Policies for reducing unemployment

There are two main strategies for reducing unemployment – Demand side policies to reduce demand-deficient unemployment (unemployment caused by recession) Supply side policies to reduce structural unemployment / (the natural rate of unemployment) A quick list of policies to reduce unemployment Monetary policy – cutting interest rates to boost aggregate demand (AD) Fiscal policy – …

Read more

Measures of Global Poverty

global-poverty-less-than-1.90

The World Bank publishes several measures of global poverty, which measure poverty by different levels of income. The most common is the percentage of the population who live on less than $1.90 a day. This is a measure of absolute poverty. There are also measures of relative poverty which compare income against the national average. …

Read more

The impact of taxation

tax-negative-externality-pigovian-tax

Taxation on goods, income or wealth influence economic behaviour and the distribution of resources. For example, higher taxes on carbon emissions will increase cost for producers, reduce demand and shift demand towards alternatives. Higher income tax can enable a redistribution of income within society, but may have an impact on reducing the incentives to work …

Read more

Why is there so much global inequality?

reasons-global-inequality

Living standards vary significantly across the globe. Wealthy economies, such as the US have an average GDP per head (at PPP) of $59,495 in the US (IMF 2017) This compares to an average annual income as low as $808 Burundi. (IMF 2017) There are many reasons for these divergences in income including – historical trends, …

Read more

Pros and Cons of Fat Tax

sugar-tax-fat-tax

A ‘fat tax’ is a specific tax placed on foods which are considered to be unhealthy and contribute towards obesity. The tax could be placed on foods high in sugar/fat, such as crisps, chocolate and deep fried takeaways. The argument is that a fat tax would encourage healthier eating and raise revenue to be spent …

Read more

Should university education be free?

Summary Education has positive benefits for the rest of society. If university education is left to market forces, there may be under-provision, and the economy may suffer from a lack of skilled graduates. Furthermore, in a free market, higher education would become the preserve of wealthy families who can afford to send their children to …

Read more

The Turkish boom and bust

After a decade of secular stagnation in the west and ultra-low interest rates – from an economic perspective, the Turkish economy is ‘interesting’ in the sense that it gives a very different set of economic circumstances. An economic boom with parallels and similarities to the 1997-98 Asian Crisis. Since 2000, the Turkish economy has grown …

Read more

Diminishing marginal utility of income and wealth

Diminishing marginal utility of income and wealth suggests that as income increases, individuals gain a correspondingly smaller increase in satisfaction and happiness. In layman’s terms – “more money may not make you happy” Alfred Marshall popularised concepts of diminishing marginal utility in his Principles of Economics (1890) “The additional benefit a person derives from a …

Read more

Item added to cart.
0 items - £0.00