Unit 2 Macro: Fiscal Policy Glossary
A selection of economic terms linked to government fiscal policy
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Economic Cycle Glossary
A short glossary of key terms connected to the economic cycle
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Aggregate Demand Glossary
A glossary of some key terms related to aggregate demand
read more...»Exam Technique for Economics - Weesteps to Evaluation
With AS and A2 modules on the horizon, here is a presentation outlines an approach to demonstrating evaluation using the WEESTEPS acronym - first developed by Paul Bridges and his students who is now Head of Economics at the RGS Guildford.
It is an approach that has struck a chord with us all during our Economics revision workshops. The presentation uses a macro topic to illustrate the approach… but WEESTEPS can be used for all evaluation-style questions especially those focusing on different forms of government intervention in markets.
read more...»Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy
For the May and June macro papers here is a brief summary of the key macroeconomic numbers for the UK economy so that you can demonstrate good awareness to the examiners in your papers:
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...»musical negative externalities
An amusing musical clip to introduce or revise negative externalities associated with fly tipping, private costs, social costs, spillover costs, and a discussion of policy options.
Michael Flanders was the father of Stephanie Flanders, the BBC Economics Correspondent.
Robert Schiller - Finance and the Good Society
Professor Robert Schiller from Yale University spoke at the RSA in London tonight on the roles and responsibilities of the financial sector and built an argument that finance can be a root to addressing some of the toughest economic and social challenges of the age. Here are some brief notes from his talk.
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...»Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle
The cost-benefit principle is one of those core ideas that can be brought into so many evaluation discussions both in micro and macroeconomics – you should be using it in your papers!
read more...»Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context
I always ask of my students that they try to put policy issues and decisions into context. The effective use of context - either in a domestic or external setting or using recent history as a guide can greatly improve evaluation marks in exam essays. Our aim in a revision session today was to build some of that context with respect to some of the key issues facing the UK economy.
A starting point was the short and medium-term impact of the recession and how this is shaping the strength and pattern of recovery as we head through 2011 and into 2012. As befits an open economy heavily integrated into the European and global economic and financial system, many key recent developments on growth, jobs, inflation and trade are impacted by external demand and supply-side shocks and headwinds.
read more...»A2 Micro (Unit 3) Economics Online Revision Clinic - 10 June 2012
Students taking a Unit 3 exam as part of their A2 Economics this June may wish to get involved in our online revision clinic, which takes place a couple of days before the exam. The free online revision clinic will begin at 9.00 p.m. and last for an hour. Our Economics teacher panelists will be on hand to provide guidance and advice on key topics in A2 business economics (including labour market & transport economics) to help students focus their final revision efforts. To participate (e.g. ask questions or provide comments on topics discussed), students will need to login using their FB, Twitter or OpenID accounts.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Spanish unemployed head to Argentina
Catastrophically high unemployment in countries such as Spain are causing people to leave the Med in search of work elsewhere and thousands are trying their luck in South America. This short video from Al Jazeerah news looks at the growing number of people heading to Argentina looking for a job or perhaps the chance to start a new business. Watching it is a chance to revise some of the factors that affect the geographical mobility of labour? This Economist report looks at some of the causes of geographical immobility of labour.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: End of the Road for the Lada
Boasting a steering wheel that doesn’t steer, an in car radio that is an optional extra and acceleration powers that - on a good day - can take you from 0 to 60 in less than three minutes, the Lada has for a long time been a figure of fun in global motoring circles. But production is coming to an end following a collapse in sales. As is often the case, news of the demise of the Lada has prompted increased interest among younger urban consumers whose DNA is to go against the grain and drive something that is sturdy, mercifully free of corporate design features and most of all, tremendously cheap.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Britain back in Recession
Provisional estimates show that Britain’s recovery from the debt crisis has stalled yet again with real GDP falling by 0.2% in the 1st quarter of 2012. Many small and medium sized businesses want to grow, have products whose demand is rising and wish to take advantage of a competitive exchange rate - but the fragility of the financial system is holding them back and the Channel 4 news broadcast below is superb in highlighting the weaknesses caused by fiscal austerity and de-leveraging in the banking system. The UK economy has seen almost no growth since the Coalition government took office in May 2010. Plan A isn’t working George.
read more...»AS Macro (Unit 2) Economics Online Revision Clinic - Monday 30 April
The second in our series of online revision clinics for A Level Economics will take place on Monday 30 April 2012 at 9pm (UK BST). The focus of this free one-hour revision clinic will be the Unit 2 exam on macroeconomics, covering AQA, Edexcel, WJEC and OCR topics. Students who wish to get live support from our Economics team will be able to login to the clinic on this blog entry; please use your FB, Twitter or OpenID details to login.
read more...»Tullow Oil and African Development
Yesterday I spent a fascinating evening in the company of Aidan Heavey, Founder and CEO of Tullow Oil plc, Africa’s leading independent oil exploration business and the top performer among FTSE-100 listed businesses on the UK stock exchange. It has approximately 100 production and exploration licenses in 22 countries.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: African Aid - Helpful or Harmful?
