Case Study - Italy.. Good or bad idea? (2 Viewers)

[stellina91]

Hey guys,

I would like to do Italy for my Case Study as I am well aware of the Italian economy. Furthermore, reading the Italian newspapers will also benefit by Italian as well as Economics as I am also studying Italian. I have a great interest in Italy and I believe I could do well in this area and furthermore, I would be different to everybody else.

Do you think it's a good or bad idea?


Thanks.

 

[Kaatie]

At first i would say bad idea because it is best to choose somewhere like brazil/china/poland but it will help with your italian ALOT. however there will be alot less information other than the newspapers of course. But searching for economic news weekly and translating it to get alot of little info when you want alot on the history of the economy isnt so good. id advise to choose a different economy unless you want your italian to be your best subject then of course choose italy

 

[Dan2008]

Hey! Yeah the case study involves a fair bit of historical info on how globalisation has affected an economy ... and unless you really love researching, then i'd be going to the nearest textbook and learning what they've got for you! I'd go with Brazil or China

 

[untitled....]

I read somewhere that you should do tranistion or NIE's because then you can have the pros and cons. If you do a developed country you'll probably end up only getting the good side of globalisation.

 

[munchiecrunchie]

I read somewhere that you should do tranistion or NIE's because then you can have the pros and cons. If you do a developed country you'll probably end up only getting the good side of globalisation.

qft. i don't know much about the Italian economy, but you're going to find it very hard to gather info on it. also, as above, you want to cover as much as you can from the syllabus about globalisation, and so i would suggest that you stick to a NIEs or transition economy. You should also probably think long term + potential essay questions for the HSC, and choosing an Asian economy that links with Australia eg China could be a significant advantage when explaining the effects of globalisation on more than one economy.

 

[gnrlies]

Actually italy is a very interesting economy to examine. In particular its integration into the EU has had very specific influences within the Italian economy. Italy is not too different to many of the more commonly studied countries except that many of the key changes occured earlier (starting from post world war 2).

There are some interesting things to talk about such as IRI (the state company holding system), the opening of coal and steel markets (and later manufacturing) upon signing of the Rome and Paris treaties, and various monetary reforms that had taken place in order to be a part of the Euro currency. Italy is a very export driven economy so theres a lot you can write about (particularly with respect to the EU). But you can also write about the threats assosciated with globalisation (in particular the competition from Asia and other emerging regions). Indeed for many years Italy ran successive devaluations of the Lire in order to improve trade.

But some of the comments made by people above are valid. Make sure you can get information. You might think you know the Italian economy, but you might be surprised if you are asked to write an essay on how globalisation has affected Italy. You will need to do some research. But dont feel as though you cannot do it because its not Brazil, China or Ireland (the three most common case studies). In fact many teachers will find your case study a lot more interesting because much of your information will be new to them (trust me reading hundreds of papers on China turns the brain into mashed rice)