By Pete Dawson The FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's football (soccer) championship is upon us again but not at the time of year we are typically used to. This is the first championship to take place outside of the traditional months of May, June, and July (when most domestic leagues, certainly those in … Continue reading It’s not coming home (for now)!
Sunakianism or Trussonomics: The Logic of Drug Legalisation?
By Duncan Watson Introduction Britain, on tenterhooks, waits. The reign of Boris Johnson is over; who will be its next Prime Minister? In a distinctively British attempt at impersonating 'democracy', a mere 180,000 Conservative members will get to decide between two candidates. We will see either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss promoted from Johnson's Government. … Continue reading Sunakianism or Trussonomics: The Logic of Drug Legalisation?
Its Economics 101! The case for increasing military spending.
By Duncan Watson 1. Introduction It's been 6 months since Putin commenced Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, or 'war' for those appreciative of more accurate vocabulary. Like all wars, innocent victims of death and destruction continue to ratchet up. Seeing such conflict misery has sharpened outlook and schooled political demand. The Daily Express, apparently … Continue reading Its Economics 101! The case for increasing military spending.
ECO Students Define Economics
By Duncan Watson 9 am, 1991; Keynes Lecture Theatre. The Scottish lecturer, still smarting at the result of the English Rugby Grand Slam, asks: 'What is economics?'. Well trained, our hands shot up: ‘The study of scarcity; understanding money; consumer and producer theory’. Fast forward to 1997. Panic stricken as I give my first ever … Continue reading ECO Students Define Economics
Authoritarian Drift
By Duncan Watson Introduction I’m a “child of Margaret Thatcher”. Schooled in the 1980s, I was fed the ‘limited government’ supply-side narrative: Free market good; coercive state bad. As I sought economic knowledge, the scholarly foundations for this morality tale were revealed. We can thank the great Economist Friedrich von Hayek for the construction of this … Continue reading Authoritarian Drift
A-level Economics: Demand and Supply Views
By Deren Karausta (BSc Economics) and Dr Emiliya Lazarova The end of August every year is the time when many 18-year-old young adults in England finalize their decisions on whether to go to university, and, if so, what to study there. That choice, one would expect, is largely determined by the A-levels they had sat … Continue reading A-level Economics: Demand and Supply Views
Are you a Luddite?
By Duncan Watson The narrative of technical progress is the closest that the Orthodox Economist gets to relaxing in a Sensory Deprivation Tank. Finding a more unsophisticated world characterised by a simple production function, the theoretical certainty oozes away all notions of real-world stress. There are two key elements in this meditation. First, the isoquant … Continue reading Are you a Luddite?
Why we should speak about social housing during the election campaign for a Mayor of London?
By Jahanvi Hasmukhal (BSc Economics) and Emiliya Lazarova Adequate food and shelter are two basic necessities for a child's development. Since Marcus Rushford started his campaign for free school meals, the issue of access to food has gained a lot of public attention across the UK. Thanks to this campaign, we now all understand that … Continue reading Why we should speak about social housing during the election campaign for a Mayor of London?
Negative Selection – Part 2
By David Hugh-Jones This is the second post about my new paper with Abdel Abdellaoui on natural selection in modern humans. The first post described what we saw in our data: There is natural selection on several polygenic scores: that is, these scores correlate with realized fertility (the number of children born to somebody).Correlations with fertility … Continue reading Negative Selection – Part 2