Scoop it Boards for Economics
A growing number of teachers are curating Scoop It Boards focusing on specific exam courses or aspects of the subject - ranging from ones on market failure and government intervention through to international economics, China, and relevant articles and resources for papers such as OCR F585 and Pre U. Maybe students can be encouraged to curate and develop their own boards as a way of keeping a study log of interesting blogs, news features, analysis and evaluative pieces?
read more...»Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Managing the Economy (1)
This 10 question quiz looks at the broad topic of macroeconomic management of the economy.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Managing the Economy (1)
Unit 2 and Unit 4 Macro: Economic Simulation - the Government Game
Introducing The Government Game - tutor2u's new Economic Simulation game that is just perfect for revising for AS & A2 Macroeconomic Policy topics!
Unit 2 Macro: UK and US Growth Compared
In this short Financial Times video, Vicky Redwood the Chief UK Economist of Capital Economics looks at why economic recovery in the UK has been slower than in the USA since the end of the last recession.
read more...»Paul Ormerod: Sovereign debt and Euro zone reality
The recent debacle in Cyprus has essentially been shrugged off by the markets. The European Central Bank vigorously asserts the crisis in the Euro zone is over. So why is there continued unease about the financial viability of countries such as Spain and Portugal, a morass into which even the French are now being dragged?
Economic theory helps us understand a bit more about why this is the case. One thing which the last few years in Europe have shown very starkly is the massive difference between debt which is denominated in nominal terms and that which is in real terms. Nobel Laureate Chris Sims makes the point clearly in his recently published Presidential Address to the American Economic Association.
read more...»Economics Revision - Mind Map and Visual Notes Competition
There are thousands of AS and A2 students out there at the moment putting in some serious hours of revision ahead of the May and June papers. Effective revision is more of an art than a precise science but many students are producing some superb mind-maps, revision flash cards and other visual resources to telling effect.
We like to showcase some of them at this stage of the year. In the spirit of friendly competition, we will offer some book prizes to our favourite mind maps and similar revision notes. You can email them through to us (ideally one image per mind map, 800 x 600 size works best for us but we can resize any image). Or post them on twitter and add @tutor2u or @tutor2u_econ to your tweet so that we can see them!
We will announce the winners on the 1st of May! Check below to see some of the early entries. This blog will be updated on a regular basis.
read more...»Unit 2 and Unit 4 Macro: Unicef Child Well-Being Report 2013
Unicef have just released their latest 'report card' on the relative state of well being among children in 29 of the most wealthy countries. The report (a full version and a summary) are available from this link.
The report shows pleasing progress for the UK (our place on the overall ranking has gone up from last place to 16th) with an improvement in obesity levels and a reduction in consumption of alcohol, cigarettes and drugs compared to the 2007 report.
However, worryingly, the UK is ranked 24th in the table with regards to its provision of Education. The biggest weakness highlighted, is the fact that the UK has one of the lowest percentages of young people continuing with education post 16 (only 74%) and very high levels of young people not in education, employment or training at all (nearly 10%). Students of economics could use this as evidence of government failure with regards to supply-side policies - with such a low level of participation in comparison to our major competitors can we guarantee that we are developing skills that will allow the economy to grow in the future? Could your students suggest (and then evaluate) suggestions for how this situation could be remedied?
Evaluation Snakes and Ladders - a resource
Here's a free resource inspired by an idea from Pete Davies from Greenhead College in Huddersfield (@gcupdates) using the traditional game of 'snakes and ladders' to evaluate the impact of economic policies and objectives.
The idea is to ask students to evaluate an economic objective (the example on the downloadable resource are the factors impacting on unemployment) by coming up with 5 positives (or strengths) and 4 negatives (or weaknesses). Having done this, students must then 'rank' their ideas according to which have the greater impact on the economic objective being discussed.
This ranking then determines the lengths of the ladders (the bigger the impact the longer the ladder) and the snakes. Having chosen one answer from a student that has fully justified their response you can then input their suggestions and get the whole class to have a quick game of snakes and ladders on screen. Perhaps a nice way to spend the last 10 minutes of a heavy revision session!
Click on this link to download the resource.
