Category
In the News
The Credit Ratings agencies. Who are they and should we really care?
Financial markets are incredibly complicated. Although its one of the later topics studied on the A level specification, it`s well worth familiarising yourself with any specialist terminology as...
Yellen signals an end to quantitative easing
The end of QE in the USA is just around the corner. It appears that the Federal Reserve is going to taper its stimulus programme and run down the stock of bonds it bought as part of its QE...
Google signs HTC smartphone deal
Google have agreed a deal with HTC to boost its hardware business. However, it doesn't smack of a marriage from a position of strength, instead here are two companies who are struggling to maintain...
Estate agent cartel is fined
A really good competition policy example here as the Competition and Markets Authority fines a group of estate agents in Somerset for a cartel that fixed minimum commission charges.
Public sector pay, real wages and productivity
The government announced on Tuesday 12 September that they were to relax the cap on public sector pay. From 2010 to 2012 there was a freeze on public sector pay, since then pay rises have been...
GAFA Market Power continues to Grow
This FT interview looks at the rising market power of the GAFA platform businesses - Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. The argument is made that many of these companies build their profits around...
Virgin Rail to auction off spare first class seats
Just an excellent application of economics reported here in the Guardian. To what extent will this policy result in an efficient allocation of resource? The sooner it is rolled out on every train,...
Skills to pay the bills
Some awesome examples of fast-hand skills here and learning by doing! But don't try many of them at home!
10 Years of Change in British Banking
How has the UK banking landscape changed in the decade since the collapse of Northern Rock?
Economics News Quiz - 15 September 2017
Here's this week's Economic news quiz. Good luck!
Sky-Fox merger referred to regulators
Competition policy in action - after months of delay the Government seems to minded to refer the $14 billion Sky-Fox merger for investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority.
Offshore renewable energy tumbles in price
Is this a hugely significant moment for energy economics and policy in the UK?
Trade embargo: China bans imports of soft European cheese
An up date example of a trade embargo. China is banning imports of soft cheese from Europe because China claims the cheese contains excessive bacteria. They also believe that bear bile is a...
Why is the price of butter going up?
A great supply and demand mini case study to use as part of introductory micro teaching. A shortage of cream threatens a hefty hike in the price of butter.
Non-Tariff Barriers: China's hidden shipbuilding subsidies
This article from VoxEU focuses on recent research on the scale of government subsidies to the Chinese shipbuilding industry.
UK economic model is broken claims Archbishop
A report by the IPPR think tank’s commission on economic justice, featuring input from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has concluded that the UK's economic model is broken.
Comparative Advantage - Tunisia exports solar power to Europe
Here is a feature on the vast solar power plant in Tunisia which it is hoped will be the platform for exporting enough renewable energy to power up to two million homes in Southern Europe. 4.5 GW...
Dynamic Efficiency - Clothes that Grow with your Child
The winner of the James Dyson Prize for innovation has developed prototypes of gender-neutral clothing that increase in size as infants get older. A fascinating example of ground-breaking...
While you were away! Quick quiz on events over the summer to test returning students
Here's a quick quiz to test returning economic students that you can use either in class or set as homework. There are 10 multi-choice questions about Economics events that occurred during July and...
Archbishop of Canterbury says UK economic model is 'broken'. What does this mean to a new student of economics?
As with casual conversation with strangers in the queue at the Post Office, I tend to leave the topic of religion out of blogs. However, my eye was caught this morning by the news headline that the...