Blog and updates
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27 Dec 2018
UK Plastic bag charge set to be doubled to 10p
Externalities and government intervention in action. The UK government DEFRA is consulting on plans to increase the price of smaller plastic bags to 10 pence in a bid to tackle plastic pollution...
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27 Dec 2018
Demography: Japan's birthrate falls to lowest level in history
Japan's population is decline and ageing at a rapid rate. New data shows that the natural decline in their population was nearly 500,000 in 2018 with fewer than one million babies born for the...
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27 Dec 2018
Professor Guy Standing on the Precariat and Universal Basic Income
Guy Standing is credited with coining "the precariat" to describe people in work that offers uncertain pay, hours and overall job insecurity. In this short interview at the Warwick Economic Summit...
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24 Dec 2018
Is the UK crisp industry heading for a Brexit crunch?
Ed Conway from Sky News visits Kettles crisps (owned by Campbell Soup Company) to find out more about the UK's love affair with the crisp and concerns that some production may move overseas if...
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23 Dec 2018
The Cumulative Loss of Real Wages since 2008
Real wages are nominal wages adjusted for the effects of inflation. A new survey form the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has estimated that the average worker in the UK has (cumulatively) lost over...
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21 Dec 2018
Externalities: Air pollution is the new tobacco
This WHO clip looks at the impact of air pollution on the health of the world's children. It is estimated that 1.8 billion children breathe polluted air, equivalent to 9 out of 10 of the world's...
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21 Dec 2018
Chief Medical Officer calls for extended sugar and salt bans
The country's Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, wants a ban on adding sugar to baby food, and further taxes to cut the nation's salt and sugar intake. However, the real meat to the report...
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20 Dec 2018
Picturenomics
Over the past few weeks I've sporadically taken photos to use in lessons with the intention of them stimulating a discussion. Each photo relates to a number of different topics that we have studied...
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14 Dec 2018
Economics Weekly Quiz - 14 December 2018
Here's the last weekly Economics Quiz for 2018. Good luck!
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13 Dec 2018
Behavioural nudges: Barclays introduces spending block app
Here is a behavioural nudge from Barclays that might just be a game-changer in introducing frictions into the spending choices that people make.
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13 Dec 2018
Carbon taxes and behavioural economics
Economists have long argued that an effective way of reducing carbon emissions is by increasing taxes on energy consumption. This year’s Noble Laureate, Bill Nordhaus, advocated a global carbon tax...
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12 Dec 2018
Introducing the New Knowledge Books for Edexcel A-Level Economics
Introducing the ultimate knowledge organisers for Edexcel A-Level Economics that students complete themselves!
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11 Dec 2018
Amazon targets airport retailing for expanded Amazon Go operations
Contestable markets and mobile payment technology are in action here! Amazon is looking to expand their "bricks and mortar footprint" with a move into airport retail seemingly on the cards. But...
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11 Dec 2018
Poor management cited as a key supply-side weakness for the UK
An excellent piece here in the Guardian for dissecting some of the supply-side weaknesses brought about by under-performing management especially in family-run mid-sized firms.
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10 Dec 2018
Why economists think UK will be poorer after leaving EU
Chris Giles from the Financial Times looks at some of the assumptions behind the recent analysis from the Treasury and the Bank of England on the likely macroeconomic impact of Brexit. He argues...
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5 Dec 2018
Herd behaviour can be perfectly compatible with rationality
The Bank of England and Federal Reserve held a two-day conference last week in London on Big Data and machine learning. All very interesting stuff. There was an intriguing vignette as we emerged...
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5 Dec 2018
Funeral charges under the competition microscope
The Competition and Markets Authority is considering a major new investigation into rampant price inflation in the costs of funerals and crematorium services.
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5 Dec 2018
Takeda seeks takeover of Shire
This is a massive merger story - the largest in Japan - as Takeda gets shareholder approval for a £46bn takeover of pharmaceutical company, Shire. The new company will be one of the largest 10 in...
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4 Dec 2018
Qatar leaves OPEC
Qatar has announced that they are leaving the OPEC oil cartel and focusing instead on expanding investment and production in natural gas. Qatar has the third largest known natural gas reserves in...
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