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...
Marshall Society Economics Conference January 30th 2016
We are pleased to support the Marshall Society at the University of Cambridge as they launch details of their third annual conference. This is always an excellent day out at an event held at the...
Supply side policy in operation - Universal Credit
A Level students are told that supply-side policies are the ultimate government response to support economic performance. If they can get the supply side policy right, it should have a positive...
Can a currency depreciation lift Brazil out of recession?
I will be using this mini case study when teaching exchange rates next term. The Brazilian real has been falling rapidly against the US dollar. Since mid-2014, the real has depreciated 43 per cent...
Valuing the Future - Why Climate Change Agreement is Hard
The two week long Paris conference on climate change seems to drag on interminably. There are obviously many reasons why such summits find it difficult to reach meaningful agreements. But a...
Market for ivory - prices, market failure and black markets
This week on the Beyond the Bike adventure, Stuart and Claire have been investigating the impact of illegal ivory poaching near Lusaka. To support the Beyond the Bike investigation, we have put...
Altriusm as part of Behavioural Economics - Zuckerberg joins the list of big philanthropists
Altruism has been included as part of the new specifications for A level Economics. The concept is included as part of the greater emphasis on behavioural economics as evidence of the growing...
Productive Efficiency: How Amazon gets packages to you
Amazon's investment in robots to improve productive efficiency at many of their hub distribution centres in the USA and overseas is emphasised in this superb two minute video clip - a perfect...
Amartya Sen: Development Economics in the Next 30 Years
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen talks about key issues in development research over the last 30 years. In a world of one priority you miss out a lot of things – we need to take again a WIDER view on a...
Joseph Stiglitz: The State of the Market Explained
In this video Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz discusses the importance of finding the right balance between the state and the market, the discussion on governance as well as the role of economists...
Human Development: The Last 30 Years and the Next 30
In this short and accessible interview Frances Stewart, University of Oxford, discusses the past, present and future of human development through her research on the subject.