Unit 2: Revision: Exchange rates

From economics student comes this handy summary of what determines exchange rates

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/29/how-exchange-rates-are-determined/

....and why exchange rates change

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/30/why-exchange-rates-change/

.....and what determines exchange rates

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/31/factors-influencing-exchange-rates/

.....and the implications of changes in the exchange rate

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/04/01/why-exchange-rates-matter/

Unit 2: The worldwide nature of the current recession

Various reports of shrinking economies all over the world

Ireland http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7965664.stm
and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7976734.stm
Japan http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7967315.stm
and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7973409.stm
New Zealand http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7967326.stm
USA http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7965791.stm
Germany http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7973708.stm

a) Are the factors causing the recession the same in each country the same? Think in terms of the components of aggregate demand

Unit 2: A shrinking economy and rising savings ratio

The BBC reports that the UK economy shrunk by 1.6% in the last 3 months of 2008. In addition, it appears that the recession is leading people to save more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7967597.stm

a) Define the savings ratio
b) With savings interest rates at close to zero, why would peeople be saving more?
c) Using an AD/AS diagram, explain the likely consequences on the UK economy of an increase in the savings ratio
d) Following on.......explain why in the long term an increase in the savings ratio might be desiarable but why in the short run it is not

Unit 2: Revision: Protectionism

From economics student comes this handy summary of methods of protectionism. You don't need this tariff diagram for the AS exam; a simple S&D diagram showing S shifting to the left witht the resulting increase in price and fall in quantity demanded is sufficient

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/26/tariff-and-non-tariff-methods-of-protection/

Unit 2: Inflation up (CPI)....and down (RPI)

From a question of economics comes this useful summary of the CPI/RPI distinction and a link to the BBC

http://aquestionofeconomics.blogspot.com/2009/03/inflation-up-and-down.html
The questions associated with the post are excellent

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7961122.stm BBC video

......and this on a similar tack from economics help

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/inflation/which-measure-of-inflation-to-use/

...plus this powerpoint on various aspects of inflation from tutor2u

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/files/Inflation_March_2009.doc

Unit 2: Japan's fall in exports

An interesting article from the BBC describing a catastrophic decline in Japan's exports

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7962656.stm

a) What would you expect the effect of this decline to be on the Japanese economy?
b) Given that imports fell by even more, explain the effect on the current account of the BoP

Unit 2: What We Have Tried to Boost Economic Growth

From economics help comes this great summary. Take particular note of the evaluative comments about why the policies may not have worked

http://www.economicshelp.org/2009/03/what-we-have-tried-to-boost-economic.html

Unit 1: Tradable permits: Carbon trading videos

From tutor2u come these 2 videos on carbon trading

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/video-on-carbon-trading/

Unit 2: Inflation: Changes in the basket of goods

The BBC reports the annual changes in the basket of goods used to measure the CPI

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7958785.stm

a) What is the CPI?
b) Why do the articles in the basket of goods alter?
c) Would you have expected the weights allocated to the various items in the basket to have changed this year? Explain your answer

Unit 2: Costs and benefits of economic growth

Economics student has this useful summary of the costs and benefits of economic growth

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/20/benefits-and-costs-of-economic-growth/

Unit 2:Budget deficits and national debt

Economics student has this good summary of the topic

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/20/government-budget-deficits-and-the-national-debt/

Unit 2: Regional Unemployment in the UK

From economics help comes this useful post on Regional Unemployment in the UK

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/unemployment/regional-unemployment-in-uk/

a) To what extent is regional unemployment a problem for the UK?
b) What actions can the govt take to reduce regional unemployment?

Unit 1: Air travel: A normal good?

From the BBC comes this article about falling numbers of air passengers in 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7945721.stm

a) What evidence is ther to suggest air travel is a normal good
b) If this is the case, would the income elasticity of demand for air travel be +ve or -ve? Explain your answer
c) The following passage lists has many statistics: What use would they be for firms planning their stratagy to deal with the downturn in passenger numbers?

