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Free trade and politics as drawn by cartoonist KAL
A wonderful two minute video on the principle of free trade
Do mergers and takeovers raise prices rather than efficiency?
Super article to read on the impact of takeovers and mergers on economic efficiency and consumer welfare.
Why banks could disappear in 20 years
This short video report from Newsnight considers whether fin tech will provide enough creative destruction to challenge the commercial viability of the banking system we have grown up with over the...
Mapping Africa's Natural Resource Wealth
Here is an updated chart on the main natural resources for African countries - great when teaching resource traps, primary product dependency and related topics.
Bangladesh: A Path Toward Prosperity
A short (perhaps rose-tinted) video from the World Bank on the success of Bangladesh in improving growth and development outcomes. But useful as a primer for some of the strategies that - from the...
Competition rather than central bankers have kept inflation low
Tempers are fraying at the highest levels of economic policy making in the UK. Theresa May, at the Conservative Party conference, emphasised the “bad side effects” for savers of the Bank...
200 Years On - How Relevant is Ricardo?
It has been an article of faith amongst economists and policy makers that free trade is a Good Thing. Trade liberalisation was a key feature of the world economic order enforced by the United...
Trumponomics
God forbid the polls (including FiveThirtyEight) are way out, but just in case, here is a new primer from the Financial Times on the economic "policies" being put forward by the Donald. What does...
Ha-Joon Chang on Free Markets
Ha Joon Change has argued that it is a myth there is such a thing as a free market. In this short video he explains why.
Growing & Slowing Down Like China
China is a middle income country and - measured at PPP exchange rates - the largest economy in the world. China's phenomenal economic growth has mostly come about from investment and copying...
How Much Does Management Matter?
Productivity varies greatly across countries and traditionally, economic theory has looked at the importance of variations in the quantity and quality of factor inputs such as land, labour and cost...
Do patents help or hinder innovation?
Innovation matters because there are limits to simply copying or imitating what rival firms have managed to achieve. Do patents help or hinder innovation?
Vertical restraint and monopoly power
Vertical restraints involve exclusive deals between businesses. To what extent do they break the norms of market competition and lead to higher monopoly profits and a loss of consumer welfare? or...
A Short Primer on the Chinese Economy
Here is a very useful twenty minute primer lecture from Chatham House on the Chinese economy. Since undertaking economic reform in 1978, China has experienced the fastest sustained expansion by a...
Defending Globalisation - Special Report from the Economist
One of those must read enrichment articles for students interested in globalisation and its discontents. Naturally the Economist favours a world with fewer tariff and non-tariff barriers but there...
Quantitative Easing - BBC Briefing Room
A good resource for students and teachers. In this episode of the BBC radio 4 series, The Briefing Room (broadcast in September 2015), David Aaronovitch explores how QE works and examines the...
Behavioral Economics of Pro-Social Plastic Bag Tax
Which works best, the carrot or the stick? In this short interview one of our favourite behavioural economists Joe Gladstone, Assistant Professor at University College London, discusses the plastic...
Is the world suffering a curse of cash?
Harvard economist Ken Rogoff has a new book out called The Curse of Cash. In his view, the world is awash with cash and it’s making us poorer and less safe. Would we be better off in a world...
What does Brexit mean? A new short film
"Brexit means Brexit", but what does this mean? Our friends at Econ Films have interviewed over a dozen economists from a range of fields, and made this quick video explaining the biggest issues...
Britain's Government Debt - Who is Buying It?
This is a superbly clear short video from the Financial Times on how the UK government must compete on then global market for investors prepared to buy new issues of gilts (government bonds).
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