Trade in Services - More than just Shipping!
Two hundred years ago this week we were introduced to the concept of comparative advantage by David Ricardo. The BBC's Andrew Walker looks here at the growth in the service sector, as it accounts...
Tackling 4 Million Deaths a Year from Air Pollution
This World Economic Forum clip looks at how air pollution is responsible for around four million premature deaths worldwide. Princeton professor, Denise Mauzerall, looks at how China, in...
Industry Evolution - Why Most Businesses Fail
Is setting up a micro brewery a licence to print money? This month, a private equity company acquired 22 per cent of BrewDog for just over £200 million, netting a neat £100 million for the...
Multi-Choice Revision Quiz on Labour Markets
Here's a 10 question revision quiz on Labour Markets aimed at A level students about to take their exams. It uses a format called 'The Usual Suspects' which is a 'confidence-based' quiz. This means...
Martin Wolf on Elites versus the People
In this talk at the 2017 Warwick Economics Summit, Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, talks about the state of democratic capitalism today and its impact on the future.
Will employers take a free ride on apprenticeships?
Here is a Guardian editorial packed full of evaluation of the latest attempt to beef-up vocational training via apprenticeships. In it, there's an acknowledgement of the difficulties of...
Drone footage captures scale of world's largest ship
It's big: check out the economies of scale associated with this ship, the largest construction vessel ever built.
Click here for a 10 question multi-choice quiz on market structures, business objectives and costs.
Zimbabwe's cash cows
Two recent articles in the FT could make a useful starter to the new term, particularly for Year 13 students who are preparing for the synoptic paper. Both cover the move by Zimbabwe's parliament...
Poland - A Development Success Story
This is the World Bank's perhaps sugar-coated interpretation of Poland's transition from upper middle to higher income status - but a user primer for studying the economics of some countries that...
Is the war on diesel about to start?
It looks like the war on diesel is about to start, with the government apparently contemplating a range of policy options to tackle the nitrogen oxide emitted by these vehicles. A number of policy...
A Big Bond for Africa
Infrastructure needs are growing across the world and nowhere more than in many countries in sub Saharan Africa. Significant investment in rail, roads, renewable energy and telecoms could help to...
FinTech: How technology is changing the world of finance
Here is a timely BBC Newsnight report from David Grossman on the impact that financial technology (FinTech) is having on competition / contestability in the UK financial sector.
Turkish investment in high-speed rail in Africa
Use this as a contextual example of the potential significance of inward FDO projects in critical infrastructure to help overcome development traps. What are the possible demand and supply-side...
Why China leads the world in renewable energy
We have said for some time that emerging and frontier economies will figure prominently in global league tables for investment in renewable energy. For some, the imperative is to cut import bills...
Should Zambia ban food imports?
This BBC clip looks at Zambian economy's dilemma: the government wanted to protect its farmers and imposed restrictions on the import of foreign-produced fruit and vegetables. However, this...
How to Get People to Always Reply to Your Emails
If you are interested in behavioural policy and interventions in the area of health then you might want to have a look at this short talk from David Halpern, CEO of the Behavioural Insights Unit.
Here is a truly superb and often hilariously funny talk from Stephen Pinker about making prose understandable to the reader you wish to reach. This is clearly true in economics exams when time and...
Consumer sovereignty and the changing face of Swiss chocolate
Proof, if it were needed, that consumer sovereignty is the thing that drives markets. This is a nationwide look at how the changing market for chocolate has affected Swiss producers, with stagnant...
Robotic bricklayer builds houses 3x faster than humans
If you are looking for a vivid example of capital labour substitution in economics then this short video of a robot that can lay bricks several times faster than humans could be perfect! But how...