Unit 1: Why there are more hairdressers these days!

Although this almost sounds like a set-up line from the excellent Twitter feed @corbynjokes, it isn't. It results from an excellent piece of research by Deloitte's Ian Stewart, Debapratim De and Alex Cole, "Technology and people: The great job-creating machine" which was nominated for the Society of Business Economists 2014‑15 Rybczynski Prize.

The report looks at the implications of the adoption of technology on employment levels, and far from supporting the Luddite position that labour and capital are substitutes, it discovers that technology has been job creating. Even better, technology has replaced labour in occupations that are monotonous, dangerous or both and in their stead, jobs have been created in the service sector.

The findings of the report are covered in today's Guardian and it provides plenty of talking points: a change in the balance between 'muscle-power' workers and those in caring professions, sharp rises in the number of bar staff and, regrettably, the number of accountants, and a dramatic rise in the number of hairdressers and barbers.

In 1871, there was one hairdresser or barber for every 1,793 citizens of England and Wales; today there is one for every 287 people.

Unit 3: Royal Mail Privatisation - A must read!

This is a revision presentation on aspects of the privatisation of the Royal Mail - an important milestone in the history of privatisation in the UK economy.

Revision on Royal Mail Privatisation from Geoff Riley

Unit 3: Monopolistic Competition - Revision Presentation

Monopolistic competition is a form of imperfect competition. It can be found in many real world markets ranging from clusters of sandwich bars, other fast food shops and coffee stores in a busy town centre to pizza delivery businesses in a city or hairdressers in a local area. 

Monopolistic competition is similar to perfect competition, some economist regard it as more realistic, because the products are differentiated.

Monopolistic Competition from tutor2u

Unit 4: Foreign Aid - Who do we give money to?

Thank you to Graham for this interesting article on who are the biggest recipients of foreign aid. Only read if you want some context for a Unit 4 question. This wont answer an essay for you.

Unit 4: Globalisation Model answer

A useful model answer from a previous Unit 4 past paper.

Evaluating Benefits and Costs of Globalisation from tutor2u

Unit 4: International Competitiveness

This is a revision presentation on international competitiveness which we define as the ability of a business or a country to compete effectively in international markets.

Economics of International Competitiveness from tutor2u

Unit 3: Contestable Markets - Revision material

This is a revision presentation on aspects of contestable markets. A contestable market is one that is open to actual & potential competition. A market is contestable where an entrant has access to all production techniques available to existing businesses and when entry decisions can be reversed without cost i.e. there are no sunk costs.

Contestable Markets from tutor2u