Paul Ormerod: Don’t say IMF, it’s IMF Squared!
In the boom decade of the 2000s, corporate rebranding and renaming was all the rage. Some were successful. Others are best forgotten, like PWC’s proposal to bestow the name of Monday on its consulting arm. But as the world’s economic recovery gathers momentum, perhaps it is time to revive the practice.
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Unit 4 Macro: Wage Inflation and Chinese Competitiveness and Growth
Unit 4 essay from Max Goswami-Myerscough
China has undergone high levels of wage inflation since the turn of the century. As stated in the extract, a US Bureau of Labour report showed that between 2002 and 2008 real hourly wages more than doubled in China’s manufacturing sector. Comparatively, wages only rose by 20% in the US. In addition to this, according to Jim O’Neill, by 2009 over 5% of the population of China (approx. 65 million) had incomes of around $35,000 p.a. China has been considered to be one of the main outsourcing destinations for cheap labour over the years but this may change if such high levels of wage inflation persist.
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Teaching the Global Economy 2012 - CPD Conference for A2 Economics Teachers
Our Autumn Economics Conference -Teaching The Global Economy - takes place at the lovelyDurham Street Auditorium at the Royal Society of Arts in Central London, on Monday 19 November 2012.
Teaching the Global Economy is aimed at teachers who deliver courses on the global economy as part of the A2 macroeconomics syllabus.
Our speakers and facilitators are:
- Professor Paul Collier, Professor of Economics at Oxford University and author of the Plundered Planet and The Bottom Billion
- Mo Tanweer, Head of Economics at Oundle School
- Dr Mike Kitson, University Senior Lecturer in International Macroeconomics and Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
- Jonny Clark, Faculty Head at South Cheshire College
- Geoff Riley, Eton College & Co-Founder of tutor2u
The delegate rates, including full refreshments, lunch and support resources are:
- Single delegate: £190 (+VAT) each
- Departmental deal (two or more colleagues attending) £125 +VAT) each
Unit 4 Macro: Economics of Overseas Aid
I have uploaded onto slide share a revised short classroom presentation on the economics of overseas aid as part of our study of economic development.
Unit 4 Macro: Perspectives on Natural Resource Curses
My A2 students have been researching and writing about the economics of natural resource curses - some of their perspectives are provided below.
Unit 4 Macro: Perspectives on Chinese Wage Inflation
My students have been researching and writing about the rapid growth of wages in the Chinese economy. Here are some of their perspectives with each author appearing at the top of the relevant section.
Unit 4 Macro: Video Shorts on Economic Growth and Inequality
When teaching economic growth and inequality as part of our A2 macro course, I used these news clips to support the lesson and discussion.
read more...»A2 Development Economics Assignments
Here are the two assignments that my students are writing about this week - I will post some of their answers on the blog at the weekend. I have also added in some research links to each question
Global Economics - The Greatest Ever Economic Change
Professor Douglas McWilliams has just started his three year tenure as a visiting Gresham Professor and he is scheduled to deliver 18 talks over the next 36 months on a variety of global economic and business issues; the focus on the fast-changing global economy is clear and this ought to be a tremendous series of talks. We will link to each of them through this blog. Details of future lectures at Gresham College can be found here
Edexcel A2 Economics Unit 4 - New Course Companion
We're delighted to announce the publication of a brand new digital Course Companion for Edexcel A2 Economics Unit 4 - the Global Economy. Authored by tutor2u co-Founder Geoff Riley, this edition of the Course Companion has been extensively updated and extended to address the challenges of teachers and students preparing for the Unit 4 examination in 2013.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Growth and Development Constraints for India
Identify four factors that act as constraints on Indian growth and development
Unit 4 Macro: Drivers of Economic Growth in India
Identify and explain four factors that have contributed to Indian
economic growth in recent years
Unit 4 Macro: UK Aid Money - Key Data Sets
A hat tip to our good friend Vasilis Nicolaou, an economics teacher from Cyprus for spotting this excellent overseas aid data set available from the Guardian web site. As Britain renews its pledge to increase the aid budget, the Guardian has highlighted five datasets to help understand the debates - here is the link to click
Unit 4 Macro: Financing Trade - Renminbi Rising
The Chinese renminbi is not yet as recognisable as the US dollar or the Euro but with China's continued growth and rising influence as a major global economic power, their domestic currency is becoming more widely used when settling accounts in trade in goodsand services. In this new Financial Times video Denise Law explores the benefits of using renminbi in trade even though the renminbi is not yet fully-convertible in world foreign exchange markets.
read more...»LSE lecture: Policy Challenges for Growth in Africa and South Asia
Yesterday I took some Oundelians to attend the Public Policy lecture at the LSE, entitled Policy Challenges for Growth in Africa and South Asia. It was sponsored by the IGC – the International Growth Centre: http://www.theigc.org/ - as part of the LSE Growth Week http://www.theigc.org/events/growth-week-2012 .
