Supply-side Economics
Has competition in postal services delivered?
Two years on from the liberalisation of the postal services industry, has this supply-side policy to make the market more contestable made any noticeable difference to the quality of service, prices and investment in delivery? A new report casts doubt on the changes to the industry since the market opened up to competition at the start of 2006 to businesses such as UK Mail. Robert Peston reports for the BBC in this video clip. His feature asks whether the universal service provision is a millstone round the neck of the Royal Mail which remains in deep financial trouble.
Revision: Supply-side of the UK Economy
This revision note recaps short run and long run aggregate supply and looks at some of the key supply-side policies together with a brief evaluation of the recent supply-side performance of the UK economy. Designed for both AS and A2 students. I have also attached a PowerPoint presentation with a selection of supply-side indicators for the UK.
Revision Note (pdf format)
Revision_Supply_Side_Policies.pdf
PowerPoint Charts
Supplyside_Performance_2008.ppt
Revision: Innovation
Innovation has been defined by the OECD as “The transformation of an idea into a new, improved product, process or service.” This revision mind map looks at the micro and macroeconomic importance of innovation. Successful innovation can be a driving dynamic of a modern, competitive economy. A range of supply and demand-side policies can be used to foster innovative behaviour. Of key importance is the type of market structure in which innovation within the private sector can be encouraged. We must not forget too the potential for innovation in the public sector and in collaborative ventures between countries.
Foreign retailers help UK productivity
For some years there has been strong evidence that inflows of foreign investment into our manufacturing sector have served to drive higher output worker. But perhaps the same is happening on the high street and in the shopping malls? A new paper by Dr Dolores Anon Higon and Dr Nicholas Vasilakos presented at the Royal Economic Society’s March 2008 annual conference finds that foreign-owned retailers may improve the productivity of the retail sector as a whole if they are more productive than British retailers and they have the effect of forcing UK retailers to raise their own game with benefits for consumers in the longer term. A summary of their findings is available here from the RES web site.
Competing on quality rather than price
The Financial Times carried an article today which I will use when discussing the different strategies British manufacturing firms can adopt when trying to compete in competitive global markets.
Public goods essays
Thanks for the ideas for essays on public goods. I settled on giving the students a choice of one from three…
UK ranked as one of Europe’s innovation leaders
Those in Britain who believe that innovation is one of the most important supply-side determinants of economic growth, improved trade performance and rising living standards will be cheered by the latest 2007 Innovation Scoreboard for the twenty-seven nations of the EU. Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Israel, Denmark, Japan, Germany, the UK and the US are ranked as Europe’s ‘innovation leaders’.
The EU press release says that
‘The UK performs particularly strongly in Innovation & entrepreneurship with a relatively high level on the indicator of Early-stage venture capital. It performs below the EU average in the dimension of Intellectual property with a relatively lower level on the indicators of Triad patents and Community designs. The analysis of innovation efficiency suggests that the UK is above the EU average in transforming innovation inputs into Applications, but below average in transforming such inputs into Intellectual property outputs.’
I produced a revision mind map on innovation a couple of years ago, it is still available on the web site here (in pdf format)
