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!
On the surface this is a classic example of anti-competitive behaviour in a duopolistic market.
I Daniel Blake
Ken Roach's immensely moving and powerful film I Daniel Blake provides a rich source of clips for the classroom. I for one will be drawing on it when discussing how we measure unemployment and the...
Old Think
Dame Minouche Shafik, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, is leaving to become Director of the London School of Economics. Last weekend, she gave her final interview wearing her Bank hat
India and China - Two Growth Stories
The FT's Martin Wolf offers a short comparison of the growth stories of China and India, highlighting the differences, the misconceptions,the challenges that face the world's most populous...
Information Economics and Car Service Costs
This is really interesting, and I say that not as an economist - it just is. There's currently a debate about who gets access to all the data generated by new cars. "So what?", you say.
Wages Soar as China reaches the Lewis Turning Point
Some contextual data here on rapid wage growth in China.
A Map of our Economy
ECNMY is a fresh-faced organisation that is working with a number of partners to increase economic literacy and help make the subject accessible to the non-technical audience.
Can't Pay Won't Pay - Greeks Bridle Against Austerity
The BBC's Kevin Connolly looks at how ordinary Greeks have been affected by austerity and how one group, the I Won't Pay movement have been fighting to protect ordinary people.
The Bloomberg Billy Bookcase A Rival to the Big Mac Index!
Here's a super article from Tim Harford on the Ikea Billy Bookcase that you can use for a spot of synoptic analysis - packed full of great ideas to illustrate purchasing power parity (a rival to...