects exceeding

the specified word limit will be penalised by 1 mark for every 100 words exceeding the

limit. It is expected to use the RMIT Harvard Referencing Method (see Blackboard: Assessment, Project Requirements).

Your project must provide a table of contents, references and any appendices, if required. These do NOT count toward your word limit.

Tea m submissions:

 It is recommended that students allocate tasks evenly between each other. Each

team member must sign an agreed equity of contribution policy (EOC, see

Blackboard: Assessment, Project Requirements) to be downloaded, signed and submitted in person with his/hers project to their lecturer.

   Students working together on this project will receive the same mark.

In this project, the following documents need to be submitted:

1. a) ALL students working together MUST COMPLETE and SIGN the team submission

form or the project will NOT be accepted (see page 1 of this document – due week

ending Friday 13 March 2015 – when their class is due)

1. b) ALL students must read, fully complete and sign the Equity of Contribution Policy

(see Blackboard: Assessment, Project Requirements ) and submit it to their lecturer by week ending Friday 13 March 2015 – when their class is due .

1. c) Students must carefully read, fully complete and sign the Assignment Cover Sheet

(see Blackboard: Assessment, Project Requirements) and submit it via turnitin with their project by Thursday 16 April 2015.

7. Students are required to :

 acknowledge all sources of information (including websites and images) and,

 Provide a reference list of cited texts in alphabetical order (see Blackboard:

Assessment, Project Requirements)

RMIT treats plagiarism seriously and the consequences can be severe including: failure

of the assessment task, failure of the course, and having your qualification cancelled after you have graduated.

   Students are not to use Wikipedia as a reference as any person with no expertise

can add to the website. Hence Wikipedia is an unreliable source of information.

Students are advised to use academic resources which RMIT (and your student fees) pay to access.

   Students are to use their own words to demonstrate understanding of the economic

theory and its application. It is not acceptable to cut and paste vast slabs of

information from unreferenced websites- this is called plagiarism and students will face penalties for this.

PROJECT TASK

 Scenario

You are a Freelance Economics Consultant who has been commissioned by the

Commonwealth Government to analyse the state of affairs in the industry of Cafes and Coffee Shops in Australia and report your findings to the Government.

Task

 Access the IBIS World report on the industry of Cafés and Coffee Shops and answer the questions below, in your own words.

To access the IBIS World Report, go to RMIT’s home page. Then select ‘Library’ and

launch ‘Databases A-Z’. After this, select the popular database of ‘IBIS World.’ Once in

the database, search for ‘Cafes and Coffee Shops in Australia.’

 You can also use any other resources you find relevant during your research.

1. Overview and Market Structure

1. Provide a brief overview of the industry i.e. a definition of this industry, its products and

main activity.                                                          (maximum 40 words)

1. Identify the market structure of the industry. Explain how you reached your decision

using economic theory.

(maximum 200 words)

2. Demand and Supply Analysis

III.

Using demand theory, analyse the conditions of demand that are prevailing in this industry.

(maximum 230 words)

Using supply theory, analyse the conditions of supply that are prevailing in this industry.

(maximum 230 words)

3. Market Analysis

VII.

Market for Coffee:

1. So far, you examined the industry for Coffee and Related Products. Consider now

the Market for Coffee specifically. Using a demand and supply diagram, illustrate

the initial situation in the market for Coffee in Australia, clearly identifying the equilibrium price and quantity. Provide a brief explanation.

1. Based on the information available about the market, decide on the overall

changes to demand and/or supply in the next few years and illustrate these in the graph clearly labelling the changes clearly. Explain your answer in part A above as to how you came to those conclusions.

(maximum 450 words)

 Elasticity

1. Define and briefly explain the concepts of price and income elasticity.
2. Using economic theory and facts discuss and explain the probable price

sensitivity of coffee.

1. Would a rise in the price of coffee have any impact on cigarettes? Explain.

(maximum 300 words)

Government intervention.

1. Outline the existing level of government intervention in this industry of Coffee and

Related Products based on the information available. Give two examples of government intervention noted in the report.

1. In your opinion, explain whether you believe the level of government intervention

is impacting the industry and how. Consider both the firm and the consumer perspectives.

(maximum 300 words)

Further Analysis of the Market

VIII.

In your opinion, explain whether you believe there is any type of externality present in the market for Coffee. If an externality is present, describe what action is available to the government in order to eliminate the externality. Illustrate both situations using a

graph clearly labelling the initial situation and the one after government intervention.

(maximum 450 words)

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