2024 Highest Scoring State ESSAYS

Avery Murray, CR Jefferson, Large School Division

Sofie Ahari, Mason City, Small School Division

ECONOMICS ESSAY PROMPT: Describe Robert Solow’s model of economic growth, emphasizing its key components and their significance in understanding long term economic productivity. Discuss the implications of Solow’s model for policymakers and its relevance in the context of innovation today.

Robert Solow defined a model for economic growth called a productivity function. This formula is Y=AK to the 1/3 power times L to the 2/3 power. Solow's formula helps economists in planning policy for fiscal expansion as well as displaying the importance of innovation in growing an economies GDP. Solow's Formula shows how technological innovation is the only way to drive sustained economic growth and it is responsible for much of the economic growth since it's creationg.

In this equation "Y" stands for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total amount of final goods created in an economy in a set period of time. GDP measures the total size and overall productivity of an economy. "A" is a multiplier within the formula. It stands for the amount that technology inceases labor productivity. "A" is also refered to as Total Factor Productivity (TFP). TFP can be increased through development of better technologies and processes within manufacturing. "K" stands for capital. Capital is the amount of fixed value within an economy. Capital can be factories, roads, shiping ports, assembly lines, and other items along that line. The last variable in Solow's equation is "L" this stands for labor. For most societies labor is fixed, only a certain amount of people are able to work so labor can only increase by adding more people to an economy. 

Through manipulating these variable you can see the various effects of each component. Labor is the least significant, if you double the labor in an economy you double the GDP, however, since you doubled the size of the society you actually did not increase GDP per capita. So although the amount of labor can increase the total value of an economy it has no effect to an individual within that economy. Increasing the amount of labor will not make an individual better off so it has little impact in this formula. "K" is the second most significal component of Solow's model. Capital investment will increase GDP per capita. When workers have more factories, materials, ways to transport items, and other forms of capital they can be more productive. However capital accumulation suffers from diminishing returns. Diminishing returns is the fact that eventually the opportunity cost of adding just one more outweighs the benefits of that additional product. At some point capital accumulation looses its value. For example if a factor has 10 workers and they each can run one machine it is no longer benefitial to buy an 11th machine. This is because there is not a worker to run it. So for this factory the first 10 machines had great value but once they got 10 it no longer made sense to invest in additional capital. This leaves the model with one variable and that is "A" or TFP. Like mentioned previously TFP is the amount of technological advancement within an economy. So far, no limit for TFP has been found. People are still able to invent new producs and processes which increase economic output. Through his model, Robert Solow concluded that "increases in total factor productivity are the only ways to drive sustained growth in an economy". In addition to the direct increases in GDP made through technological advances it also makes investing in capital more appealing and helps to aleiviate some of the diminishing returns. This proves that TFP is the only way to create long term economic growth.

So armed with the knowledge of Robert Solow's model of economic growth, policy makers are able to make informed decisions when deciding on fiscal expansion. They are able to determine when capital accumulation is no longer helpful and when they must focus on creating technological advancments. If this model shows just one thing it shows that technological innovation is crucial to the well being of a societies economy. And ever since it's creation, real world events have proved that to be true. The pace of invention has not yet slowed since the Great Enrichment and it seems as if there is no limit to the amount that humans can invent. This echoes the beleifs of Edith Booserup and debates over agricultural production. While people like Thomas Malthus voiced concern that human populations would outpace agricultural production she stated that an increase in population would lead to an increase in brain power. This would incresase the amount of innovations and agricultural production. Her beleifs turned out true as shown through the development of genetically modified organisms, cross breeds of corn, wheat and other food crops, and the invention of nitrogen based fertilizer. It has been proven time and time again that when faced with challenges humans are able to come up with technological solutions.

This has shown in the United States GDP which increases an average of 2 percent every year. If we apply this to Robert Solow's model we can show that technological innovation is a very key component of that growth.  This is also due to that careful observance and planning of economic policy makers. When ineficencies are spotted policymakers can direct funding towards research and development (R&D) with the goal of creating a technological innovations to increase total economic output. It has been shown that for every dollar spent on R&D $3.60 of value have been created. Hearkening back to Solow's model this is consistent with the importance of the "A" variable or TFP. Because R&D results in an increase in TFP it greatly impacts the economy. Every year R&D accounts for a 1% increace in the United States GDP so it is clear that Solow's model is relevant to innovation today. The United States has one of the most consistent and fastest growing GDP's and they also account for 27% of the worlds R&D. Funding for R&D comes from the government, private corporations, and non-profit organizations. Private firms are the largest funder (73% of total United States R&D) and have lead to many advances in technology. Many key inventions like those of personal computers, vaccines, spaceships, highspeed transportation, weapons, and much more have lead to most of the increases of GDP. 

So, clearly Robert Solow's model of economic growth helps policy makers determine the best way to utilize reasources. Additionally its conclusion, that increases in technology are the only way to drive sustained economic growth, still stands firm today. Through Solow's pioneering efforts in the field of economics we can better understand the factors that lead to economic growth and how resource allocation towards reasearch, development, and technological innovation is crucial in continuing economic growth. 

LITERATURE ESSAY PROMPT: Discuss how the setting of The Lathe of Heaven — the city of Portland, the mountains and volcanoes, the wilderness, the weather — reflects the themes of the story. Use specific details from the novel to support your essay.

The Lathe of Heaven takes place in a setting similar to the real world that we are living in. This setting involves things that we can see in our world such as, volcanes, forests, and attributes of weather. All of these things were not meant to be controlled by humans and currently cannot be controlled by humans. Humans might be able to tame some of the wiilderness, but they cannot control how wild the wilderness can really be. Humans cannot control when a volcano will erupt. Humans also cannot control the conditions of the weather. If humans ever do try to take control of these things it could turn badly for us. If humans tried to control the weather and put rainfall where they wanted, it would have to take rainfall from other places that need it because there is only so much water vapor in the air at one time. This would cause the life in those places to die from lack of water. If humans controlled all of the wilderness and all animals and plants bent to their will it could turn out badly for the ecosystem they had lived in. The humans could take the plants and animals and relocate them giving them less area to live and causing their effect on the world to be smaller, such as trees clearing carbon emissions from the air and turning it into oxygen. 

In Lathe  of Heaven Orr is the controller of the universe, but he does not want to use his power. Orr can use his power by imagining things in his dreams and them coming true. Orr does not want to use this  power because he knows the destruction it can cause. This destruction can be seen when Orr imagines things like the world's population decreasing and a war is started and many lives are lost. This dream was controlled by a man named Haber. Haber is a man who believes Orr is weak and does not deserve a power like he has and Haber wants to control Orr's dreams and make the world how he wants it to be made. Haber's use of Orr's powers go wrong though because he wants to make the world perfect and does not think of the side effects of the things he wants the world to do. Haber uses the powers to try and do things like end racism. When he does this all the people turn gray. These events show that even though there is control the use of the power still needs to be thought of. With someone like Orr having this power it is well controlled. Orr does not ever try to control his dreams before he talks to Haber and that had turned out well for the universe. When Orr wasn't trying to change the world the world wouldn't change for the better or worse. When Haber had tried to control the universe however the world just became more destructed. 

The similaritys between this world and the two different mindsets of Haber and Orr are easy to find. When there is control by humans and they get what they want more problems get created, wether its humans controlling weather or trying to prevent overpopulation. People should not try to control things that were not made to be controlled. When things are left to chance it could very often be better than someone controlling everything. The risk of controlling everything to get what you want is not a risk that anyone should be taking because in your persute of everything, you could be left with nothing.