Euro crisis hits Eurovision
Amidst the depths of concern about where the Greek crisis and the eurozone might take us, can I offer a lighter note. Putting aside UK contingency planning to deal with mass immigration and Bankia’s request for a 19bn bailout, perhaps the ultimate indicator of the crisis is the news that Spanish TV has instructed their entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest that she is not to win.
If Pastora Soler wins with her ballad Quedate Conmigo (Stay With Me), then according to the rules of the contest the public broadcaster of the nation that wins must host the following year. And Spain’s broadcaster TVE cannot afford that at the moment.
Surely this explains how/why countries choose their Eurovision entry, and is a great example of game theory which we should use in the classroom?
Small government is beautiful - discuss
Does a smaller Government sector mean more economic growth?
This example of normative economics from The Centre For Policy Studies offers a case that it does.
The CPS is trying to convince you and me, that smaller government leads to lower taxes, less crowding out, more enterprise amongst other outcomes. It is trying to shape decisions about the mixed economy, or change the behaviour of governments and voters.
It might provide some food for thought about what sort of mix of private and public sector is desirable. If you wanted to weigh up the case for more intervention, what would you highlight? Does the data used show that the relationship between government size is based on correlation or coincidence?
Greek Euro Exit Flowchart
Here’s a good one for the end of the week, if you want a discussion regarding the possible outcome(s) of the € currency crisis, or a handy revision tool. This Guardian interactive page is very helpful.
The Merkeltaur - my favourite Greek crisis cartoon!
The Greek economic crisis has led to many amusing and insightful cartoons, and my students and I have enjoyed discussing the cross-curricular links between Classics and Economics that many of the cartoons reference.
read more...»BMW - Bavarian Monopolist at Work
BMW have been fined SFr156m ($163m) by Swiss Competition Authorities for restricting the supply of BMW and MINI cars to Swiss purchasers.
read more...»Investment in Energy Infrastructure
Many people take as given a pressing need to increase capital investment in the infrastructure of our energy sectors - but how strong are the economic and social impacts of such investment? The LSE Growth Commission met this week to discuss this and I have brought together some of the arguments drawing on a number of various twitter feeds
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK
Our focus in an AS macro revision session was on the difference between cyclical issues and events and the wider / deeper structural problems and issues facing the UK economy at this fascinating time. Key macro policy decisions affect the path of an economy out of recession, but are these the same policies that will address the supply-side constraints and weaknesses that hold back growth, development and contribute to growing inequality?
read more...»A2 Macro: You Have $75 Billion To Save the World - How would you spend it?
Five top development economists including 4 Nobel Laureates were asked how they would best spend $75 billion to improve human welfare especially in developing countries and the list below is what they came up with in order of priority.
read more...»For $24.95, George W. Bush Will Share His ‘Strategies For Economic Growth’
If you’re looking for some light post exam season poolside reading material, perhaps the previous US President’s thoughts on how to achieve economic growth will appeal.
However, according to this report by the Economic Policy Institute under Bush’s watch “between the end of the 2001 recession (2001Q4) and the peak of that expansion (2007Q4), the U.S. economy experienced the worst economic expansion of the post-war era.”
read more...»AS Macro (Unit 2) Economics Online Revision Clinic - Tuesday 22 May 2012
The second in our series of online revision clinics for AS Economics students taking their Unit 2 exams will be 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm on Tuesday 22 May 2012.
To participate in the revision clinic (e.g. ask questions, comment etc) you will need to login using your FB or Twitter ID.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies
Lots of students will be revising the economics of supply-side policies this week with their AS macro paper coming into view. There are different interpretations of what constitutes a supply-side policy measure. I like to label SSP (supply-side policy) to any policy or group of measures where emphasis is given to improving the working of markets, raising factor efficiency, improving the quantity and quality of labour and in lifting the capacity and competitiveness of an economy in a constantly-changing international environment.
Many supply side policies focus on improving incentives and outcomes in the labour market, others are geared towards bettering the performance of markets for goods and services, All of them centre on helping to sustain non-inflationary growth, improve trade performance, lift living standards and create new and fulfilling jobs opportunities.
This revision blog looks in particular at some evaluation points on supply-side approaches:
read more...»An Economists Guide to Teaching Styles
Many thanks to Paul Bridges for this witty and revealing interpretation of teaching styles - I am sure our student and teaching community can suggest additional styles and we will happily showcase the best! Over to you!
read more...»Oxbridge Economics: Introduction to Game Theory
Here is an “Introduction to Game Theory” lecture, which offers a broad introduction to the field, with some exercises to do at the end. (The yellow-underlined text hyperlinks out to other resources).
