Unit 1 Micro: Selection of Revision Presentations
Here are some streamed revision presentations for unit 1 microeconomics
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Buffer Stocks (Revision)
A revision presentation on buffer stocks as a form of intervention in markets where prices, revenues and producer profits are volatile
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Price Mechanism in Action (Revision)
Here is a revision presentation from our November 2012 AS Micro Revision Workshop programme covering aspects of the price mechanism, price volatility and inter-relationships between different markets. The presentation can be downloaded.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Evaluating Government Intervention - Alcohol Pricing
AS Micro students will be gearing themselves up for a key period of intensive revision over the coming days and weeks. For most, being able to analyse and evaluate government intervention in markets is crucial to scoring well in exam questions and reaching those top grades.
Evaluation is not a skill that can be learnt overnight. It requires plenty of attempts to get the evaluative style and approach working well.
BTW, if you are revising market failure I highly recommend Matt Smith's Scoop.It Board - full of great applied examples on this big area for the Unit 1 economics exam! Click here to view it read more...»Happy birthday VAT! 40 years old this month
On April Fools day, 1973 VAT was introduced in the UK replacing the purchase tax, which was charged at different rates according to the luxuriousness of an item. The idea was for it to be a straightforward low flat rate of 10% levied on most goods and services so easy to apply and cheap to collect as it's the business' responsibility to collect the tax. However, according to this Guardian article VAT "has become increasingly complex, with exemptions for everything from children's clothes to Jaffa Cakes."
There have been some interesting VAT appeals from those firms seeking to have their products zero rated ie not subject to VAT. Back in 1991, a tribunal decided Jaffa cakes were indeed cakes and not biscuits and therefore not liable for VAT (why cakes should get such special treatment is anyone's guess!). Most food is VAT-exempt however beverages are not and so it was for Innocent smoothies in 2010 when it was ruled that they too, were to be subject to this tax. Nonetheless VAT is now the government's third largest source of revenue after income tax and national insurance, raising over £100 billion last year.
Unit 1 Micro: Taxing Calories in Soft Drinks
A tax on the calories contained in soft drinks is around 6% more effective at reducing obesity than a general tax on soft drinks – but the effect is only a drop in people’s weight of around 1.6 pounds per year. These are the findings of research by Wei Xiao, to be presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2013 annual conference.
The study analyses the buying patterns of 10,000 American households by looking at data on soft drink purchases from supermarket scanners. Based on the calorie content of soft drinks and the medically accepted view that an intake of 6.614 calories leads to a gain in weight of 1 gram, the author simulates the effectiveness of various soft drink tax policies on people’s weight.
The research suggests that a tax that targets the calorie content will be more effective than a universal tax on soft drinks – as some soft drinks are healthier than others. But the author admits that ‘although an obesity tax on soft drinks can cause weight reduction, the effect is small’, adding that even without any dietary changes, ‘a human’s weight can change in the region of one pound in a day’.
Unit 3 Micro: Samsung surges ahead in global smartphone sales
Unit 3 Micro: Major tea exporters consider a new cartel
This is potentially an important development in a key consumer industry - can major tea exporters successfully manage the world price of tea in the form of an international cartel? What are the conditions required for cartels to be successful? When do international price agreements break down? Can you think of some of the benefits and costs of such a scheme from the point of view of different stakeholders?
Links to follow:
Tea cartel formed by leading producer nations (BBC news)
World tea producers may brew up higher tea prices (Telegraph Australia)
Unit 4 Macro: Fair Trade and Micro Finance - Spurs to Development?
Mark Austen writes on this essay title: Evaluate the impact that the micro-finance and Fair
Trade movements can have in supporting development in some of the world’s
poorest countries.
Unit 1 Micro: Key Term Glossary - Markets and Market Failure
An updated glossary of key terms for the Unit 1 Economics paper
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Rent Controls - Evaluating Government Intervention
Here is a streamed revision presentation on rent controls in the housing market - designed for AS micro students.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Market Power and Pricing Power
Here is a streamed version of a revision presentation on market power and pricing suitable for Unit 3 micro students
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Markets and Market Failure Concept Glossary
An A-Z glossary for the Unit 1 Micro course
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Denmark Drops the High Fat Food Tax
The Danish government has opted to bring to an end a policy intervention designed to curb consumption of high fat foods. The measure - introduced in the autumn of 2011 - added £1.50 per kilo of saturated fats in a product but the experiment will end because of fears over inflated food prices and domestic jobs being put at risk. Food manufacturers complained of increased compliance costs and there was some evidence of a rise in cross-border shopping to avoid the tax. A proposed new tax on sugar has also been cancelled.