Pete Davies contributed to the team developing resources and presenting at the Tutor2u Wow Economics teacher CPD event. Upcoming versions of the event are advertised on this website.
Unit 2 Macro: Labour Costs in the European Union
The European Union has just released some new figures on the spread of hourly labour costs among the member nations of the European Union. Labour costs are made up of wages & salaries and non-wage costs such as employers' social contributions e.g. national insurance payments in the UK. Students who have covered aggregate supply and demand theory might be able to consider why changes in labour costs can have an effect on key macroeconomic indicators such as inflation, demand, exports and growth.
Hourly labour costs are different from unit labour costs - the latter takes into account the productivity of people employed. For example, a 5% rise in hourly labour costs will leave unit labour costs unchanged if productivity rises by 5% over the same time period.
read more...»Resources on the Economic Legacy of Margaret Thatcher
There is huge media coverage of the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In this blog we are pulling together some resources that focus on the economic effects of her 11 year period of office.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Investment in UK Economy Remains Low
Capital investment spending in the UK has remained below 15% of GDP for four years and there are few strong signs that investment in Britain will rebound strongly in the near term. No other country inside the Group of 7 (G7) had experienced investment below 15% of GDP in any single year in the last thirty - it is clear that investment in the UK remains stuck in the doldrums and this may have damaging consequences for short term recovery and long-term competitiveness and growth.
Unit 2 Macro: Wealth of Nations and Human Capital
A recent World Bank report asked ‘Where is the Wealth of Nations?’ Calculations presented at the Economic History Society’s 2013 annual conference show that for Britain, the answer is undoubtedly in its people.
Dr Jan Kunnas and his colleagues calculate that Britain’s ‘human capital’ has grown by a multiple of 123 over the past 250 years. The main drivers of this phenomenal growth have been the growth in the workforce and the growth in wages.
The researchers define human capital as the knowledge and skills embodied in individuals – and they measure it by the discounted earnings the population is expected to earn during their time in the labour force.
We have an extended revision note on human capital and economic growth - read it hereThe Changing Wealth of Nations - World Bank reports can be accessed here
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Unit 4 Macro: Getting Back to Growth - Lessons from the 1930s
How Britain escaped from the travails of the Great Depression and achieved 4% a year growth in the years from 1933 to 1937 has important lessons for today’s policy-makers, according to research by Professor Nicholas Crafts, presented at the Economic History Society’s 2013 annual conference.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Interest Rates
It is now over four years since the Bank of England cut their policy interest rate to 0.5%. The Bank along with other central banks has seemingly moved away from changes in interest rates to policies aimed at manipulating the base supply of money in the economy / financial system. Others are focusing on managing the exchange rate. Monetary policy has undergone big changes in recent years as this revision note explains.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: The Great Productivity Puzzle
GDP per hour – labour productivity – in the UK remains lower than at the beginning of the recession in 2008. A special session at the Royal Economic Society on Friday 5 April held jointly by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) investigated the causes of this mystery. It was also the subject of radio 4 In Business - click here
See also: the Job Rich Depression (The Economist)
Unit 2 Macro: Lloyds Bank Quarterly UK Economic Review
Economists from the Lloyds Bank team provide an overview of prospects for the UK economy - a good update for AS macro students preparing for their exams
Unit 2 Macro: Inflation (April 2013 Update)
Keeping actual and expected inflation under control is one of the key objectives of macroeconomic policy. The rate of inflation in the UK is calculated using the Consumer Price Index. For many years data on the Retail Price Index (RPI) has also been published but from March 2013, the RPI is no longer regarded as an official national economic statistic. Please be aware of this when writing your exam. This revision blog provides updated figures on the latest CPI data for a variety of countries - it reminds us that inflation rates vary quite a lot. Think about what persistent differences in inflation rates can have on macroeconomic stability and performance.
read more...»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: Supply-side Policy (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on supply-side policies.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Supply-side Policy (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Monetary Policy (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on the role of monetary policy.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Monetary Policy (1)
Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Balance of Payments (1)
This 10-question revision quiz focuses on the balance of payments.
Launch Revision Quiz: AS Economics: Balance of Payments (1)
read more...»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...»
