Apple, Amazon and The MultAPPlier Effect

With the Bank of England now considering further QE and also urging us all to empty our bank accounts and get out there and spend, spend, spend it got me thinking about the enabling effect of technology, in particular in the area of portable electronic devices. I did toy recently with buying an iPhone, but was struggling to justify the cost. I did however recently succumb to temptation and treated myself to a new 32G Apple Ipod Touch.

There goes the first multiplier effect, with my hard earned cash now swishing around the economy. I then discovered just how addictive these apps can be. Take the Amazon app - it can be customised in such a way that an item can be found and purchased almost instantaneously using the ‘one click’ option. Before I could help myself, I had spent a sizeable amount of extra cash on a few new Economics books. The multiplier multiplies. In micro and macro lessons the topics that can be explored here are endless - complimentary demand, extraction of consumer surplus, transaction cost Economics, the immediacy effect- the list is virtually endless. It also of course gives me a chance to get my new Ipod out in lessons, just to remind the students of how close I am to the ‘cutting edge’! Must dash - I have a wishlist on Amazon and confirming the purchase is but a couple of clicks away ..... damn that school wireless network!