This highly interactive programme on Al Jazeerah a few days ago focused on the impact of foreign aid on the African economy. It runs for 35 minutes but there is plenty of interesting debate and many comments flying in on the twitter feeds. Plenty of discussion that might inform a revision session on the future for the African economy and the debate over the effectiveness of aid programmes.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: The Euro Zone Crisis (Revision)
Here is a revision blog on some of the key economic challenges facing the seventeen member nations of the Euro Zone or Euro Area
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Heathow’s Capacity and Connectivity Crunch
The capacity and efficiency of our transport infrastructure has a huge bearing on the supply-side potential of the economy and in this Channel 4 news video, the CEO of British Airports Authority argues that Heathrow is now full to bursting. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition manifesto in 2010 ruled out a third runway at Heathrow - to the relief of those (including me) who live under Heathrow flight paths. But without much needed investmnt in air transport, there are fears that UK business will suffer and the economy will become less attractive to inward investment.
According to BAA (owned by Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial), 77,000 people are employed inside the airport’s perimeter, with a further 59,000 jobs supported across London. In a recent research report commissioned by BAA and produced by Oxford Economics, a failure to support Heathrow over the next ten years could cost 78,800 jobs from tourism, 55,300 jobs from foreign investment and 7,300 jobs from exports to emerging markets – 141,400 jobs in total
By 2021 lost GDP could total £8.5 billion a year – £3.6 billion from tourism, £4.5 billion from foreign investment and £410 million from exports.
Unit 1 Micro: Adecco and Monopsony Power
Here is an example of monopsony power in the labour market and the risk of exploitation of employees. Britain’s largest recruitment agency, Adecco, is being accused of short-changing temporary staff by rounding down their holiday pay. Hundreds of thousands of people are employed by contract recruitment businesses - this is a timely reminder of the importance of employment legislation as a means of protecting the pay and conditions of people in vulnerable jobs.
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Externalities - Deepwater Horizon 2 Years On
This short Al Jazeerah report looks at the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the impact it continues to have on the regional fishing industry. Two years since oil company BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in a massive oil spill, fishermen in the region are still suffering. The explosion killed 11 people and resulted in the worst accidental offshore oil spill in US history.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: The Third Industrial Revolution
This is well worth watching! It is an 8 minute discussion from the Economist which examines what is being called “The Third Industrial Revolution” - based around the digitisation of manufacturing processes. Concepts such as 3d printing and advanced robotics are discussed, as are concepts such as competitiveness, productivity and product personalisation. One possible consequence of these changes might be that high quality manufacturing may begin to move back from lower-wage economies such as China and back to economies like the USA.
read more...»Preparing for the AS Economics Macro Paper 2012
This comprehensive new revision presentation by Geoff is designed to provide support for AS Economics students (and their teachers) in the final stages of their revision for the Unit 2 paper on macroeconomics.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Better news on jobs in the UK?
This excellent news video from Channel 4 news looks at the changing pattern of employment in the UK economy. The number of full time workers is dropping and there has been a big switch towards part-time employment. Who are the winners and losers in our labour market as the fragile recovery struggles to maintain momentum?
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Key Diagrams for Business Economics
Here is a revision download containing some key theory diagrams and accompanying explanation for topics in business economics / theory of the firm / market structures.
Key_Diagrams_A2_Business_Economics.pdf
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Question on Road Tolls
I have put together a unit 1 micro markets and market failure question focusing on the economics of motorway congestion and road tolls. It is available as a pdf download if colleagues would like to take a look. I will post some suggested answers in a few days and link back to this blog.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Revision Game on the A-Z of Micro
Here is an A-Z quiz where you type in the answer to 26 concepts on the A2 micro course. Created using Zondle this game uses the Bubble Shooter game. Details below
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Managing the Global Commons - Limits to GDP
In this excellent 20 minute talk Professor Geoffrey Heal from Columbia University discusses the broad concept of society’s capital including natural capital. He focuses on the limits of GDP as a measure of economic progress in a world that depletes all forms of capital including natural capital. Net Domestic Product (rather than GDP), HDI, HPI and adjusted net savings all get a mention in his talk. Being rich and being sustainable are rarely the same thing.
He defines sustainability as “keeping the total value of a nation’s capital stock in tact” and this definition encompasses all forms of capital (physical, intellectual, social, human, natural). Economic development changes the profile of a nation’s capital stock - for example industrialisation leads to deforestation and a rapid run down of natural capital, replaced often by life-changing physical capital, intellectual capital and human capital.
Living standards have been raised through this substitution process but the fundamental question central to the whole environmental debate is the extent to which the natural stock of capital can continue to be run down at present rates.
The weight of scientific knowledge says that the answer is no - we cannot replace a stable climate by more human and physical capital under a business as usual pathway. Heal argues for strong sustainability - giving bigger emphasis to protecting and maintaining eco-systems.
read more...»Unit 4 Macro: Mini Documentary on Financial Instability
“It is not that human beings are irrational, it is that they are human” Here is a terrific short film on the causes of financial instability and the cracking of faith in markets. The Institute for New Economic Thinking has just launched the first of a series of short documentaries on economics Click below for the first of them
read more...»
