Via http://degreesearch.org

Source: Capital Gains Tax Rate & Income Inequality Chart

Via http://www.reed.co.uk

Via http://www.fastcodesign.com

Via http://salarytutor.com

Via http://www.parkcityindependent.com

Via http://www.classesandcareers.com

1) You should also create a hand-drawn chart to show how , in theory, a person’s earnings might change over the course of their lifetime. This should be saved as a digital version (you might draw it using online tool such as dabbleboard, or you might draw it by hand on a tablet, or you might draw it on paper and scan / photograph it).

2) Your task is to write the script for a audio report describing and explaining (giving likely reasons for) how earnings are likely to change over the course of a person’s lifetime, and you should refer to your image. You should aim for a report that lasts approximately 2 minutes maximum.

Image: Some rights reserved by dslrninja

Resources:

These resources should help you to visualise things. Some are quite complex – it is up to you to simplify the information while keeping some of their main information ‘in tact’.

Average Lifetime Earnings Trajectories by Education – by Political Calculations. Click on the image in the blog article.

Peak Earnings by Mother Jones

US Average Income per Income Earner by Age Group for 1995 and 2005 – via Political Calculations

Distribution of US Individual Income by Age, 1995 via Political Calculations

Education and raises by Marginal Revolution

This following ‘infographic’ actually tackles how ‘discretionary income’ changes – you should read what this actually means as it is different from earnings, but still worth exploring.

How Does Discretionary Income Change Over A Lifetime?

• What is barter?
• Where does barter still occur?
• What are three problems with barter?
• What are the four main functions of money?
• What are the necessary characteristics of money? You should find at least five, but there are more. Give examples to explain each characteristic.

Here is mjmfoodie on the topic but you only really need to watch from 48 seconds in until 3 minutes and six seconds in.

This video was created over 60 years ago, but is still a good introduction to the topic:

This is a well put together animation to show the problems with a barter system:

This video is also useful, but be careful, it mixes the characteristics up with the functions of money:

Think you’re getting the hang of it? Check this light-hearted approach to the topic:

define private and social costs¹ and benefits and discuss conflicts of interest in relation to these costs
and benefits in the short term and long term through studies of the following issues:
• conserving resources versus using resources;
• public expenditure versus private expenditure.

¹ Social costs are equal to the sum of private costs and external costs.

It is suggested that these enquiries are conducted in groups.

Research and prepare a presentation or written summary on one of the following issues for the your country which you are studying in. Suggestions on what to include on your presentation / summary are at the bottom of this post.

Type A – Public versus Private Provision of Key ‘Services’

Transport – should there be more public or private transport in your chosen country?

Image: Some rights reserved by Jeff Attaway

The Provision of Health Care – should there be more public or private provision?

Image: Some rights reserved by Fotos Gov/Ba

The Provision of Education – should there be more public or private provision?

Image: Some rights reserved by Artshooter

Type B – Use of versus Conservation of Key ‘Resources’

Using Wood from Forests as a Raw Material

Image: Some rights reserved by afromusing

Using Rivers to Generate Hydro Electricity

Image: Some rights reserved by Kam’s World

The Use of Fossil Fuel Power Stations

Image: Some rights reserved by Tim Ebbs

The Use of ‘Beauty Spots’ (such as beaches) for Tourism

Image: Some rights reserved by sarniebill1

Suggestions of what you could include in your presentation / summary:

1) What are the private costs and benefits involved?

2) What are the external costs and benefits involved?

3) If Type A Issue – Government versus Private. How has the government been involved? How has the private sector been involved? Should this change and, if so, why?

If Type B Issue – Conservation versus Usage. What are the resources used for, how much are they used, are they conserved? Should they be used more or conserved more?

4) What conflicts of interests are there in this issue? What different groups are involved and how are they affected differently? Why might they have different views on using these resources / providing these services?

5) Discuss how this issue might differ between the short term and the long term. For example, what are the short term effects of using these resources / providing this service? What are the long term effects? Are there short term solutions and are there long term solutions?

Bonus points awarded for:

1. Use of and accurate definitions of relevant key words/phrases.
2. Real life evidence – statistics, places, dates, etc.
3. Diagrams with explanations.

Suggested format:

Either

a) A slideshow that you can explain briefly to the rest of your class.

b) An email to someone, such as your teacher, but imagining that they are an influential person in the government and that you are writing to advise them on this issue as an Economic advisor.

Image: Some rights reserved by Valerie Everett

a) Exploring Supply and Demand by Kim Sosin – useful in that you can get feedback on the impacts on the Supply and Demand graph, shown on the right hand side of your browser.

b) True/False Quiz hosted on a http://www.oup.com site.

c) SELF-GRADING PRACTICE QUIZ #3 via http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu

The following four quizzes by Pearson via  http://wps.aw.com are good means of testing your understanding of demand, supply,and the market equilibrium. Usefully, at the end of each quiz you can email your results to yourself and your teacher.

d) Quiz 1

e) Quiz 2

f) Quiz 3

g) Quiz 4 

Source: CIE Economics Paper 4 Exam, May/June Session 2002

Due to a combination of reduced supply (as many farms, factories, and transport links in the country were flooded) and an increase in demand (as people stocked up on essentials in case they would not be able to get any later on as the floods worsened), prices of many goods increased considerably.

Some news items and social media

On October 30th, this report from The Nation newspaper online emerged (click on the image to see the original article):

The day before, on the 29th October, the following tweet appeared reporting that the Commerce Minister apparently said consumers should not accept higher (“inflated”) prices for eggs:

Typically eggs, before the floods, would sell at 3 or 4 baht each, so the new price represented an approximate doubling.

