Economics in Action

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.

In the wake of Alistair Darling’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.

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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In the first of a series of interviews with economics researchers at the Royal Economic Society Conference 2008, Romesh Vaitilingam talks to Karen Croxson about Promotional Piracy: Why some media and software companies turn a blind eye to illegal downloads.

Some providers of digital products, such as software, music and film, may turn a blind eye to or even encourage piracy of their goods, according to new research by Karen Croxson presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2008 annual conference. They do this because while piracy may harm sales, it can also serve to provide free marketing, helping to create buzz about a product.

The most high profile example of buzz is the Arctic Monkeys, a British music group, which distributed its initial songs freely online. But firms in other industries may benefit from the same effect. Makers of office software such as Microsoft may enjoy a net benefit from piracy: business users are unlikely to copy the product, and others who copy it would not have bought it anyway. Thus, the main effect of piracy is extra cheap promotion, and this in turn may explain why copy protection applied to office software is relatively weak.

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The Economist is running a feature article on how the world is, gradually and unevenly, becoming more prosperous and peaceful. Yes, wars and genocides are happening right now. Yes, huge numbers live in extreme poverty and millions of children die each year from preventable disease. However, the figures brought together in this article show that, while those things are horrible, far fewer people are experiencing them than in previous decades. Public health, birth control, immigration and Middle East conflict are among the issues touched on.

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.