Macroeconomic Essay
From the Hubbard text supplemental materials:
In their best-selling book Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (2005) argue that cheating is part of human behavior. Evidence that some people cheat surfaced in the summer of 2011 when the superintendent of the board of the Atlanta school district resigned after a report documented widespread cheating on standardized tests that implicated officials from about 80 percent of Atlanta’s elementary and middle schools (Jonsson, 2011). Following an investigation of the scandal, three dozen teachers and administrators were due to stand trial in 2013 for coaching students and changing their answers in order to improve test results. Since then, most of the educators have pleaded guilty (McCauley, 2013). On Monday, August 11, 2014, the trail began for the remaining 12 educators who did not plead guilty (Beasley, 2014).
Steven Levitt and other economists assume that decision makers—students and nonstudents alike—are rational. They compare the benefits and costs of their options and make choices for which the expected benefits exceed the expected costs. The benefits of (successful) cheating may be monetary; for example, K–12 teachers in some states are eligible for bonus payments of up to $25,000 if their students perform well on standardized tests.
New technology has made it easier for high school and college students to cheat. The widespread use of cell phones and Internet access makes it easier (less costly) to share exam answers and buy term papers. Of course, cheating is also a moral matter for many people. For these people, one of the costs of cheating is the guilt they will feel for violating the rules governing the activity they are engaged in.
For this essay, present an economic analysis of academic “cheating” – including costs and benefits for the cheater, costs of monitoring, and costs to other students. Write your essay in narrative form (not enumerated question & answer form), including answers to the following questions in your narrative:
•What were the circumstances that surrounded the teacher cheating in the Atlanta school system? Could the cheating have been prevented? At what cost? Was the “reward” exceptionally high for the cheaters?
•Under what circumstances might a student cheat on an exam?Under what circumstances might a student plagiarize some portion of a paper? Can such cheating be prevented? At what cost?
•In their book, Levitt and Dubner present other cases of cheating, and claim that everybody cheats or lies at some time. Their position is that, as with any rational decision, people will cheat if they perceive the cost and impact of cheating to be low, if the probability of getting caught is low, if the stakes are high, or if the reward for cheating is exceptionally high. Do you agree? Explain.
The essay body should be 2 – 3 pages. No more than 5% of the essay can be directly quoted. At least one valid source
Answer Preview
The cheating by teachers in the school system of Atlanta was surrounded by various circumstances. Among the circumstances that contributed to the cheating was the school ranking system which influenced the teachers to cheat in order to protect the reputation of their schools (In Smith, W. C., & Edwards, D. B. 2016). The promotions of schools and the federal aid…
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