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Development Economics - Focussed Links
An autumnal hat tip to Mo Tanweer for providing this really useful selection of economic development related links
Unit 4 Macro: Development - Building Capabilities in Ghana
Building sustainable growth and industrial development requires investment in capabilities - institutions, enterprises and infrastructure upon which new wealth can be generated. The LSE's John Sutton has been at the forefront of a new series of publications focusing on the enterprise maps for a cluster of strong-performing African countries. He talks about this project in a short video from the International Growth Centre. Click below to view it.
A Very European Break Up - New Romantic Comedy
What a fabulous new resource for students and teachers! She's German. He's Greek. Can their ten year relationship survive the pressure? This great short comedy from director Bob Denham is jam packed with references to the Euro debt crisis - show it to your class and see how many the A-Level student gets (offer a prize!)
Unit 4 Macro: Growth Constraints - Population Factors
Demographic change can have a direct bearing over time on the growth and development potential of individual countries.
Unit 4 Macro: Infrastructure Gaps and Development
Infrastructure includes physical capital such as transport networks, energy, power and water supplies and telecommunications networks. Poor infrastructure hampers growth because it causes higher supply costs and delays for businesses. It reduces the mobility of labour and affects the ability of exporters to get their products to international markets.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Constraints on Growth and Development
This blog will link to a series of posts on some of the possible constraints or limitations on the sustained growth and development of a country. Keep in mind a high level of diversity between countries and regions, some of these constraints have a bigger effect on potential growth and development in some countries than others. Successful and effective policies are those that target and address the constraints. Some of these factors apply mainly to developed countries and some are focused on the growth potential of lower-income emerging economies many of whom have enjoyed rapid growth in recent years. Remember that economic growth is a long-term concept referring in the main to a nation’s productive potential and competitiveness:
read more...»The Globalisation of Work
The BBC is on spanking good form at the moment. Here’s another little gem from them this time on globalisation.
Usually we think of globalisation as moving production to China or the fact that you can get Coke Cola in every country in the world (except Cuba and North Korea apparently! ). We might look at how this means lower costs of production and how this might be hard to organise and manage due to language and distance. Perhaps even looking at any regional differences that are needed to make the brand work (McDonald’s have just announced their first vegetarian outlet in India, for example) and so on. read more...»
Unit 4 Macro: What Is a Natural Resource Curse?
Unit 4 Macro: Primary Export Dependence
Many lower-income developing nations still relying on specializing in and exporting low value added primary commodities. The prices of these goods can be volatile on world markets. When prices fall, an economy will see a sharp reduction in export incomes, an adverse movement in their terms of trade, risks of a higher trade deficit and a danger that a nation will not be able to finance investment in education, healthcare and core infrastructure.
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Unit 4 Macro: Micro-insurance and development
Micro insurance is a growing sector within developing country finance. The number of people covered by micro-insurance has increased almost 6.5 fold in five years, reaching nearly 500 million worldwide, with China and India leading the charge. Micro-insurance attempts to protect poor people against risks arising from accidents, illness, a death in the family or the damage caused by natural disasters - in exchange for insurance premium payments tailored to their needs, income and level of risk.
read more...»Paul Ormerod: A Tale of Two Recessions: Grounds for Optimism
The economic news at the moment is mixed, and the impact of the 2007-2009 financial crash is far from over. But looking back into the past may give us something to feel cheerful about.
read more...»Improving your A2 Macro: Growth Slowdown in World Economy
The OECD has released a new economic forecast for many of the world's top developed countries. Growth and confidence remains weak and the fundamental problems facing the Euro area are seen as critical in explaining the problems that many countries are having in building a durable recovery.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Recommended Sites for Teachers
The breadth of the global economics agenda is simply vast and keeping up to speed with interesting developments and issues is tough at the best of times. In this blog I have selected a range of resources that I have been using during the summer to update my awareness on the global economy. Please do add in your own recommendations and I will add them to the blog.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: World Income Groups - 2012 Classification
As of 1 July 2012, the World Bank income classifications by GNI per capita are as follows:
• Low income: $1,025 or less
• Lower middle income: $1,026 to $4,035
• Upper middle income: $4,036 to $12,475
• High income: $12,476 or more
Of the 192 member states of the United Nations, only 52 are currently classified as high-income countries. In other words, 140 countries (73 per cent) are still considered developing economies.
read more...»Unit 2 and 4 Macro: Animated History of the Financial Crisis
Fives years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, this is an excellent animated explanation of the genesis of the global financial crisis. For more comment - go to this piece from Stephanie Flanders of the BBC: Unhappy anniversary of the credit crunch
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