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Showing posts from October, 2015

My Personal Experience with Economics at the University of Edinburgh (so far)

by Tasha Jayabalan Image source: Economics Society website , University of Edinburgh How do I even start? Ah, uni life. University life is amazing in all aspects, you’re constantly meeting new people from completely different backgrounds, engaging in sport and activities, and there’s just about 1000 societies that will cater to whatever your interested in. Not forgetting the drunken nights out, hungover mornings and laundry-filled weekends, and you’ll have your typical week at university set up.  In terms of economics, I feel blessed to have studied Economics at A level at GIS, because of the fact that so much of what I’m learning now, overlaps with what I’ve learnt for the last two years. In that sense, I already feel like I’ve got a mile head start for the semester, where we’re covering topics that we covered immensely at A level such as Theory of Consumer Choice and Competitive Markets. Don’t get me wrong, it is harder in the sense that the two lectures a week are aroun

Rational Economic Agents?

So, given a choice, the people in this video all select the chocolate over a bar of silver. Is this a rational decision? You can sense a couple of them assessing (and rationalising) the utility they will derive from the chocolate bar. Or was there something else at play here? Mark Dice, the guy in the video, clearly knew the silver was worth $150 USD and you can tell a few of those approached felt there was a catch and went for the recognisable choice. Did they just want to get away? Does the fact that it is a free gift still mean that  asymmetric information  plays a role? Did he lead them?

Discussing "Teaching Economics After the Crash" and a great blog post!

Few economics educators will have missed the December 2014 documentary by Aditya Chakrabortty on Radio 4 titled Teaching Economics after the Crash . It has likely been discussed in many an A level economics classroom, particularly with students eager to know more about their potential economics degrees...I know a couple of my classes watched it with interest and had many questions about their future economics degrees afterwards...  Unfortunately, few asked "Is what the documentary said actually true?" The documentary did lead to some fascinating discussions with both students and colleagues and whilst all found it enjoyable viewing, it was not particularly clear to enough students that it was a rather unfair and one-sided representation, and a portrayal that most economics degree courses do not typically deserve. I felt that its unbalanced nature could not only have negative consequences in terms of the selections some students made in terms of their future study of

Are US gun laws justified?

This report is contributed by Nathaniel Low, a Year 13 Economics student at Garden International School To what extent are gun regulations as a form of government intervention justified in the United States of America? By Nathaniel Low The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution declares that “ A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. ” [1] This act, which granted every American citizen the right to possess firearms is still in existence today and has sparked many controversies in modern American society. Some of these will be explored in this report which explores if government intervention is justified in regulating guns in the USA. In an absolute free market, there are several market failures which can be corrected with some degree of government intervention, such as regulations. However, this intervention undermines the free market concept, according to