Babies = Depression
What can twenty toddlers teach us about economic recessions? A lot more than you may think Continue reading Babies = Depression
The Allais Paradox: Explained
The Nobel Prize-winning economist, Maurice Allais, posed this famous paradox in a 1953 Econometrica article. It led to the discovery of one of the most significant notions in behavioural economics today: loss aversion. Continue reading The Allais Paradox: Explained
The case for oligopolies
An oligopoly is the most likely market structure to promote consumer welfare as it is likely to deliver the lowest prices. Oligopolies are made up of big firms who have greater economies of scale than firms in perfect or monopolistic competition. This means they can keep production costs lower and charge lower prices. Even though there are only a few firms in the market, if … Continue reading The case for oligopolies
Solution to the moral hazards of microfinance?
Microfinance is commonly regarded as the promise of innovative, cost-effective paths to poverty reduction and social change. However, we are not living in a perfectly competitive credit market, so downsides such as moral hazard and asymmetric information that tend to create inefficiency make the program less effective, or even counterproductive in certain cases. So why don’t we ask people to help others and do the right … Continue reading Solution to the moral hazards of microfinance?
India’s ambition to become a cashless society
On 8 November 2016, the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, announced the demonetisation of all ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi series Continue reading India’s ambition to become a cashless society
“The Return of Depression Economics” by Paul Krugman
The Return of Depression Economics combines Krugman’s narrative with his analysis of the significant economic recessions of the past century, culminating to the crisis of 2008. Krugman assesses the crises in the United States of the early 1900’s and the crises in Asia and Latin America of the 1990’s, before perceptively demonstrating their similarities to the Great Recession. He observes that we did not learn … Continue reading “The Return of Depression Economics” by Paul Krugman
The UK is facing an energy crisis
North Sea oil supplies are running out. Peak oil extraction has been surpassed. The government’s policy of heavily subsidising renewable energy has cost the taxpayer billions and pushed household electricity bills up by £17 a year on average. The pressure to meet targets for carbon emission reductions has left the government forcing the closure of all coal power stations by 2025. Without a plausible reaction … Continue reading The UK is facing an energy crisis
Please, Mr Trump, free trade is not evil
“Few propositions command as much consensus among professional economists as that open world trade increases economic growth and raises living standards.” – Nicholas Mankiw, the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University, once said of free trade. Although this view has been adopted by an overwhelming majority of economists (including Adam Smith himself), it has not experienced popularity among the Western electorate in … Continue reading Please, Mr Trump, free trade is not evil
“Poor Economics” by Duflo and Banerjee
Duflo and Banerjee’s Poor Economics is a developmental economics book which aims to change the way we think about alleviating poverty in developing countries, shifting our focus from the ‘big questions’ and ‘big policies’ towards evidence-based changes and nudges at the margin. It does this by clearly establishing the conditions in which the poor live and how they react to certain changes in their environment, … Continue reading “Poor Economics” by Duflo and Banerjee
Is Blockchain the most important technology of our time?
Blockchain is said to be the technology which will have the greatest social impact over the next decade, more so than social media, Artificial Intelligence, and Big-Data. Moreover, this effect will not only occur in the developed world, but also in the developing one. Hearing this, you’d be forgiven for being sceptical, forgiven for wondering how this unknown Blockchain technology will become the most impactful … Continue reading Is Blockchain the most important technology of our time?
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