Archive for October, 2010
Price Elasticity of Demand
Oct 30th
Introductory Videos
Video: Price Elasticity of Demand – part 1 by pajholden
Video: Price Elasticity of Demand – part 1 by pajholden
Interactive Tutorials
Economics Interactive Tutorial by Samuel Baker (Univ of Carolina)
Elasticity — A Quantitative Approach by Samuel Baker (Univ of Carolina)
The Market System – Part 1 on biz/ed – contains section on PED towards end
Price elasticity of demand and basic application in Excel by Tushar Mehta
The following videos deal with the important concept of how price elasticity of demand relates to total revenue. They cover similar ground so you may not feel the need to watch all of them, but they do take different approaches in presentation.
Price Elasticity & Total Revenue by BrynJonesOnline
Total Revenue and Elasticity by ElmagicRonaldo
Elasticity and Revenue by jodiecongirl
Price Elasticity of Demand (PED) – own price elasticity by economicsfun
Good real life example on the determinants (factors affecting) Price Elasticity of Demand … ‘gasoline’ (or petrol):
In Summary
Price Elasticity: From Tires to Toothpicks (Econedlink)
Price Elasticity of Demand (tutor2u)
Price Elasticity of Demand
(Welker’s Wikinomics)
Finally, before moving on to Price Elasticity of Supply, this 15 minute video explaining an unusual ‘spike’ in gas prices in the US in 2002, is excellent and highly recommended for applying the theory to a real life example (the latter part gets a little bit tricky, but still recommended for IGCSE and IB students):
Output– Definitions of GDP
Oct 28th
These mjmfoodie videos are very useful for understanding the concepts of GDP, real GDP (as opposed to nominal/money GDP) and growth.
A Song about Elasticity
Oct 28th
Some people have a lot of time on their hands, but we should sometimes be grateful for that … this song summing up the different elasticities is worth a listen (you never know, it might even help you revise this particular topic …)
Cross Price Elasticity and Income Elasticity
Oct 25th
1) Cross Price Elasticity of Demand
A video from pajholden (click on the image below – this video can’t be embedded).
Image: 
Some rights reserved by avlxyz
2) Income Elasticity of Demand
A video from pajholden (click on the image below – this video can’t be embedded).
Image: Some rights reserved by AngelalalaChan
3) Both XED (Cross Price Elasticity of Demand) and YED (Income Elasticity of Demand)
Price Elasticity of Supply
Oct 25th
From flickr.com. Uploaded on April 2, 2007 by SideLong
Before starting to understand Price Elasticity of Supply, it is worth recapping Price Elasticity of Demand. Click on the following link:
www.business2000.ie provides an interactive quiz on PED
This site introduces the main concepts of Price Elasticity of Supply:
Slideshow from http://www.econ.ucsb.edu
This site gives a useful overview of PES:
This web page details price elasticity of supply, but is a little complicated:
http://dotlearn.com/topics/Economics/1040/content/
This web page provides information on how time effects PES:
This site gives a useful interactive demonstration of PES calculations:
http://www.college-cram.com/study/economics/presentations/619
This video from pajholden helps understand the concept further (note, this is suited to A Level / IB students):
Finally, if you think you’ve made yourself an expert in PES, you can test your understanding using the following quiz:
Antivirus Software
Oct 25th
Some rights reserved by Creativity103
Once you have your internet connection established on a computer with a fresh Windows installation, the first thing to download and get up and running is some Antivirus Software.
My current favourite is Microsoft Security Essentials.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
I prefer this package because it is free, lightweight and unobtrusive. It automatically updates without you having to think about it. Works a treat on Windows 7 for example.
Otherwise, I have also used Avast! antivirus over the last few years (note – don’t install more than one antivirus program – this can seriously slow down your system). Avast! is free, with automatic updates, but you have to renew your ‘subscription’ every year (relatively painless to do). Also a voice will remind you every time ‘virus database has been updated’ which might begin to annoy, but this reminder can be easily turned off.
EdTech, Web 2.0, E-Learning … an overview of some great online tools
Oct 13th
I’ve compiled a table which introduces educators to some really good online tools currently available. They have great potential for enhancing learning opportunities for students connected to the Internet. I plan to update this from time to time, especially with the useful links relevant to each tool.
http://opengecko.com/computers/great-e-learning-tools/
The Effects of Price Controls
Oct 5th
This section of the IB syllabus requires you to understand the following:
- Maximum price: causes and consequences
- Minimum price: causes and consequences
- Price support/buffer stock schemes
Before learning about these concepts, it is first worth being sure of the following concepts:
- Consumer Surplus
- Producer Surplus
The rest of this post gives you links to online resources to help you become an expert in these concepts. Make sure you consult your text book(s) too, to provide further understanding.
Consumer and Producer Surplus
http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/page/Consumer+and+Producer+Surplus
Maximum prices and Minimum prices : causes and consequences
http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/as-marketfailure-maximum-prices.html (although you may not understand all of this yet – the bits on elasticity for example)
http://tutor2u.net/economics/content/topics/marketsinaction/black_markets.htm
http://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/faculty/ltu/toni_ashton/supply-demand.swf [sections 7 and 8]
http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/page/Application%3A+Government-Set+Prices
Price support/buffer stock schemes
