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Economics in the News : Archive for June 2007 The following articles on Economics in the News were published during June 2007 |
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| Excellent new policy briefings from the CEP | Timed for Blair’s resignation as Prime Minister, the CEP has published a series of policy briefings on aspects of the Blair decade. Some of these deal with his economic legacy and they look an excellent resource. | ||
| John Kay on the work of Richard Rorty | John Kay praises the work of the recently deceased Richard Rorty in his most recent column for the Financial Times | ||
| Popularity of high quality wines boosts profits at Majestic | Higher interest rates, rising taxes and the prospect of choppier economic times ahead? Surely these trends might be enough to drive people to drink? The latest evidence from Majestic Wines is that the squeeze on disposable incomes is having little impact on the market demand for their range of wines. And it provides a good example of how premium products might be less sensitive to changes in incomes and consumer confidence than standard economic analysis might suggest. | ||
| Blair and Brown's Economic Legacy | More comment and analysis today on Blair and Brown’s economic legacy as the baton has changed hands and Gordon Brown has taken leave of the Treasury after over ten years in charge. Here is a selection of interesting features. | ||
| tutor2u on Facebook | The tutor2u group on Facebook gives you the chance to keep in contact with the many teachers and students who use tutor2u. | ||
| O’Leary furious at EU decision to block the takeover bid for Aer Lingus | The European Union competition authorities have blocked a potential £1bn takeover bid for Irish airline Aer Lingus from Ryanair provoking a furious response from the media savvy CEO of Ryanair Michael O’Leary. | ||
| The London Economics Conference | Reflections on the Tutor2u Economics Teacher Conference held at the London Stock Exchange Media Centre on Monday. | ||
| The true cost of smoking – externalities and public policy | I am a pretty hard and fast supporter of the new smoking ban since I feel that it might be one of the most important decisions ever made to improve the overall health of the nation. There is some emerging evidence of health benefits in Scotland where the ban from smoking in public places was introduced over a year ago. But I was taken by The Undercover Economist’s most recent piece which provides a useful and necessary counter-weight. | ||
| Waste - Policy Options | Waste products create negative externalities - it costs billions of pounds each year to collect and dispose of waste. | ||
| Revision SWOT analysis for the UK economy | A revision swot analysis on the performance of the UK economy | ||
| Ten Key Issues for the European Union | These are some of the major long term challenges facing the EU – they are useful to be aware of because often, you can bring in longer term problems and issues when making final recommendations in your paper e.g. justifying a particular policy option because it ties in with the need to meet longer term strategic aims. | ||
| Answer Grid for Wednesday's Multiple Choice Test | Here are the answers to the 3rd multiple choice test put on the website yesterday | ||
| Answer grid for Tuesday's Multiple Choice Test | Here are the answers to the multiple choice test from yesterday | ||
| AS Economics - Essay Plan for Housing Market | Essay plan for this question: Should the government leave house prices to market forces, or actively intervene to prevent a house price crash? Justify your answer. | ||
| AS Economics: Housing Economics Essay Plan (2) | Essay plan on this question: Identify and evaluate the private and external costs and benefits of a large rise in the number of new homes built in the UK. | ||
| Business is booming in the 'virtual' economies of MMORPGs | Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORGs) are spawning new forms of business activity - and possible clues about the economy of tomorrow | ||
| Carbon trading and government failure | The BBC Radio 4 programme File on 4 looked at the difficulties in the early stages of the EU's flagship carbon trading scheme last night. | ||
| How to Nail High Marks for Evaluation in AS Economics | Revision comments on achieving higher marks for evaluation in AS Economics papers this week. | ||
| Answer grid for Monday's Multiple Choice Test | Here are the answers to the first multiple choice test from Monday. | ||
| Australia counts the cost of alcohol dependency | This BBC news online report highlights the fears over the long term damage of the growing scale of alcohol abuse in Australia. | ||
| The Final Yards - Tuesday's Multiple Choice Paper | Here is the test multiple choice paper for Tuesday 5th June. Answers available on the web site tomorrow morning. | ||
| Wednesday Multiple Choice Test | The final 12 question multiple choice test for AS economists. | ||
