Announcing the Economics Blog Widgets!
Would you like to include the very latest content from the Economics Blog on your department web page? How about adding the Blog to your Facebook or MySpace page? Why not keep track of specific categories on the Blog such as Recession Watch, Market Failure and the Price Discrimination in Action.
How can you do all these cool things? You need an Economics Blog Widget…
read more...»Economics Teacher Conferences in 2009 - Provisional Booking Form
The dates for our programme of Economics teacher courses are now being published, starting with Cambridge on 17 November 2008 and our National Conference on Thursday 18 June 2009. You can make provisional bookings for you and your colleagues using this online form…
read more...»15 Charts on the UK Economy to Kickstart Lessons in September 08
A new set of A3-sized UK macro-economy posters is now available from tutor2u. This new poster collection gives Economics teachers a set of data charts offering students a sense of how the figures have moved over recent years but also bringing them up to speed with the latest developments…
read more...»If You Build It
This is a pretty inspirational story about an Economics student, Seth Weidman, whose go-getting attitude seems to have rubbed off on his fellow students and pupils! He obviously has a great future as an economics-educator! Hat tip to Tyler Cowen for the original link.
Student ensures econ is no longer the ‘dismal science’
Economists—Attack and Defence
Here is an attack on Economists from Simon Jenkins in the Guardian….. and here is the Guardian’s defence in an editorial!
1st or 2nd?
Should you choose to go first or second in a penalty shoot-out? Or serve first rather than receive in a grudge tennis match? Tim Harford has a neat piece in today’s Financial Times which unearths some research which seems to suggest a fairly decisive advantage for teams that win the toss of a coin and opt to take the first shot in a shoot-out! Unless of course they crack under the pressure!
Statuesque in Edinburgh
The long overdue statue of Adam Smith was unveiled in Edinburgh yesterday. Here is the report from the BBC together with an appreciation from Dr Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute and the instigator of the project. The Scotsman also reports on the unveiling. I will take a closer look at the monument when I visit the Edinburgh Festival Fringe next month.
Dictionary Corner!
The Oxford English Dictionary has released the latest set of new words for June 2008 and the turbulence in global financial markets has made an impact! Business is also well represented in our ever-changing lexicon.
read more...»Oxbridge E&M - Management Blogs
Students wanting to keep right up to date and strengthen their application for degrees such as economics and management have plenty of online resources available to help them. My advice to sixth formers is to stay well clear of management textbooks and the sort of “Ten favourite bedtime habits of successful entrepreneurs” that litter airport book shelves! Here are a few suggestions.
read more...»New A Level Specifications for Economics - Have Your Say
Economics departments around the UK and overseas have been making their choices about which new A Level Economics specification to use from September 2008. How has the process been for you and your colleagues? What have you decided to do? Has the intensive marketing of new specifications by the main exam boards helped make the choice? If you have decided to change exam board, what were the key reasons?
Here is your chance to have your say on the new Economics specifications. Latte magazine is publishing a special feature on this topic, based on your responses to an online survey. Click on read more to complete the survey for your school or college…
read more...»Summer Economics Reading
I have tweaked my recommended reading list for students interested in applying for economcis courses at UK universities this autumn.
read more...»Economics board games
Tyler Cowen’s blog pointed me to a new economics board game entitled “Wealth of Nations” are there any other economics-related board games out there and available to teachers in the UK? If there are I would quike like to have a closer look and perhaps buy one for classroom / tutorial use.
Shortlist is announced for RES Essay Competition 2008
The final shortlisted entrants for the 2008 Royal Economic Society Young Economist of the Year 2008 were announced this evening.
read more...»Two new economics books
Two new books have reached my mailbox this week and both look set to be added to my Economics reading week list for my students after their AS exams which kicks off on June 9th
read more...»LSE podcasts
A terrific resource for those unable to get across to the London School of Economics - the LSE podcasts are available on iTunes.
tutor2u announces details of new Economics resources for the 2008 A Level specifications
We’ve had many requests for news of the resources tutor2u is publishing to support the introduction of the new A Level Economics specifications from September 2008 (A2 from Sept 09). Well, here is news of our main new resource - a suite of digital Course Companions.
read more...»Bryn’s Economics Revision Videos
Bryn Jones runs an excellent blog (available here) and he has, with the help of his students, produced a series of ten short revision videos covering some of the key diagrams for AS economics - excellent and an ideal way of supporting your revision in the days ahead. Make straight for his You Tube site!
