Three short (i.e. 2 or 3 minute) videos from the BBC TV series “Trust Me, I’m an Economist” have found their way online, seemingly to promote the book by presenter Tim Harford. In part one, he gives free advice to someone who wants to be a gangsta rapper. In part two, he uses second-hand cars as examples of a problem called asymmetric information. In part three, he uses airport queues as an analogy for the stock market.
Films from our student film challenge are online. They can be viewed online or downloaded in better quality. Two of them show economics superheroes in action saving the world. Two more of them look at the university experience and why economics is a rational choice. Another film shows how various principles and concepts from economics apply to daily life. Thanks to all our student film-makers!
This is a gem of an item, found through the Improbable Research blog. It’s a study of the social benefits of celebrity suicide by Samuel Cameron (an economist at the University of Bradford) and his colleagues. You may need to be at an educational institution to get the full report, but here is the abstract:
“This Commentary suggests that it is possible, from an economic perspective, that any individual artist/celebrity suicide may be of net benefit to society. Sales of the artist’s products and associated merchandise may increase after the suicide, and people, including those who were not even born at the time of the suicide, may derive value from its iconic reification, not to mention the higher value they derive from some private goods. A case study of Kurt Cobain is given to illustrate this phenomenon.”
Read more: “Artists’ Suicides as a Public Good” Archives of Suicide Research, Volume 9, Number 4, October-December 2005, pp. 389-396(8)
How can we help the developing countries of Africa? This three-minute BBC radio interview (RealPlayer required) features an interesting take on the issue from Paul Collier, an Oxford Professor of Economics.
Collier points out that Africa has some fragile democracies which are at real risk of falling to a military coup or descending into civil war. The security that comes from stable government makes it more feasible to escape the cycle of poverty. Hence the rich European countries could help by supplying some of their military power, if backed with a legitimate authority.
This is the title of a research paper by economists Lena Edlund and Evelyn Korn, in which they consider the relative appeal of marriage and prostitution for women, and (closely linked) the relative appeal of wives and prostitutes for men.
Michael Noer in Forbes magazine shows wittily that the economic perspective on marriage is bleakly unromantic, but admits the point of the research is not to illuminate romantic feelings (for which we already have a culture’s worth of art and poetry) but to answer a specific question, namely, “Why do prostitutes earn so much money?” Is it compensation for the violence and disease which they are exposed to, or compensation for the fact that no-one wants to marry a prostitute?
Found via the book Economics Uncut: A Complete Guide to Life, Death and Misadventure, edited by Simon Bowmaker, which has many examples of economic research into topics like drugs, crime, abortion and gambling and includes Edlund and Korn’s original paper.
Muhammad Yunus and the bank he founded to help the poorest Bangladeshis out of poverty have been awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below”.
Yunus pioneered microfinance; small loans made to people whom traditional banks would ignore as too high-risk. Talking to the BBC, he responded, “As a Bangladeshi, I’m proud that we have given something to the world. Our work has now been recognised by the whole world.” Several links found via MetaFilter.