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The 5 year rule in economics

  • /
  • The IB core/
  • Extended essay/
  • The 5 year rule in economics

Teacher notes

The current extended essay guide includes specific reference to the '5-year rule'.  Included in pages 155 - 162 the five year rule states the following:

'Topics should not be historical. They should relate to economic information, policies, outcomes or events that are no more than approximately five years old. Topics that are too retrospective, such as “What was the impact of the global financial crisis on unemployment in the United States from 2007–2010?” almost invariably become descriptive'.

Similarly 'economics essays should not be based on future economic events. For example, “What will be the effect of the 2026
Football World Cup on the economy of Country X?” would not be suitable as it would be entirely speculative and unsupported'.

How the 5 year rule impacts on the individual criteria

Criterion A

If the topic relates to a specific event, issue or policy, it should date from within the past five years. It should not concern a future or hypothetical event.  If the topic or research question is deemed inappropriate for the subject in which the essay is registered, no more than four marks can be awarded for this criterion. This applies to economics essays that breach the 5-year rule.

Criterion B

If the topic or research question is deemed inappropriate for the subject in which the essay is registered, no more than four marks can be awarded for this criterion. This applies to economics essays that breach the 5-year rule.

Criterion C

Failure to follow the five-year rule will limit the grade in this criterion to a maximum of three. Given that this criteria is marked out of 12, then a ceiling of 3/12 is particularly prohibitive.  If the topic or research question is deemed inappropriate for the subject in which the essay is registered, no more than three marks can be awarded for this criterion. This applies to economics essays that breach the five-year rule.

Overall

In the case of a particularly strong paper it would appear that there could be as much as a 13 mark penalty, though it might not hurt a mediocre paper as much.

The 2018 extended essay guide can be accessed at: MYIB