Category
Topic updates
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’.
2017 Economic Growth Commission Report is Launched
The 2017 LSE (London School of Economics) Growth Commission sets out a new blueprint for inclusive and sustainable growth in the UK that deals with the challenges facing the UK, old and new.
Inequality linked to export complexity
Some new and exciting work from Cesar Hidalgo! Research from Hidalgo's team at the MIT media lab finds that a country's income inequality is linked to its export complexity.
How much higher can house prices go?
Official data released last week on London house price increases in 2016 generated a lot of interest. Given that housing represents by far the most important component of wealth for most people, it...
Africa Knowledge Fest 2017
Just about the best introduction to some of the World Bank's recent Sub-Saharan African research has been collated here as part of the Africa Knowledge Fest. Worth a look for interested development...
Greater Germany Outpaces Club Med in a Divided Europe
At the end of last week Federica Mogherini met leading members of the Trump administration. Mogherini, yet another Italian politician turned Euro-bureaucrat, is in fact the foreign policy chief of...
The Importance of Trade in Raw Materials
This excellent OECD clip looks at the importance of raw materials, such as rare earth metals, in global trade. It may tell you some things that you don't know and if you're inclined, I'd recommend...
UK tax burden set to be the highest in 30 years
There is a wealth of background information on the UK economy in general and the government's fiscal challenges in particular from the IFS web site.
Will Chinese living standards ever surpass those in the USA?
Possibly the single most important of the tensions stoked up by President Trump is the rivalry between the United States and China. Economic strength will be the ultimate determinant of this...
Comparative Advantage: China (Finally) Masters the BallPoint Pen
This is a vivid illustration of the growth challenges facing China as it seeks to move away from "Assembled in China" to "Designed and Made by China."
Why healthy people have high coverage and those most at risk don’t
A serious problem in countries with private health insurance is that some people get under-insured or have no insurance at all. This under-insurance problem was one of the motivations for Obamacare...
Short Videos on Price Fixing
Here is a selection of short news videos on real world examples of price fixing in markets
Credence goods and misbehaviour by unscrupulous sellers
Credence goods exist when the seller has specialist knowledge unavailable to the buyer and this information asymmetry can be used by some to gouge higher prices and extract consumer surplus.
Universal Healthcare without the NHS
We British like traditions. A well-established one which comes round every year is the “winter crisis” in the NHS. Health provision is a political hot potato not just for this government, or indeed...
Can we avoid the next financial crisis?
This is a quick video primer on the underlying causes of financial crises featuring three Nobel Laureates - Joseph Stiglitz, Paul R. Krugman and Robert Engle.
Is Inequality Set to Decline?
This FT clip looks at the historic factors that have contributed to rising inequality, or at least the perception of rising inequality today, and the subsequent implications of this for populism...
The Contestable Gym Market
Many A-Level Business students are looking in depth this year at the UK gym market as part of their exam preparations. Some of Jim's tweeted charts are superb context for understanding the...
Is Free Trade Good or Bad?
We rather take for granted the maxim that free trade is a good thing. This article from the BBC's Andrew Walker might just, at the margin make you think again. It makes it clear that economic...
Global Economy 2016 in 12 Charts (and a video)
A terrific source of information curated here by the World Bank. Here are 12 charts that help tell the stories of the year.
Australian Beef Farming and Economies of Scale
This clip looks at how Australian beef farmers have responded to rising demand from Asian consumers, led by Australian Agricultural who have made the most of their economies of scale and added new...