Posts tagged individual
Discuss how and why different income groups have different expenditure patterns (spending, saving and borrowing).
May 25th
Here is a past paper question related to this topic (in italics below). You should try to answer both parts for this syllabus objective.
4 It is stated that the richest households in a country spend under 15 % of their income on food while the poorest households spend over 30 %.
(a) Do these figures mean that the actual amount spent on food by the richest households is lower than that spent by the poorest households? Explain your answer. [4]
As a way into this question, discuss it with others in a group if possible, and the try to draw a picture to illustrate your answer without any words.
(b) Daniel recently finished training to be a dentist and started his first job. Samira works in a bank and is now in a senior position. Describe how the expenditure pattern of these two people might be different. [6] (May 2008)
To help with part b) try this activity …
Complete, as an individual or in a group, one of the columns on this spreadsheet. Use both research and common sense. Your answers are not supposed to be real because these are not real people, but they should be realistic.
Opengecko Expenditure Patterns and Socioeconomic Profiles Compared across 4 People
(This is a Google Spreadsheet – you should either download it as another file format or make a copy so that you can edit the spreadsheet online).
Do Women Earn Less than Men?
Mar 15th
This post takes the same title as that of the impressive 4 minute youtube clip by LearnLiberty.org. Helps with learning about why women – on average – tend to earn less than men, as part of the IGCSE Economics course.
Understanding why wages differ between jobs using supply and demand analysis
Mar 15th
Image: Some rights reserved by 401K
Three websites to help you understand how wages differ using supply and demand diagram analysis.
Why the distribution of income in the UK is unequal by economicshelp.org
Wage differentials between occupations by tutor2u.net
A bit more advanced:
Banks
Mar 15th
Might be useful for the IGCSE Economics course: an introduction to banking system, and an explanation of Central Banks (although this is quite high level stuff).
Stock Exchange
Feb 28th
In the IGCSE Syllabus for Economics we have the following:
describe the functions of central banks, stock exchanges, commercial banks;
This post addresses the second of those financial institutions listed, stock exchanges.
First, this entertaining video produced in 1952 for a US audience does a good job of explaining how a stock exchange works:
This video from the mid 1990s shows how the New York Stock Exchange had moved on from the 1950s – what do you think are the main differences?
Then, if you have time, see how interconnected the world’s stock exchange markets are today when crisis hit in 2008 as a major investment bank in Wall Street was suddenly taken off the world finance market as it filed for bankruptcy (find out what that phrase means). Two news clips introduce the events …
A major crisis like this had happened before. For the historian in you, this documentary clip summarises the 1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash …
Differences in Earnings between different Occupational Groups
Jan 26th
Here are some resources to help you with this aspect of the IGCSE Economics syllabus:
Source: Capital Gains Tax Rate & Income Inequality Chart
Via http://www.fastcodesign.com
Via http://www.parkcityindependent.com
Changes in Earnings Over Time For An Individual
Jan 21st
Tasks:
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?
Money – Its Characteristics and Functions
Jan 15th
Your task is to answer these questions:
- 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:
