The Tutor2u Red Nose Day Challenge
Schools and College up and down the country are preparing for all sorts of different activities for the Comic Relief Red Nose Day this Friday (15th March). Are you doing anything with your class?
Here is a ready-made Powerpoint game to run for approximately 20 to 25 minutes in your class this Friday. Whilst being a fun, team-based challenge, the multi-choice questions are all about facts and figures related to the causes that Comic Relief are attempting to support. As such, the information contained within the game should prove a useful stimulus for discussion within your class about the causes of poverty in Africa, as well as alcohol-abuse and other social issues within the UK. It could also prove a useful tool with discussing why these problems exist and what government solutions could be implemented (as well as asking why they haven't already been put in place!).
Click on this link to go to the Powerpoint file that contains the game.
read more...»Taxing fizzy drinks? The Obesity Battle
The subject of obesity is an increasingly important topic in the study of market failure. Its consequences are severe and go right to the heart of the ‘inefficient allocation of resources’ economic concept of market failure. Overconsumption of a number of demerit goods are one of the many causes of this growing epidemic and worrying trends and statistics can be found here with this BBC video clip also providing a useful overview on the facts behind global obesity. The UK is one of the most obese nations in the world with about a quarter of adults classed as obese and that figure is predicted to doubly by 2050.
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A Mega example of contestability
Students taking their Business Economics unit exam this week might like to use online file-storage as an example of a contestable market. This comes during the week of an announcement by the colourfully-named internet tycoon Kim Dotcom of a re-launch of his file-sharing cloud-site Mega - which offers up to 50 Gb of free file storage and out-trumps its big and more established competitors at Dropbox, Microsoft and Google. According to Mr Dotcom he already has a quarter of a million registered users and over a million hits on his website within the first day.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Information Failure in Cosmetic Surgery
Hard sell and low standard - a new report on the UK cosmetic industry has found deep-rooted problems in the selling of plastic surgery services and highlights class market failure issues of miss-selling and information failures. Many vulnerable consumers complain of being pressured into surgery and the report argues that some providers use cut-price and time-limited deals to sell cosmetic treatments in a similar way to the flogging of double-glazing. Free consultations also seen to cause consumers to feel pressurized into having surgery. The review, led by the medical director of the NHS, Sir Bruce Keogh, was set up because of the safety scare involving breast implants made by the French firm, PIP.
Here are some news videos on this controversial issue - it is a fast growing market but one with huge risks for those with cosmetic needs and wants.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Key Term Glossary - Markets and Market Failure
An updated glossary of key terms for the Unit 1 Economics paper
read more...»Don’t You Want Me Baby? - competition regulation in action
Apologies for the reference in this Blog’s title to the Human League’s 1981 Christmas number one single – it betrays my age. I’m sure if you come to use this example of competition regulation and contestability you will use something much more contemporary.
The back catalogue of all of the Human League songs of that era, along with many thousand more recent songs (such as those of Take That and Duffy) have just been bought by BMG – one of the world’s largest music publishing groups. BMG have purchased these rights from Universal who have been forced to sell them as part of their own takeover of EMI earlier in 2012.
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Monopsony Exam Paper Markscheme- By Popular Demand!
OK, as it seems the markscheme to go with my recent blog post is in popular demand, I've made it available online.
read more...»Monopsony in the Supermarket Industry- Exam Questions
The other day I asked my year 13 Economists, which topics they wanted to revise before heading off for the Christmas holidays. Monopsony came up as being something they'd found particularly difficult recently, and so I've created some example exam questions to hopefully improve their understanding of this topic.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Markets and Market Failure Concept Glossary
An A-Z glossary for the Unit 1 Micro course
read more...»The 2012 GCSE fiasco - are there parallels with the Banking crisis?
Now, tutor2U is an organisation dedicated to supporting and building communities for teachers and lecturers. So, if I post a blog that criticises the report released today by Ofqual which suggests that some teachers over-graded coursework (particularly in English) during this summer's GCSE assessments you might accuse me of bias. To paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson: "You would say that - you drive a Citroen Picasso." However, in my never-ending pursuit of trying to find examples that resonate with young students of economics, is it possible to draw parallels with what happened during the GCSE assessment this year, and the mistakes made within the banking industry that lead to the current recession?
read more...»Are Tattoos an example of a Demerit Good?
