7ECON021W International Economy and Financial Markets Assessment: Individual Report Semester 1, 2025/2026

WESTMINSTER BUSINESS SCHOOL SCHOOL OF ORGANISATIONS, ECONOMY, AND SOCIETY

Module Title: International Economy and Financial Markets
Module code: 7ECON021W.
Assessment title: Individual report.
Assessment weighting: 60% of the total module mark
Assessment deadline: Monday 8th Dec 2025 at 13:00 hours.
Submission method: Turnitin via the module blackboard site.
Date and form of feedback: Monday 22nd Dec 2025 online feedback.

Assessment format: Individual report.
Word limit or Length of presentation: 2000 words

Semester 1, 2025/2026

ASSESSMENT BRIEFING

The assessment

As a trade policy advisor to a country seeking to boost her economy through trade and investment, you have been asked to critically analyse policy measures that could be taken by your client to boost trade, and investments with a country of your choice. Owing to the prevailing geopolitical tensions at the global level, you have been instructed by your client to ensure that the policy measures that you are advocating are resilient enough to resist an onslaught of harsh economic and financial sanctions from major trading partners.

You are required to support your advice with sound economic reasoning, vital statistics, and relevant trade theories you consider appropriate.

Helpful video materials accompanying the question:

America v China: why the trade war won’t end soon
The US-China trade war and how it impacts consumers – and the rest of the world | FAQ

Additional information and instructions

It is important that, wherever possible, you apply the concepts introduced in the module on trade theory to support your arguments. You must also support your arguments with essential data sources, including the Central Bank Reports, World Bank Reports, The IMF report, The Economist, Financial Times, Business Week, the internet, to support your arguments.

SUGGESTED OUTLINE OF YOUR DISCUSSION

Introduction and brief background information on the benefits of international trade and how countries can gain from trade. Provide a clear statement of the problem (the prospect of weaponizing trade relationship to destroy an economy) and state your objectives. (Approximately 300 words)

Provide a critical discussion of the significance and benefits of international trade to economic wellbeing of the country that you have chosen and reinforce your discussion with sound and clear application of 2-3 trade theories. Provide relevant statistics and trend analyses of: GDP, trade balance, import/export, major trading partners etc to support your arguments. Emphasise how trade has contributed to the economic wellbeing and prosperity of the country, citing per capital income, GNI, capital inflow of FDI and FII, suggest steps that could be taken to harness and sustain trade. (Approximately 1000 words)

Consider the depth of social-economic losses the country could suffer if trade and economic ties were severed abruptly and replaced with a raft of punitive sanctions and trade embargoes by the country’s major trading partners earlier mentioned. Come up with sound and thoughtful suggestions of preventative measures that could be taken to avert or minimise consequences of an imaginary trade war with the country’s trading partners. (Approximately 500 words)

Discuss the effectiveness of your suggestions and their policy implications. Comment on how your suggestion might enhance or threaten globalisation in its present form. (200 words)

General conclusion and reinforcement of key arguments.

Reference list (mainly from journal articles. Must be relevant to the topic, properly cited and arranged in alphabetical order, using “site right”)
Above are suggestions only and they do not represent official directives from your lecturer.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED

The above assessment seeks to ascertain critical knowledge of the learning outcomes outlined below.

Deal with complex problems associated with capital movement and international investment decision making.
Provide a systematic comparison of the activity of various financial institutions and evaluate new developments in global financial markets.
Critically analyse the factors that contributed to international debt crisis and evaluate the implications of various policies for emerging markets and the global economy and communicate their conclusions to a specialist or nonspecialist audience. (Los: 2, 3, 4, 5)

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The assessment criteria and weightings show you what is important in the assessment and how marks are shared across each criterion. When you are completing your assessment remember you need to fulfil the brief and the assessment criteria below.

Specifically, the project will be marked on the following criteria.

Criterion	Weigttig	Discussion to include
Overall presentation skill, including organisation, delivery, content, language and ability to engage a professional audience	20%	Clear Executive Summary; Thoughtful introduction with good background analysis; Clear titles, logical flows of thoughts, sound economic and financial reasoning, logical flow and good use of English. Thorough understanding of economics and financial concepts.
Knowledge of the question and evidence of research.	20%	Good knowledge of benefits and disbenefits of international trade, trade investments and major tools of economic warfare, Sanction countermeasures and means of resistance and economic resilience,
Application of relevant theories in addressing the problem	20%	Sound knowledge of trade theories and their contextual application in addressing global economic and financial challenges,
Thoughtful and critical analysis with sound recommendations	40%	Critical argument: Independent thought; Application of knowledge gained from more than one subject area; Analysis is thorough, appropriate and thoughtful, Critical understanding of how trade and investment (among others) could be weaponised and deployed as tools of economic warfare and their efficacy, Means of mounting defensive countermeasures and effective economic resilience, Use of recent case studies to support arguments, Provision of thoughtful conclusion and inciteful recommendations.
Total	100

Generic Marking criteria the assessments

80-100 An outstanding piece of work: All assessment criteria have been met at an exceptionally high standard.

Displays exceptional initiative, creativity, sophistication, and originality.
Provides insightful analysis.
Demonstrates originality and rigour of argument.
Shows independent synthesis of ideas and understanding.
Demonstrates reflexivity and critical analysis to generate transformative solutions/responses.
Demonstrates substantial independent research.
Communicates complexity clearly and succinctly with excellent standard of presentation.

