Readers Question: I’m a paper girl and I get £5.50 a week, 7 days a week, 2 rounds a day. Am I the only one that thinks this is a joke? From: Wages of Paper Boys It sounds a very bad deal. Paper rounds are not covered by statutory minimum wage laws, so wages are …
Utility is a concept given to how much satisfaction/happiness a person gains from a particular action. Utility derived from the philosophy of utilitarianism. An early advocate of Utilitarianism was Jeremy Bentham who argued that utility was the accumulation of pleasure and avoidance of pain. The concept was refined by others such as J.S. Mill who …
Discrimination in the labour market occurs when employers make decisions on wages and employment based on prejudices, such as race, gender, religion. It can lead to variations in wages for the same job and different employment rates. Kenneth Arrow defined discrimination as: “the valuation in the market-place of personal characteristics of the worker that are …
The Neo-classical synthesis (also referred to as the neo-Keynesian theory) refers to the post-war macroeconomic development which combined elements of Keynesian macroeconomics with more classical microeconomic theory. (This is not relevant for A-Level economics, you may be relieved to know) Up until the 1930s, economics had been dominated by classical economists who argued that markets …
Economics is concerned with the optimal distribution of scarce resources within society. For example, economics is concerned with how individual decisions like how firms produce goods and which goods people buy. An important element in economics is concerned with the extent to which governments can intervene in the economy to improve economic welfare. Economics is …
Readers Question: Is outsourcing beneficial for multinationals and their home countries? Outsourcing occurs when a firm delegates an aspect of a business to another firm. This may be to a firm in another country. For example, a large multinational may outsource cleaning to an outside cleaning firm. It may also ‘outsource’ its customer support call …
All economic forecasts are subject to margins of error. This is because: There are many variables affecting the economy. For example, the role of shadow banking was largely ignored in 2007 forecasts but failed sub-prime mortgage debt had a much bigger impact on the wider economy than ever before. There is always a big element …
These are a collection of essays written for my economic blogs. Exchange Rate Essays Effects of a falling Dollar Why Dollar keeps falling Discuss Policies to Stop the Dollar Falling Does Devaluation Cause Inflation? Benefits and Costs of Falling Dollar Reasons for Falling Dollar The Dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency Economic Growth Essays Evaluate …