Economics in Action

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It is debatable whether economics should actually be defined as being a science. After all, unlike Chemistry or Physics in which you type in some numbers, solve a complex equation and Bob’s your uncle there’s the answer. Economics involves an argument. Whereas science  attempts to prove something is irreversibly, permanently, and everlastingly true. Economics will rarely give a simple answer. Ask 5 economists a question and the joke goes-you’ll get 6 different answers.

Because of this economics has provided us with a wide variety of rich and interesting characters and over the next few weeks we hope to introduce you to some of them!

So you want to be an investment banker?

Banking and finance are a common destination for economics graduates. Banks value economist’s as they have quantitative skills as well as an analytical flair and a good business knowledge.

On good website to see what a life in investment banking is really like visit a great website we found called ‘mergers and inquisitions’ detailing every thing from investment banking ‘lingo’ to an average day and of course the pay- it’s a good starting point for those who want to know models about this highly demanding but very well paid career.

Another great site is the Deuchste bank website which have published this guide

Of course if you don’t fancy doing something like Banking there is a wide variety of subjects which can be studied

A great new page from our friends at Intute Social Sciences and the Economics Network is up! Useful for degree or A-levels students, it tours some of the key sites for Economics and shows you how to make use of them in your work.

You can find it at: The Internet for Economics.

Is economics useless?

So given all the recent ‘mess’ in world economy what value does ‘modern’ economics have to offer us?  Well it depends on who you ask. Here Stephanie Flanders offers some news and views on whether economics is a ‘busted flush’.

For those of you who don’t/cant be bothered to read the whole thing her argument in a paragraph

‘So, all in all, not an edifying list of complaints. But does that mean economics is a busted flush? I’m afraid not, because even if you think economics got a lot of this stuff wrong, you’d be hard-pressed to understand – or to fix – what’s happening in the global economy today without it. ‘

Maybe it’s not such a good time to be an economist. But it’s one helluva time to study economics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2009/07/is_economics_a_busted_flush.html

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What would you do with a database of the weights, measurements and life histories of fourteen thousand people? Economic historian Marco Sunder used them to relate life expectancy to Body Mass Index. He reached the surprising conclusion that slightly “overweight” people lived longer.

Nobody’s implying that healthy eating and regular exercise are bad for you. All the advice is that these are worth doing for good reasons but what Sunder found, and was borne out by subsequent medical research, was that people dieting excessively to bring their bodies into the “normal” range were decreasing their life expectancies.

This is one of many intriguing, succinct and occasionally odd economic ideas in “Economics 2.0: What the best minds in Economics can teach you about business and life,” a book released this year by economics journalists Norbert Häring and Olef Storbeck. Other topics they explore include The Economics of Beauty, Why Economists love Sports, How Bad Will the Financial Crisis Get and why Europeans were a great deal shorter in the 17th Century.

In the latest of our podcasts supporting the Royal Economic Society Conference 2008 Romesh Vaitilingam talks to Ben Lockwood about the effect of the European Single market on alcohol and tobacco taxes.

Listen to the interview

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In the wake of Alistair Darlin’s swingeing increases on duty on alcohol in Wednesdays budget comes a new report examining why duty may not have been increased as much as governments would have liked and implying that these new duties may not raise as much revenue as the Chancellor is expecting.

The research by Giuseppe Migali and Ben Lockwood, presented at this Royal Economic Society’s 2008 annual conference, finds that the completion of the European Unions single market which removed all restrictions on trade in goods between member countries meant that the UK government has not been able to raise alcohol and tobacco duty as much as it might like.

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Crisis regulation may help avoid another Northern Rock style panic, according to research by Professors Shurojit Chatterji and Sayantan Ghosal presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2008 annual conference.

Listen to the interview

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But the authorities should not always aim to prevent bank runs on the contrary, when regulators cannot monitor banks and fine those that are behaving irresponsibly, the possibility of bank runs is needed to prevent banks from lending irresponsibly in the first place.

In September 2007, Northern Rock suffered the first bank run on a British bank in over a century. The spectacle of depositors queuing up in front of the high street branches of the Northern Rock has prompted much commentary on the stability of the financial systems and the global consequences of the subprime crisis in the United States.

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We’re pleased to be able to bring to you an online video called “A Double Take on Presentation Skills”, made by a lecturer and her students at Oxford Brookes University. It shows how (and how not) to develop team work and presentation ability in an economics course. Students can pick up some tips, not just about speaking to an audience but also about studying in a university; how you have to know what you’re talking about, but on the other hand you’re encouraged to interpret the ideas your own way, rather than just repeat what’s in the books.

Kudos to Judith Piggott and her students for their bravery in showing how cringe-inducing it is when things can go wrong.

We have now converted all eleven of our student films to MP4 format for use with iPods and other personal video players. The films have also been remastered to improve colours and contrast, making them even more suited for the small screen.

Made by groups of economics students from a variety of different universities, the films show different perspectives – sometimes serious, sometimes hilarious – on the usefulness of economic concepts.