70-79 An excellent piece of work: All assessment criteria have been met at a high standard.

Demonstrates sophisticated understanding across the field of study and related areas.
Draws on a range of techniques and information sources for independent analysis.
Demonstrates creativity and flair in task/enquiry.
Provides robust and insightful argument.
Provides a high quality critical and reflexive analysis.
Demonstrates substantial independent research
Communicates ideas clearly and succinctly with good standard of presentation.

60-69 A good piece of work: All assessment criteria have been met at a good standard.

Demonstrates breadth and/or depth of understanding across the field of study and related areas.
Synthesises knowledge to address task/enquiry.
Presents argument cogently and clearly.
Demonstrates extensive research and critical use of resources.
Communicates ideas clearly with a good standard of presentation.

50-59 A sound piece of work: All assessment criteria have clearly been met.

Demonstrates understanding of appropriate range of concepts and theoretical approaches.
Provides an argument to frame response to enquiry/task.
Uses a range of relevant sources provided to undertake research.
Undertakes meaningful analysis/reflection in relation to the enquiry/task.
Communicates ideas using an appropriate format with few weaknesses in presentation.

40-49 FAIL: An inadequate piece of work: One or more relevant assessment criteria are not met.

Provides clear limitations in the range of concepts/principles explored
Demonstrates lack of clarity and depth of understanding in relation to the task/enquiry.
Uses a narrow range of sources to support task/enquiry.
Provides limited analysis/reflection.
Communication is unclear with significant weaknesses in presentation.

39-0 FAIL: A poor piece of work: Most of the relevant assessment criteria area not been met.

Demonstrates poor understanding of key concepts and principles.
Shows significant weaknesses and omissions in completing the task.
Omits analysis/reflection.
Uses inadequate information sources.
Communication is unclear with significant weaknesses in presentation.

The University has arrangements for marking, internal moderation, and external scrutiny. Further information can be found in Section 12 of the Handbook of Academic Regulations.

ANONYMOUS MARKING

Do NOT include your name or student number within the file name or anywhere within your submission. The submission will be subject to anonymous marking. Having logged into blackboard the system will record your details anonymously and tutors will only see your name after the entire submission has been assessed and provisional marks have been released to all students at the same time.

REFERENCING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ASSESSMENT

Statements, assertions, and ideas made in coursework should be supported by citing relevant sources. Sources cited in the text should be listed at the end of the assignment in a reference list. Any material that you read but do not cite in the report should go into a separate bibliography. Unless explicitly stated otherwise by the module teaching team, all referencing should be in Cite Them Right referencing format. If you are not sure about this, the library provides guidance (available via the library website pages): Referencing

THE DEADLINE AND SUBMITTING YOUR COURSEWORK CHECKES

Unless indicated otherwise, coursework is submitted via Blackboard.

The deadline for this assessment is at 13:00 UK time. This means that your work should be fully uploaded before 13:00. The University would treat your submission as late if your work has not been fully uploaded and stored on the server before 13:00. To avoid your submission being marked as late, you should upload your work as soon as possible before the deadline and must not wait until or just before the deadline to start uploading your work.

At busy times the coursework submission process may run slowly. To ensure that your submission is not recorded as a late submission, avoid submitting very close to the deadline.

To submit your assignment:

Log on to Blackboard at University of Westminster
Go to the Blackboard site for this module.
Click on the ‘Assessment’ area for the module.
Click on the link the name of the submission link for the assignment to submit.
Follow the instructions, ensuring that you have selected the correct file to upload.

PENALTIES FOR LATE SUBMISSION AND ADVICE ABOUT MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES

Any assessment submitted late online will be penalised unless you submit a claim for Mitigating Circumstances (MC) and the claim is accepted by the Registry.

Check this page for more information about mitigating circumstances:

Mitigating circumstances claims

If you do not submit an MC claim or if your MC claim is rejected, then your work will be penalised. If you submit your assessment late but within 24 hours or one ‘working’ day of the specified deadline, 10% of the overall marks available for that assessment will be deducted as a penalty for late submission, except for work which is marked in the marginal pass rate range 40-49%. In this case the mark will be capped at the pass mark 40%.

If you submit your coursework more than 24 hours late after the specified deadline you will be given a mark of zero for the work in question unless the Mitigating Circumstances claim has been accepted officially by the Registry.

ACADEMIC SUPPORT & FEEDBACK ARRANGEMENT

For this assessment there will be an opportunity for an academic support & feedback drop-in session, where you will receive support and feedback on your assessment prior to submission. Further details are provided in the module handbook. There will also be opportunities to receive academic support during lectures through allocated questions and answers sessions and through the discussion board on the module blackboard site.

After submission, summative feedback will be provided online via blackboard, where feedback takes the form of an indication of performance on the provided making grid.

You will also receive a number on key points of strength, weakness, and academic skills you can improve upon.
We aim to provide you this feedback within 15 working days (Date for feedback is:) and after the feedback has been released online there will also be an opportunity to meet with marker for oral feedback by appointment with the marker.

If you are unsure about how to see your provisional marks and feedback, the following LINK will explain how you cand do this – Marks And Feedback (Students)

General feedback for the entire module will also be made via blackboard to the module, which will discuss the key areas of shared strengths, weaknesses, and academic skills improvements. This general feedback is likely to be issued before your specific summative feedback and we would strongly encourage you to read this feedback to improve your understanding of the module and potentially areas of weaknesses in your academic skills which you could develop before your next submission within your course