Archive for August, 2010
The Economic Health Of A Country
Aug 26th
[License: Some rights reserved by juhansonin]
As we begin to explore macroeconomics, it is worth thinking about some of the key things that we will be looking at and how they apply to a real life country.
Economists agree that there are four main macroeconomic goals which most governments consider when managing their economy (and some governments, as we know, manage their economies more directly than others). The four macroeconomic goals are:
1) Growth (an increase in the country’s total output)
2) Low Unemployment (or put another way, high employment)
3) Stable General Price Level (while it is accepted that a small amount inflation is manageable, both high inflation and deflation are seen to be undesirable).
4) A Healthy Balance of Payments (for example, importing more goods and services than those that a country exports can be seen to be undesirable in the long run).
Sometimes, a fifth macroeconomic goal is added, although we should recognise that it clearly appears to be of variable importance to the different governments of the world:
5) Equity (an even distribution of wealth within the country)
There are other macroeconomic goals that are sometimes considered which you may come across in your research.
A good research task is to consider these macroeconomic goals for a country and gather data on a number of economic indicators for your country. Examples of such indicators include:
- GDP and / or GNP
- GDP per capita / and or GNP per capita
- Rates of Inflation
- Interest Rates
- Unemployment Levels
- Balance of Trade (Imports versus Exports)
- Distribution of Wealth
You could choose a country that has signed up to the OECD. What does that stand for, and why would a country want to belong to this organisation?
Look at the economic health for your chosen country over the past ten years. Gather text, images and even video links to support your findings. If you can, try to see why they changes but don’t worry about this too much – this can be complicated and we haven’t even studied the theory yet.
A great way to present your findings would be to produce a ‘glog’ or online poster. You can host your glogs at http://www.glogster.com/ and teachers can even set up accounts for their class here: http://edu.glogster.com/
Make your glog as informative as possible. Try to mix up text, images, graphs and tables and possible short video clips (from youtube for example). Remember to give a title and explain your chosen country’s membership of the OECD.
Twitter Updates for 2010-08-25
Aug 25th
- > @worldmapper: BBC trying to bring disasters into everyone's perspective with a disaster map mashup: http://howbigreally.com/ #
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Twitter Updates for 2010-08-24
Aug 24th
- Managed to install Windows 7 on my 5 year old Sony VAIO and it now works like a dream after some graphics card struggles #Computers #
- Watched the TED Talk by Blaise Aguera y Arcas on Augmented Reality for the first time earlier- amazing stuff http://bit.ly/bsN3YI #Geography #
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Introduction to Economics Part 2 – Production Possibility Frontiers (or PPFs)
Aug 23rd
[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiAbb1_1.JPG]
These can sometimes be referred to as Production Possibility Curves (PPCs), to reflect their shape. Frontier is a better word to use … you will need to think about what it is that the term frontier implies.
This session assumes you have a basic knowledge of PPFs already and points you to resources to help strengthen your understanding of this important concept.
This link is very good for explaining
a) the reason that the PPF is a curve and not a straight line
b) how opportunity cost increases as an economy tends to specialise in one of the two goods
http://tutor2u.net/economics/content/topics/introduction/ppfs.htm
If you feel that you need to understand these concepts even further, read the following link. Note that this introduces the idea of an outward shift of the PPF. You can ignore section C which we look at later in the course (especially Higher Level candidates)
http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics2.asp
The concept of increasing opportunity cost is shown very visually here:
http://itc.boisestate.edu/mediashowcase/media/prodpossfron_audio.swf
… and this animation also emphasises outwards shift – two scenarios are given – what is the difference between them?
http://webcom2.grtxle.com/Source/uploads/Economics1.swf
You should now be in a position to work through the questions associated with the interactive PPF on the website below:
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/007334365x/student_view0/chapter2/interactive_graph_2.html
Finally, it could be worth recapping these concepts by visiting the video links below:
1) pajholden explains the PPF on youtube:
Production Possibility Frontiers by Paul Holden
2) Another human explanation:
See it in full: http://blip.tv/play/AceTJY6iSw
Finally – what assumptions does the PPF make? Try and list as many as possible and then consider how realistic these assumptions are – given reasons or examples as to why they may be unrealistic.
Introduction to Economics Part 1
Aug 23rd
In this section we consider the following concepts as outlined in the IB Economics Syllabus [© International Baccalaureate Organization, 2003] :
Scarcity
• factors of production: land, labour, capital and management/entrepreneurship
• payments to factors of production: rent, wages, interest, profit (we cover this later on in the course)
Choice
• utility: basic definition
• opportunity cost
• free and economic goods’
What do we mean by scarcity? First we need to know what we mean by needs and wants. These are easy concepts to understand …
Need more on this? …
Having watched the clips, make sure you can define needs and wants. It is always good to have examples as well as definitions.
Now we move on …
This excellent YouTube clip gives us an animated explanation of the concept of scarcity, while referring to Labo[u]r, Raw Materials and Capital. We need to be able to define these three things. Note that Raw Materials is often referred to as Land within Economics.
