The Angry Economist! - a macro-economic objective resource
Here's a 5 to 10 minute activity for your post-Easter classes on macro-economic objectives - The Angry Economist! The design is very loosely based upon the 'Angry Bird' game.
You will need up to 8 volunteers to answer the 'Angry Economist's' questions.
Each student can choose a Government policy named on-screen and then the Angry Economist randomly chooses a macro-economic objective. The student has to to apply their knowledge and understanding of their chosen policy to the macro-economic objective shown.
The screen encourages the student to analyse and evaluate their own answer.
Use this link to access the resource. Give it a go!
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Fresh Serving of Acronym Soup - ZIRPs and PLOGs
Economic commentators love their acronyms and abbreviations - they come in handy when reaching character capacity limits on a tweet and also for students fighting the exam clock to complete a timed essay. Two new ones have come to my attention in recent days. What does ZIRP and PLOG mean to you?
read more...»Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Development Economics (1)
This 10-question revision quiz looks at introductory concepts of development economics
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Development Economics (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Macro Policies (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on the basics of macroeconomic policies.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Macro Policies (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Aggregate Supply (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on the basics of aggregate supply.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Aggregate Supply (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Aggregate Demand (1)
This 10-question revision quiz looks at the basics of aggregate demand.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Aggregate Demand (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Multiplier & Accelerator (1)
This 10-question revision quiz looks at the concepts of the multiplier and accelerator.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Multiplier & Accelerator (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: GDP & Circular Flow (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on GDP and the Circular Flow of Income.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: GDP & Circular Flow (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Exchange Rates (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on exchange rates.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Exchange Rates (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Economic Growth (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on economic growth.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Economic Growth (1)
read more...»Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Inflation (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on inflation.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Inflation (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Unemployment (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on unemployment.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Unemployment (1)
UK Social Welfare Reform April 2013
I know that it is April Fools Day, but the new and quite radical social welfare reforms are starting to come in to play from this week and they are genuine!
Use this link to access a document that summarises the main changes to the welfare reforms. You can use this document as a lesson activity to discuss government policies to achieve macro-economic objectives.
Are these reforms just aimed at reducing the government's debt or are they aimed at improving the unemployment situation? Are they part of a wider supply-side set of policies aimed at making the UK workforce more effective and flexible?
Could students discuss each policy's strength and weakness? Could they suggest alternative and (possibly) more effective policies.
AS Economics Revision Notes
We've been busy updating and extending our collection of free revision notes for AS Economics core topics. Set out below are links to the current AS Economics revision notes. Please bookmark or share this blog entry as we'll update this master listing each time we add new revision notes.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - Listing of Revision Quizzes
Here is an updated listing of the Unit 2 Macro Revise and Test Revision Quizzes
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - AD and AS and GDP
A revision blog and online test on the interaction between aggregate demand and aggregate supply
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - Aggregate Supply
Updated revision notes on aggregate supply, short tests to check your understanding and links to enrichment reading
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - Know Your Numbers!
Here is a quick revision test on some of the key UK economy data - how well do you know what has been happening to growth, inflation, unemployment and some other important macroeconomic indicators? Test your understanding and aim for a high score on bobble shoot!
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - Aggregate Demand
Updated revision notes on aggregate demand and a short revision quiz to test your understanding!
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - Income, Wealth and Inequality
Revise the concepts of income and wealth and test your understanding with a short quiz
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - Macro Objectives
Updated revision notes and short online tests to check your understanding on macroeconomic objectives - plus a selection of news article links for extension reading.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - National Income
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What is National Income?
National income measures the monetary value of the flow of output of goods and services produced in an economy over a period of time.
Measuring the level and rate of growth of national income (Y) is important for keeping track of:
- The rate of economic growth
- Changes to living standards
- Changes to the distribution of income
between groups within the population
Gross Domestic Product
- Gross
domestic product (GDP) is the total value of output produced in a given
time period
- GDP includes the output of foreign
owned businesses that are located in a nation following foreign direct
investment. For example, the output produced at the Nissan car plant on Tyne
and Wear contributes to the UK’s GDP
read more...»
