Blog and updates
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7 Feb 2023
Supernormal Profits: Are UK Mobile and Broadband Firms ‘Lining Their Pockets’?
Are Britain's mobile phone and broadband companies exploiting their dominant market positions? Certainly that's the implication of this Observer article that notes the extent to which they've...
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5 Feb 2023
Piouvian Taxes - Tesco chicken supplier and pollution in the River Wye
A very localised example here of a negative production externality, with algal blooms on the River Wye being attributed to the activities of poultry producer, Avara Foods.
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5 Feb 2023
How can water be saved and recycled at home?
Economics is fundamentally about how to best use scarce resources. This BBC video clip from "Click" looks at how we can recycle water, increasing sustainability, with Dutch company Hydroloop at the...
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5 Feb 2023
Retirement boom creates economic headache
The impact of more people opting for economic inactivity has implications for the economy as a whole as well as firms in specific locations. In this case, this Guardian piece looks at the area...
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3 Feb 2023
Business Objectives - Octopus Energy Ditches Profit to support Customers
What do think about this story? The CEO of Octopus Energy – one of the relatively new suppliers in the UK retail energy market – claims that “We could have made a profit but now’s not the time -...
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3 Feb 2023
Underemployment - How Benefit Reforms Push People into Low-Paid Jobs
This sort of thing is seen by many as peripheral - and in one sense it is - but in another it's a fundamental problem with current labour markets, and may contribute to rising in-work poverty....
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3 Feb 2023
Shell reports highest profits in 115 years
The announcement that Shell has made record profits of effectively $40 billion is going to fuel calls for the government to look again at the imposition of a windfall tax. Dan Niedle has some...
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3 Feb 2023
Economic Development - Can Sri Lanka trade its way back to prosperity?
A nation close to my heart, where many friends still live; the fate of Sri Lanka will always affect me, and the latest Newsnight coverage of the island's financial crisis is salutary.
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3 Feb 2023
BoE raises interest rates to 4% - the highest for 14 years
We might be getting close to the peak of interest rates during the current tightening phase for UK monetary policy. The Bank of England today lifted official base interest rates for 10th...
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1 Feb 2023
Tesco - Delayering and the purchase of Paperchase
Two interesting stories about Tesco - a business that many students and teachers follow for case-study gold dust!
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1 Feb 2023
Global Turbulence Persists - IMF World Economic Outlook Update, January 2023
On the day that the IMF publishes its updated growth forecasts for individual economies as well as the global economy, they also publish this. A snapshot of global economic health: highlighting...
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1 Feb 2023
Why is Ryanair so profitable?
Ryanair has grown rapidly to become one of Europe's largest passenger airlines. In this short study video we look at some of the factors that help explain the rapid expansion of revenues and (until...
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31 Jan 2023
UK Economy - Are there 3 million hidden unemployed?
Research by the think-tank Centre for Cities suggests that official unemployment figures understate the number of people who are unemployed and a distinct North-South divide in the data.
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31 Jan 2023
Dynamic Efficiency - Emirates Tests Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Emirates have run a test flight with one engine powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel, as part of its commitment to developing greener fuels.
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31 Jan 2023
UK economy to fare worse than any developed economy in 2023 IMF forecasts
Some gloomy macro news for the UK today. The IMF has upgraded its forecasts for the global economy; UK is now only leading economy expected to contract in 2023.
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31 Jan 2023
Government Failure - Indian Alcohol Ban Drives Unregulated Liquor
Proof that banning goods that produce negative externalities is rarely constructive.
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30 Jan 2023
Economic inactivity - 1.6m UK adults over 50 unable to work
More here on the decline in the British labour force, and its macroeconomic implications. There has been a near 300,000 increase in the over-50s not working - so how are the government going to...
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30 Jan 2023
Give Directly - Unconditional Cash Transfers to Lift Human Capital
I used this short video clip from Give Directly when discussing pro-poor development strategies and measures designed to overcome the savings-investment gap.
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29 Jan 2023
How is Tesco so profitable?
In our new study video we look at some of the reasons why the UK retailer Tesco makes consistently high profits.
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