Individuals, Firms, Markets & Market Failure

Individuals, Firms, Markets & Market Failure

Elliott, C. (2021) ‘What is price discrimination?’, Economic Review, 38 (3), pp.16-17.
Price discrimination refers to the ability of a firm to charge different prices for identical products to different individual consumers of groups of consumers (for example consumers paying different prices for seemingly identical flight tickets, or students receiving a discount in a clothing shop).

Cannon, E. (2021) ‘What is a market?’, Economic Review, 38 (4), pp.18-20.
In this article, Professor Edmund Cannon discusses different types of markets and how institutions can help to improve their efficiency. This article supports your study of markets; competition; monopoly; demand; supply; and externalities. Look out for the practice questions in this article.

Guest, J. (2021) ‘The economics of secondary ticketing marketing’, Economic Review, 38 (3), pp.7-9.
Have you ever queued online to get tickets to a concert or match but missed out? In this event, many seek out other avenues to obtain tickets, Jon Guest investigates this secondary ticketing market. Look out for the practice questions in the article.

Horner, D. (2021) ‘Question and answer: market failure and government policy’, Economic Review, 38 (3), pp.10-14.
In this column, David Horner offers guidance on answering examination questions about how governments might address the market failure associated with the consumption of ‘sugar-heavy’ soft drinks.

Johnson, A. (2021) ‘The schools market: who goes where and why?’, Economic Review, 38 (3), pp.28-31.
Markets often exist even when there is not an obvious price, and other mechanisms can be used to determine how the market clears. In this article, Annika Johnson discusses the mechanisms that are used in the pseudo-market of education.

Stoddard, S. (2021) ‘Question and answer: the objectives of firms’, Economic Review, 38 (4), pp.12-15.
In this column, Steve Stoddard offers guidance on answering questions about the objectives of firms. This article links to your unit on Perfect Competition, Imperfectly Competitive Markets and Monopoly and supports your study of the objectives of firms.

Blair, D. (2021) ‘Fiscal policy: Covid-19 and the gender wage gap’, Economic Review, 38 (4), pp.32-33.
The Covid-19 pandemic and associated recession are likely to have profound effects on the UK economy. One such impact concerns the implications for gender equality and the gender wage gap. Debbie Blair of the Institute for Fiscal Studies investigates. This article supports links to your unit on The Labour Market and supports your study of discrimination in the labour market. Look out for the practice questions in this article.

Turner, P. (2020) ‘Economics in the real world: demand, supply and the market for potatoes’, Economic Review, 38 (2), pp.6-9.
How do the laws of demand and supply work as a framework for understanding market equilibrium? Using an agricultural example, Paul Turner of Loughborough University investigates.

Guest, J. (2020) ‘Behavioural economics: act now, or act later?’, Economic Review, 37 (3), p.34.
The costs and benefits of many real-world decisions happen in different time periods. Jon Guest explores what we mean when we talk about ‘present bias’.

Olczak, M. (2020) ‘The role of entry in the competitive process: a case study on Amazon’s investment in Deliveroo’, Economic Review, 38 (2), pp.2-5.
Competition authorities worldwide are concerned about the growing power of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple – the so-called ‘GAFA’ firms. In this article, Matt Olczak considers whether Amazon’s investment in Deliveroo would harm competition, and highlights the important role ‘entry’ can play in the competitive process.

Smith, P. (2020) ‘Quantitative skills: industrial concentration’, Economic Review, 38 (2), pp.13-15.
The Competition and Markets Authority has responsibility for protecting consumers against exploitation from actions taken by firms in a concentrated market, but how do we identify what is a concentrated market? Peter Smith discusses the issues.

Bourquin, P. (2020) ‘Visualising and measuring income’, Economic Review, 38 (1), pp.6-8.
Inequality is a multifaceted concept that cannot be covered in full in one column, so here Pascale Bourquin of the Institute for Fiscal Studies focuses on one particular dimension of inequality – inequality in incomes between individuals. Specifically, we will look at how one can visualise and construct common measures of income inequality.

Delestre, I. (2020) ‘Fiscal policy: income inequality and the rise of the 1%’, Economic Review, 38 (2), pp.32-33.
How has such a small group of people managed to earn such riches? This is among the most contentious questions of modern economics. Here, Isaac Delestre of the Institute for Fiscal Studies looks for answers.

Horner, D. (2020) ‘Question and answer: income inequality’, Economic Review, 37 (3), pp.30-33.
In the Quantitative Skills column on pp.23-25, Peter Smith explains how we can measure income inequality. In this column, David Horner provides guidance on tackling examination questions dealing with this topic.

Smith, P. (2020) ‘Quantitative skills: measuring income inequality’, Economic Review, 37 (3), pp.23-25.
In the Question and Answer column on pp. 30-33, David Horner discusses income inequality, and how to tackle exam questions dealing with this topic. How can we measure income inequality if we want to track how it changes over time, or how it differs between countries?

(2020) ‘An overview of externalities’, Economic Review, 38 (2), pp.16-17.
What are externalities? Types of externalities. Costs and benefits. Solutions.

Paul, H. (2020) ‘Investing in public health’, Economic Review, 38 (1), pp.9-11.
Governments are regularly making investments now for benefits in the future. In this article, Helen Paul looks at some historical examples of where this has applied to spending in public health.

Marcouse, I. (2019) AQA Economics: Target B-A*: Year 12 & 13: Microeconomics. A-Z Business Training Ltd. 330 MAR.

Elliott, C. (2017) ‘Perfect competition: can we find examples in online markets?’, Economic Review, 35 (1), pp.11-13.
Looks at the key features of the model and asks whether online markets can be thought of as real-word examples of perfectly competitive markets.

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