I loved Ruth Tarrant’s idea (presented at the conference this week) to create a sketch which captures so many different market failures. Pictonomics is the embryonic title for the teaching concept and it is an idea that enthused the 170+ strong audience at the British Library - within twenty minutes we have unearthed over fifty examples of potential market failure just from the existing sketch alone! As a supplementary exercise we were asked to suggest fresh ideas for market (and possible government failure) in the same landscape!

Could the same be done in other areas of economics? For example macroeconomic factors affecting a local town? Or perhaps aspects of development / international economics (a sketch based around a trading port?)