UK airports handled 235 million passengers in total last year, the CAA found.
The 1.9 per cent decline is only the the fourth annual decrease in passenger numbers since the end of the Second World War, the authority said.
CAA figures revealed London's airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City, saw an overall annual fall of 2%.
Stansted was particularly badly hit, with 1.4 million fewer passengers in 2008 - a 6.0% decline on 2007.
Manchester, the biggest regional airport, also saw passenger numbers fall by 3.8%.
However, not all airports were hit by a decline in travellers.
London City airport saw a rise of a 12%, Luton showed a 2.6% increase and Birmingham's numbers rose by 4.8%.
Rail competition
The CAA also revealed charter airline numbers were down 9.3% on 2007, while scheduled airlines were down 0.8%.
There was also a fall in the overall number of passengers taking domestic flights - down 4.8% to 25 million.
The authority said this was partly due to increasing numbers of people opting to take the train.

Unit 2: Revision: Economic growth

From economics student comes this useful introduction to economic growth

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/16/an-introduction-to-economic-growth/

..and this linking economic growth to AD and AS

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/17/aggregate-demand-supply-and-economic-growth/

...and this on the causes of actual and potential economic growth

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/18/causes-of-economic-growth/

...and this on potential output and output gaps

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/19/measuring-potential-output-and-output-gaps/

Unit 1: Taxation as an approach to reducing the negative externalities associated with chocolate consumption

Tutor2u has an interesting post about the BMA proposal to tax chocolate and there is a BBC vieo and article as well

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/chocolate-tax-they-wouldnt-would-they/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7938282.stm video

a) How does the free market for chocolate fail?
b) What are the private costs and external costs associated with consuming chocolate?
c) What are the private benefits and external benefits associated with consuming chocolate?
d) Using a S&D diagram, discuss the extent to which a tax on chocolate would reduce the market failure

Unit 1: Uses of Elasticity estimates

From economics student comes this useful summary of how price, income and cross elasticity can be used in the transport sector

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/13/the-use-of-elasticity-of-demand-in-transport/

Unit 2: Appreciating/depreciating exchange rates

An interesting article from economics student on exchange rates

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/14/currency-wars-competitive-depreciations/

a) Why is a depreciating £ good for British exporters?
b) What effect would the depreciation have on those businesses who import goods in to the UK?
c) Using a S&D diagram, explain why the Swiss Franc has appreciated
d) Using a S&D diagram, explain the effect of the Swiss authorities policy “to purchase foreign currency on the foreign exchange market to prevent any further appreciation of the Swiss franc against the euro”

Unit 2: Revision: Unemployment

Economics student has this series on revising unemployment

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/09/defining-unemployment/ defining unemployment

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/10/measuring-unemployment/ measuring unemployment

http://rapidrevision.co.uk/economics-student/2009/03/19/latest-uk-unemployment-data/ unemployment data for March 2009

Unit 2: Monetary policy: Quantitative easing - How it works and why it's needed

This BBC clip uses a car analogy to explain the process of quantitative easing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/7925669.stm

This article also explains it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7924506.stm

This clip explains its role in conjunction with interest rate cuts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7926255.stm

But, if it all goes wrong, here's what could happen

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7925981.stm

Unit 1: Alcohol abuse and govt action to reduce market failure

These BBC clips outline Scottish proposals to reduce alcohol consumption

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7918184.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/7918975.stm

A summary is in this post from A question of economics

http://aquestionofeconomics.blogspot.com/2009/03/scotland-to-impose-minimum-price-on.html

This BBC post has the proposals from the Chief Medical Officer Of England

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7944334.stm article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7944463.stm video

The government response is here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7946351.stm video

a) What evidence is there of market failure?
b) What actions are the Scottish govt/Chief Medical Officer proposing?
c) Using a S&D diagram, discuss the likelyhood of this intervention being successful in reducing the market failure

Unit 2: Recession and unemployment

A big thanks to Geoff Riley at tutor2u for posting this BBC Newsnight video on how the UK economy is coping with the recession

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7892620.stm

a) Explain how the negative multiplier effect resulting from unemployment is deepening the recession
b) How does the video indicate the inequality often associated with unemployment?