| AS Economics Essay Plan: Imports and the Economy | Essay plan can be downloaded on this title: "Evaluate the view that a rising level of demand for imported goods and services may be harmful to the long term performance of the economy." | ||
| Essay Plan - Inflation and Unemployment | Pdf format essay plan on this title "Discuss the view that, as an economy approaches full employment, inflation will inevitably accelerate" | ||
| European Footballers Cheer Globalisation | The European 'big 5' leagues reveal their income and wages bill for the current season. Chelsea alone spent £114m just on wages. The Premiership banked around £2000m, of which only a third came from ticket sales. Where is all this new wealth coming from, and who is getting it? | ||
| Revised reading list for Oxbridge students | I have made ten changes to my recommended reading list for Oxbridge applicants, there are some new books coming into view that capture some of the changes in conventional economic and business thinking. | ||
| Revision Note: Importance of Price Elasticity of Supply | This revision note covers some of the areas of the AS and the A2 economics syllabuses where price elasticity of supply is important. The revision note is available for download as a pdf file. | ||
| Revision Note: The Economics of Deflation |
Revision essay plan on deflation available for download in pdf format | ||
| Revision Note: The Output Gap | What is the output gap and why is it significant for both inflation and unemployment? This downloadable pdf format essay plan provides some thoughts and latest data charts on the output gap for the UK. | ||
| The Final Yards - Daily 12 Q Multi Choice Test for AS Students | This is a daily multiple choice test for students preparing for their AS exams this coming Friday. Each day from Monday through to Wednesday the blog will provide a pdf file with twelve questions – containing six micro and six macro questions. And the day afterwards we will produce a separate file containing the answers, so you can download and check them yourself. | ||
| The Times focuses on the British Economy | The Times is running a series of articles this week on the health (or otherwise) of the British economy nearly fifteen years since the end of the last recession. | ||
| Developments in the Housing Market | Brief update on the latest numbers for the UK housing market together with a couple of charts | ||
| Revision Note: Changes in Costs | At A2 level you are expected to be able to use analysis diagrams to show the effects of changes in short and long run production costs on a firm’s prices, profits and output. This 2-page pdf file looks at the effect of cost changes. | ||
| Revision Note: Economic Performance of the Euro Zone | There are thirteen countries inside the Euro Zone (Slovenia joined in January 2007)and Cyprus and Malta are scheduled to join the monetary union in January 2008/ This two page revision note considers the recent macroeconomic performance of the Euro Zone compared and contrasted with the UK. | ||
| Shareholder activism and the divorce between ownership and control | In today's Sunday Telegraph, Dan Roberts writes of a new breed of "disposable managers", increasingly vulnerable to shareholders who are prepared to ditch them when the businesses in which they have a stake are perceived to under-perform. The average life expectancy of CEOs and CFOs is shortening with every year and many top managers now have the job security usually associated with Premier League soccer supremos. The average tenure of FTSE100 chief executives is estimated to have fallen from 4.7 years to nearer 4.5 years - less than half what it is in Asia and the USA. | ||
| Revision Note: Measuring Living Standards | A revision note (2 page pdf file) on measuring the standard of living and problems of interpreting the data. | ||
| Revision Note: The Importance of Trade | A one page pdf note on the economic importance of trade. The current wave of globalisation is characterised by a fast growth of world trade in goods and services. In 2006 there was an 8% expansion in merchandise trade - the second highest since 2000. Trade to GDP ratios continue to rise for the majority of countries. For the UK, the value of trade (exports and imports) as a share of GDP is now 65% - the highest ever. According to the World Trade Organisation, the dollar value of world merchandise exports increased by 15% to $11.76 trillion in 2006. | ||
| Revision Presentation on Market Structure, Conduct and Performance | This blog entry links to a powerpoint presentation available for download in pdf format on the topic of market structure, conduct and performance, a way of analysing market structures and their outcomes, and useful for the A2 Economics exam. | ||
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| Other essential economics resources: | |||
| econoMAX - the Economics Magazine for AS & A2 Economics | |||
| Economics Exam Technique - Guidance from the Examiners | |||
| The UK Economy in a Nutshell | |||
| The European Economy - New Free Resources | |||
| Economics - Student Discussion Board | |||
| GCSE Economics Revision Notes | |||
| AS & A2 Economics Revision Notes | |||
