UK Unemployment Rises to 4%
There are signs of a softening in the UK labour market with news that unemployment for March to May 2023 increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4% of the labour force.
What are loss leaders? Are they ethical?
This short looks at some of the arguments surround loss-leading by businesses such as supermarkets. A loss-leader is a pricing strategy where a business sells a product below average cost hoping to...
This BBC clip looks at the adverse effects of nickel mining in Indonesia. Given the increased global demand for nickel, this implies that the associated negative externalities are going to be...
Who do privatised water companies serve? Their customers or their shareholders?
Economics Weekly Quiz | 07 July 2023
Here's our final weekly economics news quiz of the academic year.
Maths for Economists - Recommended Resources
Here are some resources for teachers and students wanting to boost their confidence in handling mathematics when studying economics!
This report by Oxfam and Action Aid highlights the concept of windfall profits. But what are they? And how large is the estimated level of windfall profits generated by the world's biggest companies?
Environmental Economics - News Update
There is so much happening in the environmental economics news space at the moment. Here are some links to and reflections on a range of topical news stories ranging from New Zealand banning...
LSE economics magazine available free to schools
Every term, CentrePiece, the magazine of the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance, features the latest policy-focused work from the world-renowned economics institute – and it is available free to...
Economics Weekly Quiz | 30 June 2023
Here's our weekly economics news quiz.
Digital Divide - Calls for VAT cut for low cost broadband
This is an inequality issue - with a House of Lords Committee suggesting that digital exclusion is a major problem and that the government should try to do something to close this gap, not least...
Will Thames Water have to be nationalised?
Privatisation (and possible nationalisation) in the spotlight again, in that the UK's largest water company, Thames Water appears to be on the point of collapsing under the weight of its own debt....
Inter-generational impact of mortgage rate hikes
Another example of inter-generational inequality, with the latest research in the housing market revealing that younger homeowners are going to bear the brunt of the current rise in mortgage...
King’s (Cambridge) Entrepreneurship Lab Essay Competition
We are delighted to support the announcement from the Entrepreneurship Lab at King's Cambridge of a terrific new essay competition.
Monetary squeeze continues as BoE raises base rates to 5%
The Bank of England has raised base interest rates by 0.5% to 5%, the highest for fifteen years. The move has been trailed as a pre-emptive move meaning that the Bank hope that such a step will...
Economics Weekly Quiz | 23 June 2023
Here's our weekly economics news quiz.
A complicated issue to unpick but the head of the IMF, Kristina Georgieva has called for so-called 'debt for climate swaps' to be offered to developing economies to allow them to overcome the...
Classic oligopoly theory - with Morrisons and Marks and Spencer cutting the price of basic items in response to similar cuts by Tesco, Sainsburys and Aldi.
The Institute for Public Policy arguably sums up the last 40 years: £500bn plus under-investment has resulted in low growth. It argues that British investment is the lowest in the G7 and 27th out...
How bad will the looming mortgage crisis be?
Larry Elliott looks at the implications of higher mortgage interest rates both for mortgage borrowers and for the wider macroeconomy. He suggests that with interest rates being so high the...