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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...

Fixing Globalisation – Jim O’Neill in conversation with George Osborne
This is a 17 minute interview that might be used an enrichment for students evaluating the challenges to globalisation.

The End of China Inc?
This is a follow-up to the blog about Robert Peston's analysis of prospects for the Chinese economy. I think this report from Al Jazeerah is significantly better - not least because of some...

BBC This World - The Great Chinese Crash (2016)
My Year 13 economists are starting serious preparation for an essay on China in their final preU exam this June.

Crash and the Michael Fish Moment for Economists
Here's a summary from the BBC regarding the similarities between Michael Fish's hurricane-forecasting disaster from 1987 and the failure of central banks to correctly forecast the financial crisis...

China's Future Economy
The FT's Beijing Correspondent Yuan Yang journeys into the manufacturing heartlands of the Chinese interior and finds that rapid industrial growth is giving way to less secure and less well paid...

The Journey of an iPhone from Factory to Retail Store
You could make a case for using this one article to revise almost the entire A level economics course! The New York Times follows the journey of an iPhone from factory floor to retail store.

Will a fall in labour migration hurt the UK economy?
Jonathan Portes considers some of the possible effects of a significant reduction in net inward migration from the EU after the UK's Brexit. He argues that " the impacts should not be overstated...

Five industries under threat from creative destruction
A superb piece here from the Financial Times focuses on five industries where revenues, profits and jobs are under threat from creative destruction.

2016 in Review
I suspect quite a few of us will be happy to put 2016 to bed. I'm not a fan of lengthy annual assessments of the world economy and geo-Politics. But this short FT video is a timely reminder of some...

Natural Capital - The Battle for Biodiversity
Annually, the world spends nearly $40 billion on pesticides but only $50 billion a year on protecting bio-diversity. To sustain We are destroying the natural resources, wildlife and habitats that...

Martin Wolf on Global Economy in 2017
In this ten minute interview, Martin Wolf and Lionel Barber from the FT discuss prospects for the world economy.

Special Economic Zones and Growth in Bangladesh
Few countries in recent times have given more attention to setting up special economic zones than Bangladesh.
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