Ten Thoughts on Improving Your Economics Papers
I gave a presentation to my AS and A2 students this afternoon on some ideas for improving the overall content of their answers in the forthcoming economics exams. I have attached it as a PowerPoint file - there are no snazzy graphics or images - just a series of slides containing some personal thoughts on building extra concepts into answers. The PowerPoint doesn’t include the many examples we looked at for each section but it might be useful to some for revision.
PowerPoint
10_Ways_to_Turn_a_Good_Paper_into_a_very_Good_one
Re-birth of the Phillips Machine
The Guardian today carries a piece on the restoration of the famous Phillips Machine. I would love to be able to take my students to see this in action. Does anyone know if this is possible?
“It is 2 metres (7ft) tall, 1.5 metres wide and a metre deep. It runs on water and most of the time it is screened off at the back of a lecture room in Cambridge. But when the nine members of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee announce their latest decision on interest rates today they will owe a debt of gratitude to the computer built in a garage in south Croydon by Bill Phillips - an engineer turned economist from New Zealand - almost 60 years ago.”
Why Economics Matters
This looks like a tremendous event at the LSE in a couple of weeks
Why Economics Matters
Date: Tuesday 20 May 2008
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Professor Orazio Attanasio, Tim Harford, Professor Klaus Nielsen, Martin Wolf, Chair: Evan Davis
Further details available here
Freeconomics
Chris Anderson’s book “The Long Tail” was a best seller and highly influential read a couple of years ago ...it certainly challenged my long held views about the nature of scarcity in an increasingly digital age. His new book due out in 2009 is about the power and impact of the word “free” in economcis and markets .... and there is a terrific article in the Guardian today about this written by Stuart Jeffries.
“Anderson’s freeconomics thesis is that more and more goods and services are being provided for free and that those businesses that fail to follow suit are likely to go to the wall. “As much as we complain about how expensive things are getting, we’re surrounded by forces that are making them cheaper,” Anderson wrote in a recent article that will form the basis of a book called Free, to be published next year. “Forty years ago, charity was dominated by clothing drives for the poor. Now you can get a T-shirt for less than the price of a cup of coffee, thanks to China and global sourcing. So too for toys, gadgets and commodities of every sort. Even cocaine has pretty much never been cheaper (globalisation works in mysterious ways).”
The remainder of the article is here and you might also want to pop along to Chris Anderson’s blog. Dan Ariely also writes about the extraordinary influence of the word free on our behaviour as consumers in his new book Predictably Irrational.
Economics Conference - 27th June
This event is selling out fast so I would encourage anyone intending to join us on the 27th June at the British Library to contact Sharon Curtis as possible to secure places - even if they are provisional at this stage.
There is one change to the published speaker schedule. Unfortunately Jim O’Neill (Goldman Sachs) is unable to attend. However, we are delighted that John Micklethwait, the Editor of The Economist, has agreed to step in. John is a tremendous speaker, so the day still promises to be a highlight of our year.
Booking information for the conference can be found here:
My Word is my Bond
Clara Furse, the CEO of the London Stock Exchange offered a vivid and revealing insight into the many functions of a modern stock exchange in a globalizing world when she spoke to the Eton College Keynes Society on the 24th of April.
read more...»Demand and Supply Revision Challenge
Draw a demand and supply diagram and show a shift in one of the curves (e.g. demand shifting outwards).
Give the students 5 minutes to think of as many causes of this shift.
1 point awarded for each correct cause; 3 points for one no one else has thought of.
