Unit 3 & 4: Govt Regulation and falling oil price issues

Thank you to Elliot for this article on the Venezuelan food crisis. Plenty of food for thought (sorry for the pun).

Firstly, the government in Venezuela offers food at artificially low prices with the aim of helping the poor. However, one problem with maximum prices is that it creates excess demand. Long queues and food shortages are reminiscent of the old Soviet Union. In addition, it seems that some unscrupulous food smugglers are buying the cheap food to sell at a profit in Colombia.

On top of this issue is the fact that falling oil revenues and a depreciating currency mean it is proving expensive for Venezuela to import the food they are trying to sell so cheap!

Primary product dependency, Prebisch-Singer Hypothesis, government regulatory failure are all in this article.

Unit 3: Price discrimination and Tinder!

Thank you to Aara for finding this article on price discrimination. Tinder is extremely popular around the world and now they have decided to charge older users more for it's services.

Is this an example of price discrimination?
Are they taking advantage of consumer surplus?
Why is demand more inelastic for older people?

Unit 3: Samsung and competition strategies

Thanks to Riz for this article on Samsung's latest phone. Questions to discuss:

What market structure are Samsung in?
How are they competing?
Will this strategy work? (use game theory in your evaluation)
What pricing strategy are they likely to use & why?

Unit 4: Greek debt crisis.....

Unit 3: UK oil & gas industry in crisis. (Business strategy & game theory)

Thank you to Elliot for this article on the UK Oil & Gas industry. Useful for Unit 3 questions on 'why are they making a loss or fall in profits' type question and 'what strategies could they use to improve situation'.

Rising costs and fall in price due to increased supply elsewhere are just some of the reasons.

Strategies discussed include reducing investment, cutting costs etc

Can you apply game theory to these questions?

Unit 2 & 4: Real wages are on the rise!

Thank you to Huzaifa for this article on real wages in the UK. Real wages take into account inflation. If real wages are rising it should increase disposable income and lead to increases in aggregate demand.

Questions for discussion:

Assess the economic effects of an increase in the real wage be for the UK economy. (8 Marks)

Unit 2 & 4: Budget deficits and Surplus

Thank you once again to Riz (where are the rest of you?) for sending me this article on how the UK government has managed to turn a monthly deficit into a surplus. This is good news in terms of reducing the UK's overall national debt burden.

Questions to think about:

Is reducing the national debt a good thing?
What could be a downside to this?
How has the government managed to turn a deficit into a surplus.
What does this mean for future macroeconomic policy?