H1 & H2: Costs of economic growth

China's unprecedented economic growth over the past 30 years has come at a huge cost to the environment. Read this BBC article for the costs of China's economic growth:

Can China be green by 2020?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7972125.stm

H2: Real useful YouTube videos on market structure diagrams!

Richard McKenzie (author of Microeconomics for MBAs) made several YouTube videos on market structures, especially explaining the important diagrams in your lecture notes. If you’re unsure of any diagram, do watch the appropriate YouTube video below. During term time, it’s best to watch the specific video you need as all the videos together take about 1 hour. Make sure you draw along with the video to practise.

Perfect competition Part 1 [9:33]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLK3emHpkdk

Perfect competition Part 2 [5:21]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlLbPNZDkDQ

Monopoly Part 1 [6:38]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBsyxvJrCO4

Monopoly Part 2 [4:52]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyQlOBKSSh8

Monopoly Part 3 (Comparing monopoly and perfect competition) [7:38]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqN3Ok6PhfM

1st degree price discrimination [7:34]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9TN3OuTjc

3rd degree price discrimination [7:57]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7cKAmkhgto

Monopolistic competition [4:36]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlpo4F6MdbM

To add to the fun, I've also made my own Scratch animation on how a monopolist maximises profit (MR=MC):

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/MrHueAtAJC/241703
[Click green flag to restart!]


Enjoy!

H1: National income accounting websites

Economic Survey of Singapore 2007
http://app.mti.gov.sg/data/article/12381/doc/ESS_2007Ann_Full_Report.pdf

Human Development Index
http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/

Big Mac Index
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793125

Happy exploring!

H1: Roman Empire's GDP?

Angus Maddison is like the Sherlock Holmes for compiling world economies statistics on long time horizons, since the year 1AD. He explains how you can work out the GDP of the Roman Empire (going back to the average of gold & wheat units) as well as GDP of China (technologically more advanced in 1000AD, but fell behind after Europe's scientific revolution in the 1500s).
Listen to his interview with BBC here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7516000/7516994.stm

H2: Oligopoly: Indonesia to leave OPEC

In H2, towards the end of term 3 we'll begin our study of oligopoly - a market structure characterised by a few large firms (with a high concentration ratio), high barriers to entry, and a large degree of mutual interdependence.
One type of oligopoly is the cartel - for example, the OPEC cartel for petroleum. This video from BBC explains why Indonesia is leaving the OPEC cartel:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7424903.stm

H2: Economies of scale & the 6,014-seat world's largest restaurant!

See a video from BBC on the scale & decor of this restaurant in Syria!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7435424.stm

A large firm like this restaurant tends to enjoy internal economies of scale (i.e. the lowering of long run average costs as output increases). Its kitchen is like a production line where one chef can prepare 25-30 helpings of popular dishes in one minute - that's one bowl every two seconds!

What other internal economies of scale might this restaurant enjoy? What about internal diseconomies of scale? Find out answers to these questions as we soon study Production & Costs!

Elasticity Song (link)

Our H1 students in JC1 have just completed the elasticity topic, while our H2 students are just starting elasticity. So do check out the elasticity song to recap some elasticity determinants!
http://jceconomist.blogspot.com/2007/05/elasticity-song.html