EU Economics Common Terms and Acronyms
A selection of key terms and acronyms that students may find useful when studying the economics of the EU
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Efficiency and Price Intervention in Markets
In recent times the European Union Competition Commission introduced maximum prices for the roaming charges made by mobile phone service providers. These are the rates charged by one operator to another to enable its customers to make calls while visiting another country.
Evaluate the view that a policy of price capping for European Union mobile phone operators will lead to an improvement in consumer and producer welfare (25 marks)
read more...»Greek junk status timeline
This informative interactive graphic from the FT shows the rapid rise in Greek government yields over the past year, resulting in yesterday’s downgrade to junk status.
When S&P warns holders of Greek debt that they only had an “average chance” of between 30% and 50% of getting their money back in the event of a debt restructuring or default, its going to have consequences…
One result of going junk (or sub-investment grade…) is that many financial institutions (including pension funds) are not allowed to hold such investment instruments, which will lead to a big sell-off of these, causing the yields to rise further.
As the fears of contagion spread, Portugal was also downgraded and the Vix index, a measure of “fear” in the US stock market, rose by more than 30 per cent, its biggest one-day jump since the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.
The moves highlighted the potential that the Greek crisis – the result of too large a debt load and expectations that it may default or have to restructure that debt – could spread and have knock-on effects on the global economy.
In this month’s edition of Economax, there is an in-depth article on Greece’s fiscal crisis.
Revision Download - European Economy 2010
Here is a free revision download for teachers and students who wish to update their understanding of key topics and issues in the European Union…
read more...»Revision Presentation - EU & the Euro Debate
This revised and extended revision presentation examines the debate about Europe’s Single Currency.
Launch revision presentation on EU & The Euro Debate
read more...»Interactive guide to selected EU economic data
The Telegraph website has a useful interactive guide to a selection of data on member countries inside the European Union. Our chart shows indices for GDP and there is also information the allocation of EU spending by country, population size and density.
Sugar prices and production and investment incentives
World sugar prices are close to a 30 year high with values on the Chicago mercantile exchange hovering just under $30c per pound. For countries whose sugar exports account for a large proportion of their export earnings, the steep increase in world prices has brought about an improvement in their terms of trade and - because demand for many foodstuffs is price inelastic, a favourable change in their balance of trade. A good example of this is the African country of Mozambique, a nation almost destroyed by a long running civil war that eventually ended in the early 1990s but which has also been hit in recent years by severes drought hit many central and southern parts of the country, including previously flood-stricken areas. And where half of the population must survive on less than $1 a day.
read more...»Norway - your guys take a lot of beating!
Roy Hattersley makes a rare appearance in the economics blog today. He has an interesting piece in The Times on the relative prosperity of Norway - a country that lies outside the European Union but which has negotiated access to the EU single market. With very low unemployment (of less than 3% of the labour force, super high per capita incomes, a sovereign wealth fund worth more than £250bn and continued strong revenues from oil exports, Norway is unlikely to test the waters of EU membership anytime soon. A good piece for students of economic integration in the EU.
Croatia and Iceland look to be in front line for EU entry
Croatian fans will be crying into their beers tonight with the news that they have failed to qualify for South Africa 2010. But their politicians seem to be making decent progress along the road to joining the European family of nations. The latest report on the progress made by countries seeking membership of the European Union suggests that Iceland and Croatia will be next in line to enter the EU single market. There is a report here from the Financial Times. And this article from the BBC reports the EU Enlargement Commissioner as saying that Croatia should complete entry talks next year.
Here are some links to previous blogs on EU enlargement
Another Brussels lightbulb moment
A ban on traditional lightbulbs imposed by Brussels last year and adopted by the UK for implementation in 2010 is to be extended to cover spotlights and downlighters, an read more...»
Iceland votes to join the EU
Rocked by a financial crisis which led to the collapse of its currency and banking system, Iceland’s parliament has voted narrowly in favour of seeking accession into the European Union. This process is likely to take around 18 months, the EU is keen to fast-track Iceland into the single market. One of the main stumbling blocks will be negotiations over fishing quota and catch rules for the EU fishing industry within Iceland’s territorial waters. Fish and seafood accounted for 37% of Iceland’s exports in 2008. Will Icelandic accession be a great catch for the European Union?
Guardian: Will Iceland make it into the EU?
Europe Revision: Single Market
Revision notes on aspects of the EU single market
read more...»EU single market creaks under the pressure of the recession
Wolfgang Munchau has an important comment article on the fragility of the EU single market in todays Financial Times.
read more...»The EU - Positives from the Polish Perspective
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BBC reporter Jonny Dymond is travelling through the European Union in advance of the elections next month gathering opinions and comment from people in different member states. Monday’s report from Poland makes interesting reading as it gives a positive view of the single market from the point of view of one of the newer member states, which could provide some useful points for evaluation in the AQA ECN4 paper.
read more...»European Economy - Free Revision Update for 2009
Here is a free revision update guide for students preparing for A2 Economics exams this summer….
read more...»Norway - Shallower Recession and Better Placed
According to some measures, Norway has the strongest currency in the world. Outside of the EU but inside the single market, Norway is often held up as a example of a path that the UK might follow if relations with the rest of the ever broke down irrevocably. An unlikely scenario? Yes, and there are also big differences in the structure of the Norwegian economy compared to ours.
read more...»A new iron curtain descends?
The front page headline in today’s Times looks at a new Iron Curtain splitting the EU’s rich and poor nations. Since the destruction of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, and accession to the EU of most former members of the Soviet empire, there has been a ‘2-speed Europe’ with GDP growth in the new eastern states running much faster than in the old EU-15. However those ‘tiger’ economies are falling faster and further in the global recession than their western mentors.
read more...»EU goes bananas over price rigging
It has taken over three years of intensive investigations. But the EU has decided that the time is now ripe to announce heavy fines for a well-known bunch of banana growers guilty of operating a price-fixing cartel in eight European Union countries.
Chiquita Brands and Dole Food were among the producers found guilty of rigging import prices into a market worth around Euro 3 billion annually. Because of their ‘whistle-blowing’ role in outing the cartel, Chiquita have been given immunity from the fines. In contrast, Dole faces a liability of over Euro 45m for its key role in the price-fixing agreement. Del Monte is also involved and has been fined $19.8 million, but Fyffes was not part of the anti-trust investigation. Tough EU competition laws now allow businesses who suffered commercial damage from the banana price fixing cartel to take legal action against the growers / importers.
EU plans cut in VAT for local ‘labour intensive services’
Caterers, care homes and constructin firms will be among those interested to hear that the BBC reports that the EU Commission has unveiled plans to allow EU states to lower VAT rates for local service businesses, including restaurants and builders. Currently the minimum standard rate of VAT in the EU is 15%, although there are many exemptions. This would be a good example to use when discussing the effects of VAT on market supply for different goods and services in the AS micro course. The Guardian reports that “Zero-rated goods, such as children’s clothes in Britain, will be unaffected.”
