Free Range Milk and Profits in the Farming Industry
One of the recent farming stories of note has been the threat to the dairy sector, as monopsonistic supermarkets have put downwards pressure on prices. In this instance, though, some farmers are...
Energy Oligopoly and Profits of the Big Six
If you want the best deals in the energy market, shop around. However only 15% of customers actually actively engage with the market to switch suppliers, leaving the remaining customers vulnerable...
The Secrets to Fixing a Price
A weekend hat tip to Chris Larner for spotting this superb edition of The Bottom Line on BBC Radio 4. The discussion hosted by Evan Davis has some great links to price discrimination, information...
tutor2u in Dubai 2017
The tutor2u Economics team are bringing their hugely popular Flying Start and Grade Booster revision events to Dubai on 26th and 27th March 2017.
Mackerel as a Currency - the Secret Prison Economy
This is one of the most unusual demonstrations of the charcteristics and functions of money that I have come across. Ever. It looks at how in US prisons, mackerel - yes, you read that correctly -...
Budget 2017 - Micro and Macro effects
Following on from Jonny's blog with a great Budget starter activity, here's one for those Year 13 students who are preparing for the Synoptic paper - with thanks to my colleagues who have...
So, Phillip Hammond has delivered his first Budget and I'm sure we all 'wish him luck' going forward (I'm sure there are no great economic shocks coming in the near future!). Here is a quick...
Is the Gig economy making our roads less safe?
Is this a negative externality of the gig economy? Does the nature of the employment and the desire to drive down costs mean that delivery drivers are more likely to be involved in accidents...
What's Happening With the Government's Finances?
With the 2017 Budget imminent, Carl Emmerson from the IFS looks at the state of UK government finances. Only on 12 occasions since 1948 has the UK government run a budget surplus.
In Praise of Kenneth Arrow
Does winning the Nobel Prize in economics cause longevity? We might be forgiven for thinking so. Thomas Schelling died last year aged 95. The author of the famous textbook, Paul Samuelson, passed...
The HP Demerger Dissected
This is one of the classic economic debates: are big firms better than small firms? The answer is a complex one: it depends - a fairly standard economic response - to be honest.
Rethinking GDP
Diane Coyle has an article on new measures of economic welfare in the March 2017 edition of Finance and Development from the IMF. Strongly recommended for students and teachers wanting an updated...
The CEO of a leading education business said in a talk I attended last week that "paying customers means you have a business whereas having users suggests all you own is an investment vehicle ......
Barriers to Trade in Sub Saharan Africa
This excellent new mini documentary from UNU-Wider looks at the impact of border delays on intra-regional trade within Sub Saharan Africa. Transport costs across adjoining countries are often two...
Financial Market Failure - Cyprus in Focus
According to many officials in the European Central Bank, the financial crisis in Cyprus was ‘one of a kind, since Cyprus was the first nation in the Eurozone to implement a ‘bail-in’.
What the Great Depression reveals about our future
A hat tip to Gavin Simpson for flagging up this new piece by Larry Elliott on some of the lessons we can draw from the Great Depression.
Absence of property rights - a constraint on development
“Dead capital” is economist Hernando de Soto’s term for an asset that cannot easily be bought, sold, valued or used an investment. De Soto’s work argues that even those who live in slums possess...
It's interesting to see a large firm, like Vodafone, adopt a pro-active approach to tackling gender inequality, by seeking to increase opportunities for women to return to the workforce and...
What has happened to taxes over time?
The share of national income raised in tax has been slowly edging up in recent decades. Helen Miller from IFS explains what has been happening focusing on the concept of the tax burden. The UK...
Where does the government get money from?
EconFilms and the IFS have teamed up to produce a series of new videos ahead of the 2017 Budget - tremendous stuff as an introduction to fiscal policy!