Jun 1Around half of adults are buying less food:Around half of adults are buying less food: Price Elasticity of Demand and Current Inflation This is a shocking headline! We are well aware that many of our favourite brands have been costing more recently. We wrote here about whether current food price inflation is partly attributable to supermarket “greed”…Inflation6 min readInflation6 min read
May 7A New Future for DiamondsA New Future for Diamonds. Diamonds are extremely hard pieces of carbon generated over millions of years. Their scarcity and brilliance and hardness have made them a coveted jewel for thousands of years. But a competitor has emerged: diamonds created in a laboratory. As a result, for the first time in history there are two…Microeconomics4 min readMicroeconomics4 min read
Apr 5Food Price Inflation — and the Power of Supermarket Oligopolies.Food Price Inflation — and the Power of Supermarket Oligopolies. If you buy food — and most of us do — you cannot help but notice the significant rise in prices. We know inflation is running high, but food price inflation is higher still at an extraordinary 18%. …Economics7 min readEconomics7 min read
Mar 5What do Firms want to achieve? The sobering story of the overly successful Pret a MangerWhat do Firms want to achieve? The sobering story of the overly successful Pret a Manger In much of microeconomics we assume economic actors are seeking to maximise something. A consumer is assumed to be seeking to maximise their utility from consumption; a worker their net benefits from different occupations…Coffee5 min readCoffee5 min read
Dec 12, 2022The Market for Luxury Watches & Price Elasticity of DemandThe Market for Luxury Watches & Price Elasticity of Demand Digital technology continues to transform so many areas of life and one of these is time itself. In the past, to know the time, we consulted wrist or pocket watches, with hand mechanisms driven by mechanical moving parts. For most…Microeconomics4 min readMicroeconomics4 min read
Nov 29, 2022On the Perils of 99p PricingOn the Perils of 99p Pricing This Saturday’s Wall Street Journal has an excellent article by Josh Zumbrun on the pitfalls for the unwary shopper of a price ending in 99p. We are all familiar with prices that end in 99 — goods aren’t £5, they are £4.99; TVs aren’t…Behavioral Economics4 min readBehavioral Economics4 min read
Nov 13, 2022Game Theory, Oligopoly, and Christmas AdvertisingGame Theory, Oligopoly, and Christmas Advertising One of the surest signs that Christmas is approaching is that from November each year our screens are awash with expensive adverts by the major retailers — Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Asda and of course John Lewis. Why do these retailers advertise so much…Game Theory4 min readGame Theory4 min read
Nov 3, 2022Twitter Blue? Economists have a name for that.Twitter Blue? Economists have a name for that. You will have no doubt seen that Elon Musk (the world’s richest man) has bought Twitter for the sum of $44bn (about £40bn). One of his first moves was to fire most of his Board — thus getting rid of the principal…Consumer Surplus5 min readConsumer Surplus5 min read
Jul 21, 2022What is causing inflation?What is causing inflation? If you ask Google/Twitter/Any Newspaper … the answer appears to be “Ukraine”. This seems disingenuous: how can one conflict in Ukraine cause the highest rate of inflation since 1982? Economists understand inflation to be caused by one of two things: 1. Demand side factors. 2. …Inflation7 min readInflation7 min read
May 23, 2022The term windfall tax has been in the economic news almost as much as the word inflation in recent…The term windfall tax has been in the economic news almost as much as the word inflation in recent weeks. So what does it mean and does a windfall tax make economic sense? A windfall is an unexpected gain received by a firm or individual due to changes in external…Microeconomics6 min readMicroeconomics6 min read
