Ten Trade Unions - Can You Name Them?
I cover the economics of trade unions when teaching A2 microeconomics and often I am surprised at how little students know about the multiple roles that unions play, how many have adapted to changing economic conditions and, at an even more basic level, who they are! This starter for ten lists the acronyms of ten well known trade unions in three broad areas of the labour market. I reckon students would be doing well to name four of them without any research .... might be worth a try!
I will put up an answer slide on the blog in the next few days
How Much Do I Earn?
Many colleagues are teaching labour market economics around this time of year! Accessing up to date information on mean and median salaries for different occupations can open up all kinds of interesting discussions and starter activities. We did one of these at the TeachECON events last autumn involving a starter called How Much Do I Earn?
read more...»Youth Unemployment in the UK
Many students and teachers will be looking at the issue of rising unemployment in the UK at the moment - focusing on the causes of effects of a high number out of work and also the effectiveness of different strategies for getting people back in a job. Youth unemployment is an especially important structural problem in the labour market and new figures find that nearly one young person in five is unemployed. Indeed 260,000 under-16s live in homes where nobody has ever worked. Here are five links to supporting resources including news articles, background comment pieces and videos.
read more...»Chinese exports mini-fact
The Christmas edition of The Week magazine has a selection of Statistics of the Year which have been published during 2010 and I like this one from Prospect Magazine - China now exports as much every six hours as it did in the whole of 1978. Could be used to illustrate the speed of growth of trade with the rest of the world?
read more...»Revision: Consequences of Unemployment
Persistently high unemployment create huge costs for individuals and for the economy as a whole. Some of these costs are difficult to value and measure, especially the longer-term social costs.
read more...»Heinz Means Strikes
A seasonal hat tip to Phil Wheeler for spotting this Guardian article on a tasty industrial relations dispute at the huge Heinz factory close to Wigan in Lancashire.
read more...»The Joy of Stats - Brilliant Hans Rosling Presentation
A seasonal hat tip to Henry Wingfield for spotting this superb four minute presentation from Hans Rosling (Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and Director of the Gapminder Foundation) on two hundred years of progress in lifting life expectancy across the world and some of the huge differences between and within nations. A superb presentation - hugely visual and memorable. More details here on The Joy of Stats - the new BBC series due to air next week.
Using Google Docs - Minimum Wages
My AS micro group this week has been collaborating on an assignment on minimum wages using Google Docs. My stuents are becoming more adept at building arguments and editing and amending the contributions of others. We are limited in not having wireless access in the classroom - if we did students could enter, log in and work as a group in real time with the document being displayed on a screen and I could monitor their contributions and add in ideas and comments as we go.
read more...»Migration caps and the supply-side of the economy
The Coalition’s plans to bring down annual net inward migration into the “tens of thousands” is running into some well organised, influential lobbying from business and academic organisations who complain of the impact this will have on the UK’s competitiveness. It is neither equitable or efficient for highly paid (often under-performing) footballers to be given an exemption under the migrant cap but not for skilled scientists from non-EU countries who may well become the distinguished future leaders of our scientific community. This report last night on Newsnight by BBC Science Editor Susan Watts makes the argument clearly and persuasively. Migrant controls damage the supply-side potential of the economy.
Revision Presentation on Unemployment in the UK
This is a revised presentation on unemployment in the UK labour market aimed at A2 macroeconomics students. It is in three formats
read more...»Partial progress in closing the gender pay gap
A new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission finds that only limited progress is being made in closing the gender pay gap in the British labour market. Some of the new figures are reported here on the BBC news site. The commission said that on average women earned 16% less than men, widening to 27% for women aged 40.
read more...»Let’s hear it for the girls!
My better half and I recently popped along to the cinema to see ‘Made in Dagenham’.
The film is set in the late 1960s and depicts the true story of the 200 female machinists and their fight for fair pay at the Ford plant in Dagenham, Essex in the late 1960s. The film is an archetypal feel-good piece of social history, and packed with interesting Economics. Teaching to the syllabus alas does not always afford us the luxury of discussing relatively recent Economic history – this is a real shame. An appreciation of these events I feel can really help to bring several topics alive. Encourage your students to go and see the film – it’s all there:
1/ Monopsony – In the late 1960s Ford employed 55,000 people in Dagenham – 54,800 of them were men
2/ Trade Unions and the Supply Side – wage negotiation and industrial action
3/ Legislation – The dispute was a catalyst for what became the 1970 Equal Pay Act: something that still provokes controversy; today – 40 years later – pay disparity still remains an issue (always extra fun to discuss this in an all boys’ school!)