It is important to be able to give definitions for these three resources (or ‘factors of production’) – land, labour and capital. You should also be able to define a fourth – entrepreneurship (commonly referred to as enterprise’). Use this next YouTube clip to check your understanding of these:
This next YouTube clip develops the concept of scarcity and concentrates on how scarcity means that choices have to be made – this is essentially what economics is all about. (Note – it introduces some ideas that we will return to in more detail in a later section). Watch it and use it to define and give examples of the main concepts which are referred to as such as wants, economic goods, free goods.
The summary below helps us understand the above ideas, and leads us onto the concept of Opportunity Cost.
[Taken from http://www.businessstudiesonline.co.uk]
So what is Opportunity Cost?
Opportunity Cost – "the value of the next best alternative forgone as the result of making a decision" [see wikipedia for fuller information]
So what do we mean by ‘next best’? This YouTube clip exemplifies:
This light-hearted YouTube clip demonstrates that it need not be about money, but that cost in this sense can be measured in time:
This YouTube video underlines the concept even further, and considers among other things, the opportunity cost of surfing the web.
It is clear that we have to be able to value the things that we choose to do/make/consume and the things we choose to forego. The money value of an opportunity cost can actually get very complicated. Try this activity:
You can see from this interactive image below that we have explored two of the basic economic principles in this section:
The 6 Core Economic Principles
(thanks to http://www.kidseconposters.com)
By the end of this section you should be able to define and illustrate with examples the following key phrases:
Introduction to Economics Part 3 – Utility and Rational Versus Irrational Behaviour
Aug 23rd
Money can help us place a value on things, but the underlying value of things can be explained by the concept of utility. This podcast explains:
We are now beginning to consider some of the fundamental assumptions which are central to the ‘science’ of Economics. We should already understand that utility is a key idea, yet also a very vague term when one we consider how subjective this idea is.
Another key assumption of mainstream Economics is that people behave in a rational way. Remember the 6 Principles:
The 6 Core Economic Principles
(thanks to http://www.kidseconposters.com)
Look at principle 3. This assumes rational responses to a given situation.
Yet is this always the case?
The excellent TED Talks website has a number of interesting presentations that argue that we as humans do not always behave rationally. These arguments come from various connected disciplines (or subjects) such as behavioural economics and pyschology. It is worth knowing these more recent theories which seem to contradict the long standing assumption that we behave rationally. Note, if you study Theory of Knowledge, these arguments are really useful for when you study Reason as a Way of Knowing but also the Human Sciences as an area of Knowledge.
Suggested learning activity, if you are studying as part of a group. Divide yourselves up so that you take one of the following videos each (or as pairs, threes, whatever). Watch your chosen video and prepare a short summary (max 300 words) of the messages which are relevant to your studies of Economics, and be prepared to share your summary with the others in your group.
Note – the title above each video embedded below gives a direct link to the video. From the direct link you could download each video to your iPod / iPhone, for example.
Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?
Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory
Dan Ariely on our buggy moral code
Laurie Santos: A monkey economy as irrational as ours
Dan Gilbert on our mistaken expectations
Twitter Updates for 2010-08-20
Aug 20th
- IB #economics resources up and running again from the top with Intro To Eco. Blog posts will be filed here http://ibeconomics.opengecko.com/ #
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Taxation
Aug 19th
The syllabus requires that you able to do the following:
describe the types of taxation (direct, indirect, progressive, regressive, proportional) and the impact of taxation;
Direct versus Indirect
Compare these two definitions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_tax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indirect_tax
Can you explain the difference between direct and indirect tax with example taxes?
Progressive, Regressive, and Proportional Tax
ONE Massachusetts demonstrates the different types of taxes:
The arguments surrounding and Impacts of these types of taxes (Progressive, Regressive, and Proportional)
An argument in favour of Progressive Taxes by David Cay Johnston:
An argument against progressive taxes by Mike Huckabee:
Specific Examples of Taxation
This mjmfoodie video includes specific examples of US taxes, then a section on how taxes relates to the government’s budget (which is worth understanding in general terms) and finally a section reviewing the general types of taxes.
A good overview of different taxes (some of which is a little complex):
http://lhepburn.com/team/work/media/Economics/notes/ch14/ch14.swf
Another complex web page (at times) which is aimed at education higher than IGCSE but includes some very useful info on this topic:
http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2-macro-direct-indirect-taxation.html
Testing Your Understanding
A ‘tic tac toe’ game which puts some of the above to the test but you may also need to use your common sense and a bit of guesswork. Play as two people.
Use this interactive activity to classify different examples of taxes (US based):
Another interactive quiz:
Grade or No Grade – Taxes – by Dinesh Bakshi
Although aimed for A Level (higher qualification than IGCSE) this is an excellent summary of the main points regarding tax:
Taxation by busniesstudiesonline
A discussion on different taxes – this is quite a complex discussion at times – how much of it do you understand having studied the above?