Civil Service on the WCM line
Assessment failures were 'clearly responsibility of officials and not ministers', Philip Rutnam tells former transport secretary
Further material from Tomorrow's Guardian on the West Coast Mainline Franchise troubles, which can be added to Jonny Clark's article from last week.
If the Department of Transport is too incompetent to run a supervised franchised system, how viable is the alternative of a fully nationalised system?
West Coast Rail Line franchise decision - a fine example of Government failure
Every cloud has a silver lining! News reports out today confirmed that the original decision to award the next 15 year franchise of the West Coast Rail line to FirstGroup instead of the incumbent Virgin Rail has been rescinded and the bidding process re-opened at a potential wasted cost of £40 million (by the way, have they fixed that leaky roof at your school yet?). This may seem like a fiasco to train users and the general public alike but to us Economics teachers it's a super example of government failing to intervene correctly in a market.
read more...»Alcohol as an example of a de-merit good
You might find this news report from KL.FM (a radio station in King's Lynn) about the self-regulated sales of 'strong booze' in Ipswich an excellent example of a policy to deal with de-merit goods. Alcohol is a prime example of a de-merit good and a common student response regarding government policies to reduce its consumption often centres around the use of taxation and age-based prohibition. A good evaluative answer to questions relating to government policy would mention the fact that alcohol remains a popular product despite its obvious issues and might also discuss how the over-consumption of alcohol could be linked to something more cultural (compared to, say, France) - hence the need for something a little more creative than blanket bans or high duties. I would want to ask my students questions such as 'what are the costs to society' mentioned within the report and why might the targeting of high-strength alcoholic drinks be a more affective policy then banning sales of all alcohol?
Unit 3 Micro: Regulated and Unregulated Train Fares
For millions of regular rail users, the fare system in operation in the UK is almost impossible to understand! Annual changes in a complex system of rail fares bring about anger and hostility and there are regular claims that the increasing cost of travelling by rail is a disincentive to use the train instead of the car.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Recycling and Reusing Electrical Waste
The European Union is bringing in tough new laws covering the collection and recycling of the growing mountain of electrical waste - also known as e-waste. From 2016 - for every hundred tonnes of electrical items put on the market during the previous three years member countries will have to collect and recycle 45 tonnes of e-waste. The EU directive provides an opportunity for businesses that can recycle and reuse electrical products and their many component parts - the high global prices for essential raw materials gives added impetus to the challenge to tackle the e-waste problem. This news video also looks at entrepreneurial activity in recycling waste in India.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Economics of the UK Water Industry
The English water and sewerage industry was privatised in 1989 and since then household and business consumers have received water services from a regional monopoly business. Companies such as Thames Water or Severn Trent are vertically integrated, water companies, which provide a ‘source to tap’ service: obtaining water from source through abstraction, treating it to an appropriate standard, and providing it to customers’ taps via company-owned infrastructure. Only very large business customers are able to choose their supplier.
In Wales, Glas Cymru is a single purpose water and sewerage company with no shareholders run solely for the benefit of customers. Scotland and Northern Ireland have retained the state-owned model.
Post privatisation, an industry regulator OFWAT was created. Like other regulators OFWAT has a number of roles including the aims of promoting the public interest and increasing cost effectiveness of the water and sewerage suppliers. The water industry has been subject to price controls over the last twenty three years with each price-control regime lasting for a period of five years. The current price control lasts until 2015.
read more...»Behavioural Economics: Compulsory Breathalysers
Alcohol-related accidents are the leading cause of death and serious injury for victims of car crashes in France and the government has decided to introduce a strong behavioural nudge by making it compulsory for every car to have a portable breathalyser kit in their vehicles or risk a fine. This applies to every vehicle including those driven by tourists. Vehicle owners will have until November 2012 to get used to it before the fines are imposed.
