COURSEWORK Note 2

Check your emails and follow this blog regularly!

By now almost all students will have received the guidelines relating to the Economics 1 Coursework.

The main guidance consists of the following:

• Introduction to the Coursework
• A case study entitled, ‘Market for Oil’
• Outcomes for Coursework
• Guidelines for submitting the Individual Coursework Essay

All of the above guidelines and documents have been sent to you. If someone in your group has not received the above, the most likely reason is that their email address was wrong or I may have made a mistake when copying it.

Any student who has not received the guidelines should contact me during week starting 18^th April without fail!

Further guidance may be provided on this site or by email.

Keep checking your email and this blog regularly.

COURSEWORK Note 1

EXTERNALITIES

Your coursework is based on the important subject of externalities. It is important to understand why we study externalities in economics.

The coursework on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will provide many interesting opportunities for you to carry out original research  and to present your group’s findings and
your individual essay as creatively as possible.

Always refer to newspapers when the topic for the coursework is also of interest to the public. Information is also provided by online versions of many newspapers.

Here are a few  interesting sources:

PBS is a local news source in the US:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june11/oilspill_04-15.html

TIME MAGAZINE says:

Has the damage from BP oil disaster been exaggerated?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2007202,00.html

THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER  says that the full extent of the damage may
never be known but the US may have been lucky. Have a look at the following:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/16/bp-oil-spill-environmental-analysis

These are just a few of the references that you may find helpful.

Please make sure that you have received all the GUIDELINES relating to the coursework.

You are required to explore at least ten further references!

Welcome to new students in April 2011

Welcome to new students in 2011!

The previous posts highlights the number of students who have accessed the blog last term.

From April to June this year, the use of this site is expected to increase as new students from two campuses will be referred to it.

Please remember the following rules:

Always remember that this service is provided free of charge to you.

Please do not use the material in any essay or coursework without providing suitable references. I take great care in ensuring
that I do not breach the copyright of other  writers and sources. You should do the same.

Many of the references I provide here may consist of links to other sites. If you copy those sites you will be open to charges of plagiarism! Your work may attract very low or even zero marks.

I welcome suggestions for improvement. Please also suggest references to other materials and sources which you think will benefit other students.

Best wishes

Enjoy your study of Microeconomics this term!

Kalwant Ajimal

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2010. That’s about 3 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 8 new posts, not bad for the first year! There was 1 picture uploaded, taking a total of 189kb.

The busiest day of the year was October 7th with 127 views. The most popular post that day was 4 Production Possibility Boundary.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were mail.live.com, mail.yahoo.com, win.mail.ru, mail.naver.com, and mail.sohu.com.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

4 Production Possibility Boundary September 2010

2

Opportunity costs in the city October 2010

3

IMPORTANT NOTE September 2010

4

EXERCISE 2: Positive and Normative Statements September 2010

5

Exercise 1 September 2010

6. Government announces changes to Royal Mail

Government to privatise Royal Mail

Royal Mail is an important example in the study of MONOPOLY. Some of the outline issues have been discussed in the class but much more information will be provided.

However, Royal Mail will be news again as Government has decided to sell its shares in the organisation to the public. Royal Mail is to be ‘privatised’. Do you understand what privatisation means?

Here is an important link for you to follow:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11526179

The privatisation of Royal Mail, a monopoly, is an essential topic for this term. Some of the general points have been discussed in the class. Further study and discussion is to follow. In the meantime you should regularly follow the news on this subject by going to www.bbc.co.uk/business

5 Perfect Competition

Perfect Competition- Essential Reading

During an introductory study of this topic in the class I have so far mentioned five conditions or assumptions for perfect competition to exist.  You should also read the assumptions stated by Anderton in Chapter 44 on page 305.

We also decided in the class that perfect competition is unlikely to exist as all the conditions cannot normally be met.

A new document on this topic has been added for your benefit. Please see the list of topics on the right, or go to the red bar above. This is essential reading.

The other material in the textbook after page 305 will be covered in the next few days. Please do not panic when you see those pages! The subject is very interesting and great fun when you begin to understand it.

Key Vocabulary No 2

Production Possibility Frontier: Key Vocabulary

I have mentioned in the class that Economics has its own language and its own vocabulary.

The following words are important for this topic:

1. Is there any difference between the Production Possibility Frontier and the Production Possibility Boundary?
2. The PPF diagram shows that the curve is bowed outwards
3. The PPF shows the tradeoffs between goods at any particular time
4. The general meaning of efficiency
5. What is Productive Efficiency?
6. What is Allocative Efficiency?
7. What do the shifts in the PPF mean? What may be happening if the PPF shifts outwards? What may be happening when the PPF shifts inwards?
8. Can you explain an Economic Model?  How does a model work?

Can you think of examples to explain all of the above topics?

You can add the above key vocabulary to your own list or use the list shown as Subject Category shown in the left hand column.

Key Vocabulary No 1

Key Vocabulary No 1

These are key words from Week1

• Scarcity
• Choice
• Opportunity Cost
• The Economic Problem
• Alternative foregone or something given up to get something else.
• Tradeoffs
• Positive Statements
• Normative Statements
• Allocation of Resources
• Command Economies or centrally planned economies
• Mixed Economies
• Free Market Economies

Now you can make your own list or use the Subject Category known as: Key Vocabulary ( shown in the left column) to improve your understanding and to revise for tests and examinations

4 Production Possibility Boundary

PRODUCTION POSSIBILITY BOUNDARY

Also known as Production Possibility Frontier

This is an important section of the course. You should read the chapter in the textbook and also look at comprehensive notes under the TOPICS section.

Go the Topics section and click the title Production Possibility Boundary

This will take you the topic.

There you will see the title of the topic written in blue in the same way as this: PRODUCTION POSSIBILITY BOUNDARY

Click a similar link in the topic page and you will see a fully comprehensive set of notes.

A handout will also be provided in the class.

3 Problems of Resource Allocation: SCARCITY AND CHOICE

The Problem of Resource Allocation in Economics

The above title reflects one of the most important areas of study of Economics.

In addition to the discussion in the class, you are required to read the textbook and these additional notes to be answer these questions:

• What is Economics?
• Can you explain what is economists mean by the term ‘the basic economic problem’?
• What are the problems of allocation?
• What is scarcity?
• Why are choices necessary?
• What is a trade-off?
• What is Opportunity Cost?

Economic Systems

The above issues are important in any type of ‘economic system’. What do you understand by this term?

Can you name and describe some of the main economic systems and show how scarcity and choice and resource allocation may work in each system?

Essential Reading: Notes on Scarcity and Choice

One of the most important sections of this course is covered by the note which describes scarcity and choice. Please see the list of notes on the right and select ‘scarcity and choice’ for further reading.

Key task:  Exercise 1 to be completed in class.