Emailing entries in for the RES competition
If you do not have a postal option available please email in your essay to geoff@tutor2u.net ahead of Monday’s deadline
But please also remember to attach a cover sheet completed
You can download one here
Gangmasters and monopsony power
How many gangmasters are there operating in the UK? Does the Licensing Authority really have a proper handle on the scale of workers being organised and often exploited by gangmaster businesses? I was discussing this issue of monospony in my A2 revision presentations at London and Manchester in the last week. It is I feel one of the really important aspects of market failure in a largely deregulated labour market.
The BBC reports that ”a gangmaster has been stripped of his licence after investigators uncovered a “disgraceful story of forced labour” amongst migrant workers in Scotland.” The government has introduced a licensing scheme for gangmasters - partly as a consequence of the awful events that unfolded for the Chinese cocklepickers on Morecambe Bay (captured superbly in Nick Broomfield’s recent film “Ghosts").
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
Things can only get better …..
We asked a thousand people and most of them said ...... there is trouble ahead! Consumer confidence took a further nose-dive last month according to fresh data from the Nationwide Building Society. The main reason was another steep decline in the percentage of people reported as saying that the UK economy is in good shape. This is just one survey among many, and its limited longevity doesn’t give it much of a record in anticipating turning points in the economic cycle. But if the housing market presages a wider economic downturn, it might well be one of the survey indicators to watch carefully because the shift in sentiment does not appear to have benign causes. Sixty per cent of those surveyed say that now is a bad time to make a major purchase such as a house or a new car – almost twice the number compared to two years ago.
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.
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.
Demerit goods in action
Two news stories catch the eye today with respect to demerit goods.
Firstly, the government plans to reclassify cannabis as a class B drug - but will this have any impact on its levels of use? Arthur Ma, in a related blog entry, has explored the issue in greater detail here.
Secondly, alcohol abuse is harming the health and productivity of the UK’s workers. According to the BBC, one on three employees admits being hungover at work.
read more...»Does a current account deficit matter?
Yes according to economist Roger Bootle writing in the latest edition of the Deloitte Economic Review and reported in this article from the Financial Times.
“Britain is headed for its highest peacetime current account deficit and both household and government spending will have to slow painfully to correct it, according to economist Roger Bootle”
read more...»…Now I know my ABCs!
But does Jacqui Smith? Today she announced the reclassification of cannabis up to a Class B drug – against the advice of the government’s drug council and undoing the reclassification to Class C under Tony Blair’s reign. Legislature on drugs is an infamously contestable topic with each political party throwing their respective hats into the ring. The Conservatives certainly want cannabis at Class B, the Lib Dems want to listen to the scientific advice which means that they want it at Class C, while the Greens were daring enough to declare in their recent manifesto that they want a legalised, regulated market for cannabis, much like in Holland. Personally, I don’t even know my own stance on this, but here’s the story so far:
RES competition deadline
A reminder that the deadline for entries is Monday 12 May 2008. Entries should be postmarked 12 May or earlier and sent to the tutor2u office together with a completed entry form, which can be downloaded here:
