Economics Teacher National Conference 2013 Review

We changed the venue for our annual gathering of Economics teachers and the conference centre at the Henry Wellcome Foundation proved to be a great setting for yesterday's conference. Nearly 140 teachers came together for five sessions that covered a tremendously wide range of issues and I hope that delegates enjoyed the chance to soak up the different perspectives on offer and meet colleagues from across the country and beyond. In a year when Tutor2u CPD events have taken place in Dubai and New Zealand, for our London event we were delighted to welcome teacher delegates from Qatar. Spain, Columbia and Kazakhstan.

Tim Harford - from the BBC's More of Less and the Financial Times, - opened proceedings with a wonderful story about the amazing Bill Phillips - known to generations of teachers and students as the creator of the Phillips Curve - but whose back-story was infinitely more interesting. Bill Phillips figures prominently in Tim's new book (on macroeconomics) which is scheduled for publication on August 1st (details here). The global financial crisis has given neo-classical macroeconomics a hard time in recent years and in some respects rightly so.

There are welcome signs that more macro economists are now giving more weight to the importance of complexity, expectations and uncertainty in their work. One area of fruitful research is in connecting game theory to key macro issues such as central bank behaviour and the incentives facing consumers and businesses when making their consumption, savings and investment decisions.

Tim Harford on Bill Phillips and the Water Machine from Geoff Riley

Our second session was led by Linda Yueh, the BBC;s new chief business correspondent and an acknowledged expert on the economy of China and the far-east asian region in general. Linda's new book is a detailed analysis of the sources of growth in the Chinese economy and the re-balancing challenges for China over the next 30 years. Chinese growth has been driven by different factors than for existing developed countries - the presentation below distinguishes between input and innovation driven growth. Can China reduce the risks of getting stuck in the Middle Income Trap? The presentation below gives a rich seam of data for teachers who cover China extensively in their macroeconomics and development economics teaching. We strongly recommend that you follow Linda Yueh's blog on the BBC website - here is the link

Linda Yueh on prospects for the Chinese economy from Geoff Riley

Our third session at ETNC came from Ed Conway, Sky's economics commentator. Ed delivered a witty and riveting talk focusing on a selection of charts focusing on the challenges facing the UK and the European economy. These charts are produced below. The depth of the Squeeze on real living standard and the stubbornly slow recovery from the trough of the recession are well understood; less well known is the contextual scale of the quantitative easing programme and Ed had chosen some great examples of what £375 billion can buy!

Ed Conway Presentation to Tutor2u ETNC 2013 from Geoff Riley

After lunch Stuart Block reported on his epic Beyond the Bike adventure across the African continent and some of the lessons for understanding the economics of Africa and growth and development challenges and opportunities. It was a wonderfully entertaining presentation full of fantastic images from his cycle tour, emphasising in particular the importance of education and mobile telephony as growth drivers for many African countries. His presentation can be seen below.

Beyond the Bike - Tutor2u ETNC Presentation from tutor2u

For our fifth and final session of the day Stephen King, Group Chief Economist and Global Head of Economics and Asset Allocation research at HSBC discussed some of the key themes from his new book "When the Money Runs Out". His prognosis is not an easy one to digest not least for policy makers who have continued to hold onto assumptions about future growth that may not be realistic in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our 2013 Economics Teacher National Conference a really enjoyable and thought-provoking day. We'll be back at the excellent Wellcome Foundation venue again in 2014 for a chance to meet old friends and make new ones from the ever-growing community of economics teachers prepared to share and collaborate in this fast moving, compelling subject.