EE Reflection 3

Many of my ideas and plans for research have been realised in writing this EE. Finding relevant data was difficult and proved there were risks in continuing this research, but I believe that my skills as a critical thinker and researcher have grown because of it. Learning about the circumstances and perspectives of different socio-economic classes in Hong Kong has been a highlight for me. My understanding of how economic factors impact the housing market in Hong Kong has grown along with an appreciation of the present cultural influences. Conceiving reasonable ways of measuring the effectiveness of the government’s housing initiatives had proved to be more difficult than I had initially thought. It was also a challenge to keep my ideas continuously clear and concise throughout the paper, but it pushed me to be a more effective communicator. It was a rigorous process to evaluate each of my sources, but it made me acknowledge the need for varied and reliable sources of information in a research paper. I have been able to develop skills and gain knowledge that I am sure to use in the future.

EE Reflection 2

For the past two months, I have focused my efforts on writing the introduction and deciding the methodology for my extended essay. While writing my introduction, it became clear that I would need to be creative in finding ways to link improvements in the housing market to economic productivity and wellbeing. I realised this would require some persistence in searching for and gathering the necessary data. I found that not many people were currently conducting studies similar to mine, which piqued my interest; however, this also meant that I will have to perform more extensive searches. There is an element of uncertainty on whether or not I will be able to effectively link available data regarding livable housing and worker productivity, given that there are other variables to consider. I am being a risk-taker as I am wholly responsible for collecting and linking a variety of data sets concerning the housing market in Hong Kong.

EE Day Reflection

Today’s EE writing day has been helpful in providing dedicated time for researching and drafting the EE. One thing I learned today is the importance of obtaining reliable primary and secondary data to support an economics EE. I discovered that it is much more difficult to find specific numbers or details that both contribute relevant information to the EE and are recent. I am proud that I was able to focus throughout the day and get a decent amount of reliable sources, as well as being able to draft an outline and introduction for my EE. Moving forward, I will be ensuring that I am using this data and looking for more relevant data to use in the main body of my EE when I begin writing it. Overall today has been an insightful learning experience.

EE Reflection 1

I found the initial part of my extended essay journey to be a challenging, yet fulfilling experience. Committing to one topic in economics was difficult for me as I was curious about many areas of study. When researching, I came to several dead-ends, in some cases due to a lack of information, and in others due to a decision, after critical inquiry, that there was a lack of depth to the topics. I was intrigued by the housing market in Hong Kong and eventually decided to further explore this idea. During research, I found that there were people in Hong Kong living in ‘cage homes’ and other unpleasant conditions due to a lack of affordable housing options. The unfairness of this situation seemed unprincipled and, therefore, I decided that current government solutions to this problem were worthy of further study. Hence, I decided to focus my research on the ‘My Home Purchase Plan’ initiative.