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Will Economists have the laugh last over Brexit?
According to Sir Vince Cable, the answer is yes! This article comes from a strongly Remain perspective but is very readable from a politician with a long history as a professional economist in...
Focus on the Ethiopian Economy
I said at the Grade Booster revision event in Birmingham last week that, in my opinion, Ethiopia is one of the most interesting economies on the planet to study from an A level Economics...
Safe Clean Water Remains a Development Barrier in Africa
The World Bank clip looks at how recent demographic change in Africa hasn't been matched by utility companies who've been unable to respond to increased urbanisation by investing in infrastructure....
Inequality: are we measuring the right things?
Here is a really thought-provoking blog post from Jonathan Athow at the Office for National Statistics that looks at how we measure inequality and whether we look at the right things or not. There...
2017 OECD Review of Chinese Economy
This is an important publication - the latest assessment of the transition process for China from economists at the OECD. Helpfully, they make their slides available online for teachers and...
Rethinking GDP
Diane Coyle has an article on new measures of economic welfare in the March 2017 edition of Finance and Development from the IMF. Strongly recommended for students and teachers wanting an updated...
Barriers to Trade in Sub Saharan Africa
This excellent new mini documentary from UNU-Wider looks at the impact of border delays on intra-regional trade within Sub Saharan Africa. Transport costs across adjoining countries are often two...
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.
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