Having a breathalyser in the glove box or on the front passenger seat might well be an effective reminder for people before they turn on the ignition. Reminders of our mortality and/or our morality can often prime us to make safer, better choices. I applaud the French government for introducing this new law. All motorists must also have with them a high-visibility safety vest and a warning triangle.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Technology aims to cut fish discards
Channel 4 news reports here on how CCTV and other technologies are being used to monitor fishing in the north sea in a bid to scale back the horrendous amount of fish discards. This happens when fishing vessels throw back dead fish into the water when a catch exceeds the quota - a terrible waste of an already scarce resource. The average European fishing trawler discards 38 per cent of its catch - for some species of fish 90 per cent are thrown away but with the aid of technology this can be reduced to less than 1 per cent.
read more...»Behavioural Economics: Smoking Kids
Here is an innovative advert from Ogilvy Asia emphasising a behavioural economic idea that reminding yourself of the consequences of a choice can often be a strong deterrent or lever to sustain a change of lifestyle.
read more...»BMW - Bavarian Monopolist at Work
BMW have been fined SFr156m ($163m) by Swiss Competition Authorities for restricting the supply of BMW and MINI cars to Swiss purchasers.
read more...»Improving Evaluation Skills in Economics Exams
Here is an updated version of the WEESTEPS approach to economics evaluation designed to boost the evaluation scores and exam results for AS and A2 Economics students.
It gives you some great pointers about the evaluative approaches that can be used. Works well for micro and macro - but particularly when you have to evaluate a specific policy intervention in a market / industry / or a macro policy discussion.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Public Bads
A public bad is the opposite of a public good – it provides disutility or dis-satisfaction to people when consumed and therefore reduces our economic welfare.
read more...»Competition authorities doing more harm than good?
There have been several examples in the news recently of competition authorities acting in ways which may actually ultimately lead to less competition in several different industries. Read on to find out more.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Climate Change Policies - Finding the Right Mix
There are many different market failures when it comes to understanding some of the key environmental problems and challenges of the age. Addressing, attacking and correcting for complex and multiple market failures requires pointing to different policy instruments / interventions. Together can they make a sizeable difference to consumer and business behaviour and lead us away from a “business as usual” approach?
read more...»Royal Mail’s refusal to supply
Here is the sub-heading from the report in today’s Daily Telegraph: “Royal Mail is limiting the number of stamps it supplies to retailers now to ensure it profits from record price rises later this month.” The report goes on “Royal Mail confirmed on Thursday that it had imposed a cap on the number of stamps every shop could buy. Retailers said it was refusing to restock them when they exceeded their allocation.” Ian Murray, the shadow postal affairs minister, says that he will be writing to regulator Ofcom about this rationing of supplies.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Ban on cigarette display advertising
In a fresh move to reduce consumption of cigarettes, legislation has come in force banning the displays of cigarettes for sale in large retail stores. The display ban will apply to shops of more than 280 sq m (3,014 sq ft). Newsagents and small stores can display cigarettes until 2015, giving them time to refit shelves and cabinets.. It is part of the armoury of interventions that have been tried over the years to change consumer behavioural - from real terms increases in cigarette taxes to bans on advertising and ever-stronger advertising and health campaigns. The focus of the ban is to influence younger smokers by removing cigarettes from point of sale display - will it be effective?
This news report below from Al Zajeerah looks at the new measure
read more...»Minimum beer prices, May not be the solution for binge drinking.
Teresa May has copied Nicola Sturgeon’s proposals for minimum prices of alcohol which appeared in Scotland last year. Last year’s budget had significant increases in excise duties on stronger beer, lager and cider.
This resource from the Centre For Policy Studies may help pupils and teachers to evaluate different forms of government intervention and their effectiveness.
Unit 1 Micro: Unintended Consequences of the Smoking Ban
Here is an example of the law of unintended consequences where unlikely side-effect is a thoroughly welcome positive spillover effect. Researchers are finding that the number of premature births and exceptionally under-weight babies in Scotland is falling - watch this video - and then consider why this might be happening.
Scotland was the first country in the UK to ban smoking in public places, followed by Wales, Northern Ireland and England in 2007. Several years on, nearly one-in-five of mothers to be still smoke - how sad.
Unit 1 Micro - Labour Migration and the Economy
Migration from one country to another has become an increasingly important feature of our globalizing world and it raises many important economic, social and political issues. About 200-million people — about 3% of the world’s population — now live in countries in which they were not born. In the United Kingdom in 2010, the number of international migrants as a percentage of the population rose above 10% for the first time after several years of high rates of net inward migration
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