On 31st October, the Commerce Ministry announced Price Controls on 9 Essential Goods – although eggs weren’t specifically included in the 9 Essentials, a representative from the ministry said “about 3.2 million eggs from Malaysia will reach Thailand on November 3. It would be sold at no more than Bt4 each”.

On the same day, 31st October, this  report emerged (click on the image to see the original article). [Note, to “sell like hot cakes” means to sell very quickly and in large numbers].

In the scenario above, why did they sell like hot cakes? Why did huge queues form? Why did the government have to ration eggs after maintaining a ‘ceiling’ (maximum) price of 3 Thai baht?

On 1st November, this tweet appeared on the topic:

Now we are introduced to the word ‘shortage’ – in Economics that has a specific meaning – what does a shortage mean?

Some graphs

Let’s for simplicity argue that the price of eggs had risen because of a severe reduction in supply (although it is possible that the demand for eggs increased as well, it seems likely that supply would have reduced by more than any increase in demand). Follow the steps on the graphs below:

So the question you should try and answer, as a student of Economics, is in the title …

Should Eggs Have Been Sold At Their Pre-Flood Prices?

• Use diagram(s), fully labelled and explained.
• Refer to the developments in the news and items social media references given above.
• To conclude, try to explain the possible advantages of sticking with pre-flood prices and the possible disadvantages (you might have to think from a mixture of social, political and economic perspectives).

Here are some suggested resources to help you for the economics- side of things:

mjmfoodie on Market Equilibrium

Reffonomics gives interactive diagrams on Shortages and Surpluses.

mjmfoodie on Price Floors and Price Ceilings

A bit more advanced, Biz/Ed on Putting Demand and Supply Together: The Market Mechanism. The interactive diagrams could be used to explore the changes.

1) Videos

Supply by vaacon1

Creating a supply curve from a supply schedule by FreeEconHelp

Supply Curve and Changes in Supply by jcsballoon

Change in supply / change in quantity supplied by vaacon1

Various factors (short clips) affecting supply by vaacon1:

The diagrams are quite hard to see on the whiteboard, but the explanations and examples are clear.

Supply shifts – Prices of Relevant Resources

Supply Shifts – Expectations of Future price

Supply Shifts – Number of Sellers

Supply Shifts – Technology

Supply shifts – Taxes and Subsidies

You will need to revise what taxes and subsidies are.

Supply shifts – Government Restrictions

2) Interactive Activities

Factors affecting supply (via http://www.mbs.edu)

Supply via http://yknot.terapad.com

Supply – sellers perspective via http://edunirvana.com

Graphing The Supply Curve via http://glencoe.com

The Law of Supply and Supply Curves via http://www.emcp.com

1) Videos

What is a demand curve? by

Note – I think part of his second to last sentence should state “… the basic relationship between quantity demanded and changes in price …”

Deriving a demand curve, given a demand schedule by FreeEconHelp

Demand curve video by jessicaweldon22

Note – at one point she claims the market is the whole planet’s population, but we can talk about more specific, smaller markets than that. E.g. the market for cars in Thailand.

The Demand Curve Part 1 by milespritchardecon1

The Demand Curve Part 2: Shifts In Demand by milespritchardecon1

Change in demand / change in quantity demand by vaacon1

Various factors (short clips) affecting demand by vaacon1:

The diagrams are quite hard to see on the whiteboard, but the explanations and examples are clear.

Demand shifts – prices of related goods

Demand shifts – expectations of future prices

Demand shifts – Income

Demand shifts – Number of buyers

Demand shifts – Preferences

As he adds, in text, part way in, he makes a mistake early on and mentions shifts in supply, when he is actually discussing shifts in demand.

2) Interactive Activities

A Demand Curve (imperial.ac.uk)

Factors affecting demand

Animated Economics – Demand Curves

John Wiley Economics – Shift Versus Movement Along The Demand Curve

Demand by yknot.terapad.com

Graphing The Demand Curve (glecnoe.com)

Increase / Decrease in Demand by BlackBoards.com

Shift in Demand (via http://dhrnewmedia.com)

• What to produce?
• How to produce?
• For whom to produce?

There are three economic systems, we will concentrate for now on the first three:

• Traditional Economy
• Market Economy
• Command or Planned Economy
• Mixed Economy (we will study this later)

Study one of the first three, collaborate with others in a group, and produce something (presentation / video / report) to explain it in as simple terms as possible. Be warned, many of the websites listed below are very complicated. So, as well as these, use your text books, own general research, your teacher if possible, and each other. Make sure you divide your work up fairly between the members of your group.

Here are some guiding questions:

• What is this type of economy?
• How does it answer the three fundamental economic questions? How does it work?
• Who uses a this type of economy? In what parts of the world are they found? Give examples.
• Advantages of a this type of economy?
• Disadvantages of this type of economy?

Traditional Economy

Click here to see some useful websites for researching about traditional economies.

Market Economy

Click here to see some useful websites for researching about market economies.

Power of the Market – Invisible Hand by LibertyPen

Command (or Planned) Economy

Click here to see some useful websites for researching about command (also known as ‘planned’) economies.

General

Click here to see some useful websites which refer to more than one of the economic systems, usually to compare them.

Economics :: Week 11, Part C by icarpcast

If you find any more good websites please email them to me … james@opengecko.com

inflation rates – how they are calculated

Secondly, ACDCLeadership takes a US slant:

This one by Mindbitesdotcom is good on the key differences between the GDP deflator and Consumer Price Index, and the way that different approaches to calculating an index can lead to different values (good for evaluation):