Video: Fat tax introduced by Denmark
Unit 4 Macro: Micro Finance, Fair Trade and Development
Here is a streamed revision presentation on aspects of micro finance and fair trade as part of a course on development economics.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: The Rise of Dynamic Ticket Pricing in Sport
Here is the link to the article
Unit 1 Micro: Bargain Basements for Luxury Goods
This Financial Times new video looks at the rapid growth of outlet shopping where excess inventory (stocks) of designer brands are sold at heavily discounted prices. A useful video to watch when thinking about income elasticity of demand. The video looks at how premium brand retailers manage this section of the market.
read more...»The Kindle and the e-book - the perfect complements
I am a Kindle user.
There, I’ve said it. As the founder member of the Kindle-owners self-help group (KOSH), I’m inviting all fellow addicts to come out and admit likewise – until you admit it to yourself no-one will be able to help you. Until we act collectively, no-one will be able to stop those Amazon dealers from peddling their wares.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Smartphone Penetration and Creative Destruction
The speed with which new consumer product technologies are taken up is
of enormous interest for lots of reasons. Emerging products and services
challenge demand, revenues and profits for established products and
bring about - as Schumpeter pointed out - gales of creative
destruction.
In the United States, fresh data suggests that more
than half of US consumers have smartphones and if the information is
accurate, this means that smartphones have become one of the most
rapidly adopted consumer technologies of all time.
Unit 1 Micro: Prices in Action - Ticket Pricing at Derby County
A warm hat tip to Ed Marsh, Head of Economics at Glyn School for spotting this superb example of a sports club using dynamic pricing technology to determine the prices of tickets for their home games.
The BBC news site reports that Derby County are introducing "demand-based" ticketing for the coming season with prices fluctuating according to the opposition, the team's form, kick-off times and even the weather. The system is known as Sports and Entertainment Analytical Ticketing System (SEATS)
Buy in advance and fans will get cheaper prices - but what if a sizeable group decides to start a game of chicken with the club and hold back from buying? As match day gets closer, ticket prices should move higher, but if demand for a game is well below the stadium's capacity will prices drop back?
Hardened cynics might also point out that the Derby County ground has a fundamental design flaw .... the seats face the pitch!
Unit 1 Micro: Difficult Times for UK Farmers
Unit 3 Micro: Economics of the Milk Industry
The milk industry is in the news once again with some dairy farmers threatening to go on strike and limit milk supplies in protest at cuts in the wholesale price of milk offered to them by the major milk processing businesses. I have put together some video resources available from different web sources and built them into a Storify slideshow, as more videos are added the slideshow will be updated automatically.
read more...»
Unit 4 Macro: Dambisa Moyo - Winner Take All
Dambisa Moyo was on great form when she spoke to the Economics Teacher National Conference in London last week. Her new book Winner Take All investigates the causes and consquences of rising global demand for commodities. In particular Dambisa Moyo predicts increasing geo-political tensions and conflicts as countries scramble to secure ownership and supplies of land, water, energy and minerals. In this blog I have linked to some of Dambisa’s recent media appearances as Winner Take All was launched in the USA and here in the UK.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Australia launches carbon tax
The introduction of a carbon tax in Australia has become one of the most hotly debated political and economic issues for many years in that country. The economy has enjoyed strong growth in recent times buoyed by rising demand for and prices of many of Australia’s huge endowment of natural resources.
Under the new carbon tax, around 300 of the worst-polluting firms to pay a A$23 (£15) levy for every tonne of greenhouse gases they produce.
Will a carbon tax threaten this growth? Or will it prove to be an inspired decision - helping to pave the way for greener growth and a faster pace of innovation not least in renewable energies and low-carbon goods and services?
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on Government Intervention
Here is a short 35 slide revision presentation on government intervention in markets designed for AS microeconomics revision
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on the Price Mechanism
Here is a slide share presentation on the price mechanism in action focused in students taking their AS microeconomics papers.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention
Here is a selection of a recent blog resources on topics that appear on the core Unit 1 Syllabus focusing on changing market prices and examples of interventions to address perceived market failures
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Minimum Wages and Living Wages
The campaign for a living wage has gained renewed prominence in the last year or so. Students and teachers wanting to know more about the minimum and the living wage debate might find this background blog from Channel 4 news relevant and useful. More here on the living wage from the Citizens UK web page.
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Surplus
Here is a planned answer to an exam question on producer surplus
“The demand for cider falls. Using a diagram, explain what happens to producer surplus.”
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Interest Rates and the Exchange Rate
The exchange rate measures the external value of sterling in terms of how much of another currency it can buy. E.g. in July 2011 £1 would buy you $1.65 and Euro 1.17. The daily value of the currency is determined in the foreign exchange markets (FOREX) where billions of $s of currencies are traded every hour. The value of the pound in the currency markets depends in how strong is demand for the currency relative to supply
Many factors affect the external value of one currency against another and one of these factors is the level of interest rates in a country compared to other economies. Money moves around the world economy seeking the best risk-adjusted rate of return. The rate of interest available on deposit in the banking system of a particular country is a factor that might drive what are known as “hot money” flows into and out of a particular currency.
read more...»
