Access to great free resources from CORE Economics
The CORE Economics approach is now taught at UCL, Bristol and Southampton Universities. The demand for this new undergraduate course is in part a response to pressure from students who have been...
Ideas from Living and Dead Economists
A summer challenge for my more ambitious economics students is to become knowledgeable about the ideas, insights and theories put forward by as many different economists as they can. Here is the...
George Osborne’s plan to run financial surpluses and use them to pay off government debt has been met with the usual set of whinges and whines, mainly from academic economists funded by the...
Final preparations for Unit 4 macro
Year 13 students who are in the final stages of preparation for Unit 4 papers will know that they must carry a range of evidence about the UK and the global economy with them in their head as they...
Does social mobility matter to Economists?
Social mobility (or apparent lack of it) has been in the news again recently. I suppose that this won’t be a surprise given the success of the incumbent Conservative Government during the General...
The domination of the banking industry by a handful of ‘too-big-to-fail’ and highly leveraged banks is driven by two forces at the heart of modern market economies: competition and ‘increasing...
Behavioural Economics - Giving and Peer Effects
Donors are strongly influenced by how much other people have given when it comes to giving online to fundraising websites. A single large donation of £100 increases subsequent amounts given by...
At some point recession will return, and we will want to use fiscal policy and monetary policy to help revive aggregate demand. After the financial crisis, policymakers sprang into action to...
Mis-leading price comparison sites
They give the appearance of offering consumers much valued information and transparency about the best deals in complex savings, loans and insurance markets. But price comparison sites are coming...
OCR F585 Case Study Toolkit Presentation
The full version of my OCR F585 presentation toolkit is now available for viewing in streamed format now that the main exam is over.
Banks, cancer and Stephen Hawking
Massive fines for banks, gross misbehaviour, huge bonuses for failure, bail outs at vast expense to the taxpayer. Little wonder that politicians and pundits can almost invariably win cheap applause...
Nudging to Achieve Behavioural Change
Behavioural economics seeks to develop an understanding of how people think their decisions can be influenced through 'nudges'. There are many different types of nudge and this Storify will seek to...
Economics of a Natural Resource Curse
Recent articles and analysis on the economics of natural resources and whether they act as a constraint and barrier to economic growth and development in many of the world's poorer countries.
Britain’s GDP growth has been strong, relative to similar economies. Employment has never been higher. Yet almost all economists at the moment share a similar worry – poor productivity. GDP per...
TFTA - Cape to Cairo Free-Trade Zone
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-33076917Intra-regional trade within Sub Saharan Africa is much lower as a percentage of total trade than for other regions such as Asia and the European...
Information, Networks and Economic Growth - Cesar Hidalgo
It was a delight to hear Cesar Hidalgo speak at the Oxford Martin School yesterday as he launches his new book Why Information Grows. Below are some notes that I took at the meeting and also a...
The Making of Nudge
The Making of Nudge is a new book on behavioural economics from Professor Richard Thaler.
Connected Economists - Invitation to Write!
Connected Economists is a new economics magazine, written by students for students. The editors, all current A-Level students from schools across the UK, have created this free magazine for the...
Game Theory - Putting Yourself in Another's Shoes
This article published in the Independent (June 2015) is a really excellent primer on aspects of cooperative and non-cooperative game theory reflecting on the contributions made by the late John...
FIFA, corruption and economic growth
The FIFA arrests have dominated both front and sports pages. We must await the outcomes of the trials before pronouncing on individuals. But amongst soccer fans, the organisation is a byword for...