Do preferential trade agreements harm excluded countries?
Agreements to liberalise trade between groups of countries will boost wages in the partner countries but harm third countries excluded from the agreement. That is the central finding of research by...
Demographic transition? Rising wealth can cause population to grow
Higher national income growth leads to increases in countries’ population growth. That is the central message of research by Professors Markus Brückner and Hannes Schwandt, published in the...
Can migrant workers help overcome Dutch Disease?
The negative effects of a regional resource boom on the local manufacturing sector – a phenomenon that economists call ‘Dutch disease’ – can be partly mitigated by the arrival of temporary foreign...
The difficulties of supply-side infrastructure decisions
David Cameron's decision to delay his verdict on whether to expand Heathrow has been widely derided in the press. Even Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, whilst praising Britain's...
Why might the US raise its interest rate?
On Wednesday this week, the US Federal Reserve is widely and globally expected to raise its interest rate by one quarter of a percentage point, in its first increase since June 2006. The Economist...
Nurofen - product differentiation or price discrimination?
The Australian judiciary has told the makers of Nurofen (Reckitt Benckiser) that they must withdraw their range of products from Australian shelves, because the products all contain identical...
Two Sides of Inequality in Fast Growing Indonesia
Two residents of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta live almost side by side, yet they are separated by income inequality. Both explain that not everyone has benefited from Indonesia’s economic growth....
Apple's New Campus Revealed Via Drone Footage
tutor2u moved into their new global headquarters only a few months back and you'll find some important parallels between our new research and development centre and the Apple Campus 2 that is...
Extreme poverty: Transforming the lives of the ultra-poor
The ultra-poor is a term linked to extreme poverty rates in some of the world's least developed countries. It was first coined in 1986 by Michael Lipton of the University of Sussex and is defined...
The Equity Premium and Low Interest Rates
One for the behavioural finance students out there! What kinds of returns should we expect from risky stocks and shares (equities)?
Which natural disasters create the most economic damage?
The floods in Cumbria and Lancashire have created havoc for local communities and raised fresh questions about the effectiveness of flood relief investment spending after the awful floods that hit...
Divisions within OPEC as oil prices collapse below $40 a barrel
Divisions within OPEC are emphasised in this discussion between two FT journalists. Oil prices have slumped below $40 per barrel and the last OPEC meeting broke up without agreement with member...
Should we drop money from helicopters?
The economist Milton Friedman was well known (amongst MANY other reasons) for his analogy of "dropping money out of helicopters" for providing a monetary-based economic boost. Last year, The...
A Euro Decline Infographic
It's quite easy to get carried away looking at the various infographics on the visual.ly website. Here is one I found earlier today that is relevant when studying exchange rates, in particular the...
The UK's rising trade deficit
The UK's trade deficit shot up to £4.1bn in October 2015, from £1bn in September. One major contributing factor has been a significant increase in the demand for imported trucks and delivery...
Tobacco firms launch a legal challenge against plain packaging
Four of the world's largest tobacco companies have today mounted a legal challenge against the UK government regarding the plain packaging law. The companies Philip Morris International, British...
The Chinese Yuan now joins the elite IMF reserve currency basket
We know that China is now one of the most significant players of the world economy, however news this week that its currency the Yuan (or Remnimbi) has been accepted into the International Monetary...
Fun Lesson Starter - A George Osborne Quiz
Go on, it's nearly Christmas! I'm sure that you've seen our Christmas quiz but if you wanted another 5 minute fun quiz to engage with your students then why not try our new George Osborne game. It...
A simple way to show the pay gap between CEOs and ordinary workers
Top-paid British executives have salaries over 180 times larger than ordinary worker and I was quite taken by this very straightforward way of visualising the chasm that appeared in the Independent...
Will UK petrol prices fall below £1 a litre?
The sustained fall in the world price of crude oil has raised hopes that motorists will soon pay less than £1 a litre for their petrol on the main forecourts. But a festive cut in prices below the...