Unit 2 Macro: Revise and Test - The Circular Flow
- The circular flowis a basic way of understanding how
different parts of the economic system fit together
- The circular flow of income shows
connections between different sectors
- It shows flows of goods and services and factors
of production between firms and households
- The circular flow shows how national income or
Gross Domestic Product is calculated
Businesses produce goods and services and in the process of doing so, incomes are generated for factors of production (land, labour, capital and enterprise) – for example wages and salaries going to people in work.
Leakages (withdrawals) from the circular flow
Not all income will flow from households to businesses directly. The circular flow shows that some part of household income will be:
- Put aside for future spending, i.e. savings (S) in banks accounts and other
types of deposit
- Paid to the government in taxation (T) e.g. income tax and national insurance
- Spent on foreign-made goods and services, i.e. imports (M) which flow into the economy
Withdrawals are increases in savings, taxes or imports so reducing the circular flow of income and leading to a multiplied contraction of production (output).
Injections into the circular flow are additions to investment, government spending or exports so boosting the circular flow of income leading to a multiplied expansion of output.
- Capital spending by firms, i.e. investment expenditure (I) e.g. on
new technology
- The government, i.e. government expenditure (G) e.g. on the NHS or
defence
- Overseas consumers buying UK goods and service, i.e. UK
export expenditure (X)
An economy is in equilibrium when the rate of injections = the rate of withdrawals from the circular flow.
If there is an increase in the rate of injections (other factors remaining constant), then equilibrium GDP will riseIf there is a fall in the rate of leakages (other factors remaining constant), then equilibrium GDP will rise
Budget 2013 stimulus presentation
With Evening Standard-like speed, please follow this link for a short set of questions about today's Budget.
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...»Is this the start of Plan B?
It’s not often you read such a clearly set out, even-handed article on macroeconomic policy, so this relatively lengthy piece was interesting in itself as its writer appears to deal relatively equally with both sides of the big austerity debate. But you really have to take notice when the writer is the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable.
Unit 4 Macro: The AAA Credit Rating Downgrade
Huge media headlines today for the decision by Moody's to downgrade the UK's credit rating from AAA. It will take some time to see if this decision from one of the ratings agencies - who we must recall lost much of their credibility because of the sub-prime crisis - will have genuine and significant consequences for variables such as market interest rates, the sterling exchange rate, inflation and GDP growth. Stripping away the rather facile spin from the political parties, there have been some interesting and relevant comment pieces on the downgrading and I have chosen some of them for this blog entry. I hope some of them are helpful for your studies:
Moody's Statement
"The main driver underpinning Moody’s decision to downgrade the UK’s government bond rating to Aa1 is the increasing clarity that, despite considerable structural economic strengths, the UK’s economic growth will remain sluggish over the next few years due to the anticipated slow growth of the global economy and the drag on the UK economy from the ongoing domestic public- and private-sector de-leveraging process. Moody’s says that the country’s current economic recovery has already proven to be significantly slower — and believes that it will likely remain so — compared with the recovery observed after previous recessions, such as those of the 1970s, early 1980s and early 1990s. Moreover, while the government’s recent Funding for Lending Scheme has the potential to support a surge in growth, Moody’s believes the risks to the growth outlook remain skewed to the downside."
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Slow Export Growth Hampers UK Recovery
The much anticipated surge in exports of goods and services from the UK economy has not really materialised in recent times. Hopes of an export-led recovery and contribution to re-balancing of aggregate demand have diminished somewhat. In this discussion, writers from the Economist explain why Britain is no longer one of the world's biggest goods exporters.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Video Resources on the German Economy
Having German exchange students in my lesson has provided a super opportunity to discuss the position of the German economy within the Euro Area and to compare and contrast macroeconomic indicators between the UK and Europe's largest economy. Here is a selection of some of the video clips that have been used as prompts for discussion.
read more...»Developments in the UK Economy
Many AS students are now embarking on their macroeconomics course. I feel that building up a good awareness of what is actually happening in the UK and other economies is a great way of adding value and context to your assignments. There are many sources of useful articles, supporting evidence, comment and analysis pieces. I'll be putting quite a few of them together on this blog page and adding to it on a regular basis.
read more...»