Cinemas are also of course excellent places in and of themselves as regards turning the restless mind to Economics issues. This particular establishment provides sofas for customers to lounge upon, and one is able to order items from the menu via a handy waiter/waitress service. This of course has several ramifications re the business model the firm operates. I marvelled at the application of cross price elasticity as I took in the outrageous prices on the menu! My thoughts turned to price discrimination as I pondered the ticket price! I glanced round approvingly at the civilised audience, gathered together in part via the power of the price mechanism!
I can’t finish without mentioning the fact that the soundtrack during an advert for a well known brand of Corn Flakes was provided by one of my favourite bands … Primal Scream, a Scottish alternative rock group. I almost choked on my Sauvignon Blanc as I vacillated between thoughts of ‘sell out!’ and the use of multiple revenue streams to maximise the value of a well-known product. I have to tell you – the irrationality of the fan won the day …. Oh Bobby, how could you?
Apprenticeships for a Silver Generation
The oldest contestant in the new (6th) series of The Apprentice is thirty one! But why should apprentices be concentrated only among those in the early stages of their careers?
The number of people aged fifty and over who are applying for and winning places on apprenticeship schemes has more than doubled in the last few years as this BBC news video explains. Apprenticeship programmes for older workers challenges our common preconceptions about their place in the labour market - and this is a good thing as the debate continues about how best to support and encourage people to stay in work during these challenging economic times. Lifelong learning is not merely a vaccuous slogan - it has a real meaning and is hugely important for the British economy in the years ahead.
This video reinforces the importance of human capital, the need for flexible skills to avoid structural unemployment. And it raises questions about who should and who can fund apprenticeship schemes and their longer-term economic and social benefits.
Can Pay Will Pay
Can highly-paid executives justify their millions? What a difference do clean shoes make to how much we are paid? This series examines why are we paid what we are. A hat tip to Richard Jones for spotting this useful resource when teaching wage determination.
Pay - What Are You Worth?
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An autumnal hat tip to John Richards for spotting this super interactive resource from the BBC Radio 4 web site on pay levels for different occupations. This could be an excellent introductory activity to the economics of wage/salary differentials and and concepts of social and economic worth in the labour market. Here is a related article just published by the Harvard Business Review. To Get Paid What You’re Worth, Know Your Disruptive Skills
UK migration data for 2009
The latest official figures for net migration in the UK have been published and are reported here on the BBC website. The scale of the number of overseas students coming into the UK on student visas took me by surprise - The number of visas issued to students also went up by 35% to 362,015 - a factor behind the increasingly competitive and difficult task of winning places at many UK universities - the admissions process is now a truly global process.
The Financial Times reports that “The number of students accepted via the Ucas system from China, the largest single source of students from outside the UK, for this year is 7,752, up from 6,845”
I might use this article as a way of encouraging students to pick out organisations / bodies with a vested interest in the migration debate - there are two or three good ones included in the BBC news article and others can be located by using some of the external news links provided.
Reasons to fear a jobless recovery
Will the UK labour market be able to generate enough new jobs to sustain the recovery? There are plenty of doubts surfacing at the moment and we might be finding ourselves on the cusp or yet another surge in structural unemployment. Here are some reasons why - despite our much vaunted flexible labour market - a jobless recovery is on the cards.
read more...»How much does an Economist get paid?
A brief follow up to Richard’s recent blog post on economics as a career option
So how much does an economist get paid? I have often fielded this question from students expressing an interest in sacrificing themselves for the benefit of the economics profession! The latest annual survey from the Society of Business Economists provides some evidence!
read more...»A Lewis Turning Point? Wages in China
The Telegraph reports that FoxConn is raising wages for workers at its factories by 70% with effect from the 1st of October. Following the latest rise the basic salary for production-line workers at Foxconn’s will have risen from 900 renminbi (£91.30) per month two weeks ago to 2,000 renminbi (£203). The article picks out some of the short and medium term factors driving average wages higher in the Chinese economy including the effects of demographic change in addition to labour shortages in many Chinese manufacturing heartlands.
It raises plenty of interesting economics aspects:
1/ Whether the wage hike will raise productivity still further - many economists believe that there is a positive relationship between pay rates and output per worker - the idea of efficiency wages
2/ How Chinese manufacturing businesses will absorb the increase in unit labour costs
3/ The extent to which consumers in the developed world will now pay more for their digital gadgets
4/ The impact on domestic living standards and consumption in China and on demand for household goods and services
In several ways the Chinese authorities will support the lifting of average wages - China now aims to boost private sector capital investment and consumption to cut dependence on the fiscal and monetary stimulus that countered the effects of the global financial crisis
Foxconn is not the only foreign-owned company in China to decide to raise wage rates. Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker has recently reached an agreement with most of the 1,900 employees at a Chinese parts factory to raise pay by 24 percent after workers walked out on strike.