12.1 came up with these 15 causes of demand shifting outwards:
1. increase in income – particularly luxury goods
2. increase in wealth (housing market or stock market boom)
3. increase in price of substitute
4. decrease in price of complement
5. increase in population
6. successful advertising campaign
7. anticipation/speculative demand – e.g. anticipation of scarcity
8. increase in popularity/fashion
9. Veblen effect – ‘snob’ effect, ‘must have’ good
10. change in legislation (e.g. compulsory safety equipment or emissions technology)
11. falling interest rates
12. easier credit availability
13. increase in quality of good
14. anticipation of inflation – consumers bring forward purchases
15. appreciation in exchange rate in market for imported goods which are a substitute for domestic goods
After the break we are doing the same for supply shifting inwards….. lots of good revision points already on linking the correct curve to the correct determinant!
Here are the answers for supply shifting inwards:
1. higher costs (wages, rent, raw materials, land, machinery/physical capital)
2. labour strike
3. natural disasters – particularly agriculatural-based/LEDCs
4. war
5. higher indirect taxes
6. lower or removal of susbidy
7. supply restrictions
8. cap on emissions
9. change in incentives away from producing this good
10. resources moved into other industries
11. increased scarcity of resource, e.g. oil – linked to higher costs
12. greater monopoly power/less competition
13. decrease in factor mobility
14. changing goal of seller – e.g. withdraw from particular market
15. appreciation in exchange rate increasing prices of imported raw materials and finished goods – ‘imported inflation’
Many thanks to Alex, Atin, Will, Clive, Arvin, Liam, Keval, Neal, Matt H, Matt S, Thomas…...
Matthew Key at the Keynes
Matthew Key the CEO of O2 Europe is the speaker at the final meeting of the Eton Keynes Society - this coming Thursday (1st May) starting at 8-45pm. According to the Telegraph yesterday;
‘Former semi-professional footballer Matthew Key scored a business hat-trick in 2007. O2’s sponsorship of the former Millennium Dome, a deal which Key fought hard to get past his board, proved a stroke of marketing genius as legions of fans flocked to see the likes of Prince and Take-That perform at the former white elephant. By way of an encore, Key landed the coveted contract to bring Apple’s iPhone - the most anticipated electronics device in memory - to the UK, seeing off Vodafone in the process. Telecoms’ rising star now has to prove he can perform in the European big league.’
If teaching colleagues would like to come to the meeting you are very welcome, there will also be room for teachers who are happy to bring along small groups of students but please email me first for details and confirmation. Thanks.
I will provide a report on the superb talk by Clara Furse later on today.
Good University Guide Rankings for Economics
There is a plethora of university guides out there and no one guide has a monopoly on gauging accurately the relative merits of one university against another and one department against another. The Independent today publishes a survey based on the new version of the Good University Guide. Here are the rankings for Economics - at least they had the good sense to put Cambridge first! It brings back so many memories of three years at the Sidgewick site!
read more...»Clara Furse at the Keynes Society
Clara Furse, the CEO of the London Stock Exchange is speaking at the Eton College Keynes Society this coming Thursday evening. If there are any teachers who might want to come along and listen, please leave a message on the blog or email me and I can get back to you with details. Next Thursday (1st May) we have Matthew Key, the CEO of O2 and again a warm invitation is extended.
Asian Rice Crisis
The credit crunch is rivalled, arguably, by increasing food prices as a cause of economic (and human) concern in 2008.
This article from the BBC looks at some of the implications and you can watch/show videos on the rice crisis here.
read more...»Economics features in the new edition of Latte
The Summer 2008 edition of Latte Magazine is published later this week and, once again, it provides lots of useful and interesting resources for Economics teachers.
read more...»Blast from the past
Clearing out a (very) old economics department broom cupboard ... no one seems to have set foot in it for at least twenty years .... I came across this reminder of my earliest days as a schoolboy economist - the wonderful Question of Economics produced in the (late?) 1970s by Yorkshire Television and presented by Peter Donaldson and Zeinab Badawi. I wonder how many other grizzled economics teachers still have a copy of this in their collection? And what happened to Peter Donaldson?
A more up to date Question of Economics is the title of this excellent blog.