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: Game Theory and Business Economics
Game theory is mainly concerned with predicting the outcome of games of strategy in which the participants (for example two or more businesses competing in a market) have incomplete information about the others’ intentions. This revision blog looks at some of the ways in which game theory can be applied to business economics decisions.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: The Current Account of the Balance of Payments
A revision note for AS economists on the current account of the balance of payments
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: UK Trade in Services
A revision blog on UK overseas trade in services
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy
A revision blog on the economic impact of migration on the UK economy
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects
An initial change in aggregate demand can have a much greater final impact on equilibrium national income. This is known as the multiplier effect. It comes about because injections of new demand for goods and services into the circular flow of income can stimulate further rounds of spending – in other words “one person’s spending is another’s income”. Put another way, spending becomes someone else’s income. This can lead to a bigger eventual effect on output and employment.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: The Importance of Productivity
Productivity is a key measure of supply-side economic performance and labour efficiency.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Unemployment in the UK
The unemployed are people able, available and willing to work at the going wage rate but cannot find a job despite an active search for work.
Unemployment means that scarce human resources are not being used to produce goods and services to meet people’s needs and wants. Persistently high levels of joblessness have damaging consequences for an economy causing both economic and social costs.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Inflation in the UK
Inflation is a sustained increase in the cost of living or the average / general price level leading to a fall in the purchasing power of money. The opposite of inflation is deflation which is a decrease in the cost of living or average price level.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Real Interest Rates
The real rate of interest is important to businesses and consumers when making spending and saving decisions. The real rate of return on savings, for example, is the money rate of interest minus the rate of inflation.
So if a saver is receiving a money rate of interest of 6% on his savings, but price inflation is running at 3% per year, the real rate of return on these savings is only + 3%.
Real interest rates become negative when the nominal rate of interest is less than inflation, for example if inflation is 5% and nominal interest rates are 4%, the real cost of borrowing money is negative at -1%.
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Human Development Index (HDI)
The Human Development Index (HDI) forms part of the annual human development report and is a composite measure of economic and social welfare that has three main components. At its most basic it focuses on longevity, basic education and minimal income and progress made by countries in improving these three outcomes. The inclusion of education and health indicators is a sign of successful government policies in providing access to important merit goods such as health care, sanitation and education. World Human Development Map
1. Knowledge: First an educational component made up of two statistics – mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling
2. Long and healthy life: Second a life expectancy component is calculated using a minimum value for life expectancy of 25 years and maximum value of 85 years
3. A decent standard of living: The final element is gross national income (GNI) per capita adjusted to purchasing power parity standard (PPP)
“Human development is the expansion of people’s freedom to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and sustainably on a shared planet. People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as individuals and in groups” Source: HDR Report, November 2010
read more...»
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps?
Q&A: For AS macroeconomics, what do we need to know about output gaps?
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap
How much spare capacity does an economy have to meet a rise in demand? How close is an economy to operating at its productive potential? Has the recession damaged the economy’s productive potential? These sorts of questions all link to an important concept – the output gap. The output gap is the difference between the actual level of national output and the estimated potential level and is usually expressed as a percentage of the level of potential output.
read more...»Revision notes on unemployment
A revision blog on possible unemployment questions on AS and A2 papers
read more...»Peston on The Eurozone
As the Eurozone continues to be bufferted by instability in Spanish Banks, and uncertainty over Greek membership of the single currency. Robert Peston fronts a programme on The Euro on BBC2 tonight.
It remains to be seen if he offers any answers to Mervyn King’s observation, that the UK biggest trading partner, the euro area, is “tearing itself apart without any obvious solution,”
tutor2u Visit to the Middle East - April 2013
We have been invited by several colleagues to organise a visit to the Middle East in April 2013 to provide a programme of CPD and student revision workshops. As part of our planning, we’d like to invite colleagues in the area to let us have their thoughts on the content of the programme. Please use this online survey to have your input into the tour planning!
https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/2013-uae-qatar-programme/
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on Government Intervention
Here is a short 35 slide revision presentation on government intervention in markets designed for AS microeconomics revision
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on Externalities
Here is a short revision presentation on externalities streamed using Slide Share
read more...»