More here from the BBC news web site: Foxconn gives workers second pay rise
See also: Apple boss defends conditions at iPhone factory
And more here from Bloomberg Economy
“China, once an abundant provider of low-cost workers, is heading for the so-called Lewis turning point, when surplus labor evaporates, pushing up wages, consumption and inflation, said Huang Yiping, former chief Asia economist at Citigroup Inc. The result may prompt manufacturers to switch to cheaper countries such as India and Vietnam. “
New IPPR report on migration economics
The IPPR has issued a new report detailing research on the effects of labour migration for a number of developing countries. Here is the link to the press release and the report itself.
A2 Economics Revision - Microeconomics of Labour Migration
1) Explain the circumstances in which an economy may see a rise in net inward migration of labour (15 marks)
and
2) Evaluate the view that free movement of labour within the European Union improves the efficiency of British businesses (25 marks)
Labour shortages in a recession
Despite unemployment being over 2.5 million (using the labour force survey) the British economy still suffers from labour shortages. These may become a constraint on the recovery as output and employment picks up. The CBI have published a new report on structural weaknesses in the labour market - reported here by the BBC.
“Despite the recession, nearly half of employers said they were already having difficulty recruiting staff with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths, with manufacturers and science-related businesses finding it hardest to find staff.”
This raises important questions about skills gaps in the economy and also the proposal to put an annual cap on inward migration. What happens if the cap has been reached and a business cannot fulfill a key export order for want of getting the vital workers they need? Are caps on labour migration a root cause of government failure?
As my chart shows, the regular survey of recruitment difficulties from the British Chamber of Commerce finds that the percentage of manufacturing and service sector businesses reporting problems in getting the workers they need has dropped during the recession, but remains appreciably above the level seen at the end of the last downturn in the early 1990s.
A2 Economics Revision - Evaluation on the National Minimum Wage
This new revision presentation outlines some possible evaluation points that students could make when addressing questions on the national minimum wage:
A2 Economics Revision - Evaluation on the National Minimum Wage
CEP study on migration and the UK economy
A hat tip to Romesh Vaitilingam for sending through details of a new series of research reports from the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE.
read more...»Demographic shifts - and working with China
Business Insider’s chart of the day has some revealing population projections that suggest that the USA’s labour force is set to continue to expand in the years ahead whereas China’s labour force will shrink by 10%, Europe’s will shrink 25%, and that of Korea and Japan’s will also contract by a significant amount.
The BBC news website carries a related article on labour mobility within the Chinese economy. Millions of internal migrants moved away from the manufacturing heartlands during the recent economic crisis. How many of them will return especially with the financial incentives on offer from a Chinese government that is seeking to create a million more entrepreneurs. Read: Why migrant workers are shunning China’s factories
Hamish McRae has a thoughtful piece in the Independent today on some of the lessons from the rising level of foreign direct investment by Chinese companies in Western businesses.
Hamish McRae: Dealing with China will never be easy
UK Economy in 2010 - Essential Revision Presentation
Many thanks to Geoff for producing this superb 51-slide analysis and evaluation of the prospects for the UK Economy in 2010. Updated to 25 March 2010 with the latest available data.
read more...»Revision Presentation - Supply-Side Indicators for the UK Economy
This updated revision presentation should be really useful for colleagues and students addressing the crucial supply-side issues during revision for AS and A2 Economics…
read more...»Utopia and the 21 hour working week
The authors of the New Economics Foundation’s report into the length of the working week have suggested that working hours should be limited to a maximum of 21 hours per week. But the unemployment data from the ONS last month shows that such a change is being imposed on thousands of workers whether they like it or not; part-time employment rose by 99,000 in the three months to November 2009, replacing most of the 113,000 full-time jobs lost over the same period.
read more...»More on poverty strategies
Benefit take up is low in the UK and about £16bn in income-related benefits and tax credits goes unclaimed in the UK in a year. Improving take up can have a big effect on the disposable incomes of lower income families. This BBC article is relevant here.
Paul Mason provides this excellent four minute report on poverty policies and focuses on the idea of bottom-up approaches including encouraging social entrepreneurship as a way of stumulating employment opportunities within local communities. The Persistence of Poverty
The UK has a worse infant mortality rate than Greece, despite having almost double the income per person - Guardian Blog
Low pay, discrimination and monopsony power in the labour market
As part of our A2 micro course we are looking at aspects of labour market failure at the moment and today we cover discrimination in its different guises and the issue of possible monopsony power and wage exploitation. Here are some links to BBC news resources on this topic including some useful video clips
read more...»
