Blog and updates
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5 Feb 2018
Gender pay gap: Part time work hinders wage progression
A new study from the IFSof the causes of the persistent gender pay gap in the UK focuses on the impact of working part-time has on career and wage progression for females.
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5 Feb 2018
Balkan nations lined up for EU membership
Whilst the seems mired in a Brexit-inspired political morass, a number of Balkan countries are taking important steps towards accession to the European Union. EU enlargement is back on the agenda...
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5 Feb 2018
Plan now because robots will take our jobs
More excellence in the Guardian with Larry Elliott seeing the opening of Amazon Go in Seattle as a foretaste of things to come. He argues that automation is unstoppable and that we need to think...
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4 Feb 2018
Lewis Turning Point: Rising Wages and Robot Demand in China
This video from the Wall Street Journal explores the rising demand for industrial robots, particularly in China which is in turn partly the response to fast-rising wages in China as the economy...
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3 Feb 2018
Plastic - A Dirty Business
Sky News is certainly making an effective contribution to the debate over plastic packaging. There is no such thing as the throwaway society - because plastic waste doesn't go away.
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3 Feb 2018
Poverty and Pollution: Growing up in the world's most polluted cities
This is a vivid and powerful four minute read on the negative externalities from copper mining in Zambia and the story of one man growing up in what rapidly became one of the most polluted places...
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3 Feb 2018
Addressing the Infrastructure Gap - New Toll Roads in Senegal
Ed Glaeser often makes the point that introducing early the user-pays principle into infrastructure investment is a key part of the infrastructure jigsaw especially in developing countries. This...
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2 Feb 2018
The Estate Agent market becomes more contestable despite recent criticism of Purple Bricks
If, like me, you have been enjoying the recent adverts by online estate agency Purplebricks (apologies to anyone who only streams content these days, TV advertising must seem very yesterday) you...
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2 Feb 2018
Economics Weekly News Quiz - 2 February 2018
Here's this week's economics news quiz. Good luck!
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1 Feb 2018
Impact of further automation on jobs is uneven throughout the UK - 'Higher or Lower' activity
A report released by think tank 'Centre for Cities' has suggested that the impact of job losses from continued automation in the UK economy will not be felt equally around the country. The report...
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1 Feb 2018
How does Bitcoin mining work?
BBC Newsnight investigates the data mining that goes on in unearthing crypto-currencies. I'm still trying to get my head around all of this!
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1 Feb 2018
Rogoff On The Next Financial Crisis And The Future Of Bitcoin
Rogoff is interviewed here on fragility in the financial system and the risks posed by higher interest rates in the USA and Europe. And then there is China ....
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1 Feb 2018
Energy Economics - UK Electricity Use Falls
Some comparative analysis of European energy use, with the UK seeing a 9% reduction in use over the last seven years, as the rest of the EU is still seeing rises. There were a number of reasons...
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1 Feb 2018
Battling to save the world's bananas
The story of the banana is a remarkable one: the whole commercial global banana crop can be traced back to a particular Cavendish banana tree that originate at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, and...
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31 Jan 2018
The Universal Stylus Initiative - markets and complementary products
This week, Google have added their name and support to the Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) - a group of major tech companies attempting to get everyone to adopt a universal set of protocols when...
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30 Jan 2018
Is QE a Magic Money Tree?
I think that many A level students would agree that QE can be quite hard to get their heads around. It's a help when they realise that it is not a process of 'printing money', as many journalists...
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30 Jan 2018
Competitive Markets - Independent booksellers consider a purchasing union
A group of independent bookshops are considering joining forces in an attempt to be more competitive. The plan, led by the Big Green Bookshop based in London, is to create a purchasing union that...
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29 Jan 2018
China's smartphone market in decline
A rather remarkable bit of data from China - smartphone sales are down in the world's largest smartphone market. Has the market reached saturation point? And if so, does this mean that consumers...
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29 Jan 2018
Dr Pepper Snapple merges with Keurig Green Mountain
Horizontal integration in the US beverage market with Keurig Dr Pepper hoping to have access to "unrivalled distribution capability to reach virtually every point-of-sale in North America".
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29 Jan 2018
Shaking the Magic Money Tree
Shaking the Magic Money Tree broadcast on Radio 4 looked at the effect of Quantitative Easing on the UK economy. Is it possible to disaggregate its effects, and did it advantage some over others.
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