EconM2015 September 2013

This article focusses on Stephen Hawking's view of the NHS. He believes it should not be privatised as health care is crucial for the public. He talks about his own experiences and how he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and without the NHS he wouldn't be alive today.

This article talks of the results that happened in Cuba when they abolished all private property rights and turned to communism. This eventually led to the collapse of the Cuban economy. The article mentions, "On the eve of the Cuban Revolution about 80 percent of Cuba's arable land was under cultivation (or used for grazing) and domestic production supplied 70 percent of the country's food consumption." Over grazing of the fields led to similar tragedy of the commons.

This article discusses how people have learned how to use the environment and take advantage of it and at the same time destroy it.

This article in "The Economist" discusses differing arguments that support the idea that different radio frequencies should either need to be reserved, and thus be a form of private goods, or be common access resources that could be used by everyone. A specific example that is discussed is the American Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which manages the private reservation of radio frequencies. Overall, I found this interesting as it discusses a new common resource that has arisen due to a development in technology.

A very interesting article talking about how society is (mainly) polluting the air without paying the cost other than their car & fuels.

This article talks about the negative externality of smoking. It tells that when adults smoke the bad side effects affect small innocent children.

This article talks about how the number of children submitted to hospital with asthma has decreased by 12% after smoking bans were put in place. This shows that the externality created by smoking is negative, it does not only affect the individual but the society as well therefore the social costs are greater than the private benefits. It shows how government intervention helps reduce the negative externalities.

In introducing the smoking free regulation, the british government has successfully reduced the number of admissions with children suffering from asthma attacks by 12%. In addition to showing that this government intervention has successfully reduced the negative externality caused by smoking cigarettes, this form of intervention has increased social awareness and also the willingness of many individuals to prefer "smoking free homes". The Article thus demonstrates that there has not only been a change in legislation, but also a change in the attitudes of the population, which will also have an effect on demand.

An 8-year old Chinese girl is now a cancer patient due to pollution. Through heavy industry and a large amount of transport by rail, car, and plane, pollution has reached levels at which it poses a health risk to the population.

This article looks at the damage of industrial wind turbines to "society"

This article discusses China's developing economy, the major consequences of this growth, and regulations that have been presented to mitigate some of the damage. Their developing economy causes an increasing output of energy required to sustain it, and as consequence, an increase in harmful emissions (a negative externality).

The Article talks about the negative externalities of unsustainable food production and suggests that the actual costs to society should be expressed in the price of those products that appear cheap but have been produced by methods which are negative for the environment. It thus describes these negative externalities as "subsidies payed by society".

Air Pollution is an example of negative externality as it causes damage to crops for example.

This article takes about the negative externity of carbon.

This article talks about a future project called the Intrinsic Value Exchange (IVE). It's designed to use our natural assets to help the economy. Its a system that values our economic services rather than penalizing companies that ruin them. It takes on the opposite approach on the problems happening with negative externalities. Watch the video for more interesting info on this topic.

This article outlines the international negative externality of greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases harm the environment on a global scale, yet firms can overlook this, as the effects of the externality do not have a very direct effect on the society, or the world as a whole, and the cost of reducing emissions in the future does not have be paid for yet, and thus they reap private benefits. At some point however, the global society will have to come up for these unaccounted costs.

While many assume that a price ceiling on gas would benefit the population, this article takes an opposing view. A price ceiling on gas would cause a shortage, due to the increase in demand of gas at the lower prices, and would cause longer wait times at gas stations. Moreover, it would lead to waste on a larger scale, because the gas is now less valuable.

This article is about China fighting inflation in May 2011. It describes the food prices in China were up 10.3% in January versus a year earlier and the price of gas also rises. The article also outlines the plan of China government to keep down the price of goods--price control. Check it out!

This article talks about how teams price their tickets in the inelastic portion of their demand functions. To ensure maximum attendance and revenue, they lower the ticket price in order for more people to buy.

An article about the elasticity on the Super Bowl Ticket prices. Increases from $1,250USD -> $2,600USD and $950USD -> $1,500USD. It shows that teams want to charge more per seat instead of filling up all the seats; they prefer a high elasticity

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Giants' co-owners Steve Tisch and John Mara, Jets owner Woody Johnson, David Tyree, former Jets player Emerson Boozer, former Jets player Curtis Maritn, CEO of the NY/NJ Superbowl Host Committee Al Kelly attend the 'Join The Huddle' Road To Super Bowl XLVIII Kick Off Mobile Tour [...]