1) Choose an industry (auto, breakfast cereal, soft drink, beer, electronics, movies, retail clothing, retail banking, etc.) to study. I suggest you choose an industry that you are familiar with and wish to learn more about. It could be that you work in that industry, or you purchase their products and know a bit about it. 2) Identify the main competitors in the industry and its market structure (monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistically competitive, competitive, or a hybrid of two of them). The market structure helps you think about the ″competitive environment″ of the industry. Is it an industry with a lot of competition between the sellers? Or is it an industry where the sellers do not vigorously compete with one another? 3) Explain how the main competitors in the industry compete. In other words what form does their competition take? Firms compete for market share (more customers and sales) and profits. Do they compete on price? Do they compete by creating endless varieties of their products called product differentiation? Do they have advertising wars with their competitors? Do they compete by trying to be the first to develop a new product? Do they compete by trying to make a higher quality than their competitors? Do they compete on the basis of which firm has technological leadership? 4)Analyze the most important recent developments within the industry. Are some competitors winning/losing the competition with their competitors? Are profits in the industry high? Or low? Why? Are new products changing the industry? Are new business strategies changing the industry? Are new competitors stirring things up in the industry? 5) What is the future of the industry? Do your best to project what is likely to happen within the industry in the near term, the long term, and why. I am much more interested in your explanation as to why certain changes might take place than I am in your particular forecasts. Things to watch out for: 1) You must use the concepts we develop in this class in your paper. It is NOT a paper on marketing, history, or business, but an ECONOMICS paper. This means that 80% or more of the paper must use the types of arguments and language found in an economics textbook. 2) The most basic problem students have in doing well on this paper is they choose a topic that is too broad. For example, you cannot do an effective paper on, say, the auto industry as a whole, because there are way too many types of vehicles and too many competitors in the industry. However, you can do an effective paper on the hybrid car market. Or, even a better paper on the elite market for sports cars. 3) You must have sources for your paper. I suggest at least 4 to 5 good sources. A good source is one that comes from an established publication (like Business Week, Bloomberg) or a writer who is knowledgeable about economics. Do NOT use sources from the players in the industry, like an article about the Apple Watch from Apple. Also try not to make your main source Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a very useful way to get background on a topic, but it should not be the place where you are getting your information from to write your paper. So if I were doing a paper on the very high end luxury sports car market, I might start by looking at Wikipedia to get some ideas. If you Google ″Wikipedia high end luxury sports car market″ you will find the Wikipedia article Supercar.