Economics & Management
| Day | 09.00 - 10.30 (BST) | 14.00 - 15.30 (BST) | 18.00 - 19.30 (BST) |
| Sunday 2 August 2020 | Welcome | ||
| Monday 3 August 2020 | Tutorial | Applying to & Studying at Oxbridge Q&A | |
| Tuesday 4 August 2020 | Tutorial | Sustainable Finance | |
| Wednesday 5 August 2020 | Tutorial | ||
| Thursday 6 August 2020 | Tutorial | ||
| Friday 7 August 2020 | Tutorial | Being a social entrepreneur | |
| Saturday 8 August 2020 | |||
| Sunday 9 August 2020 | |||
| Monday 10 August 2020 | Tutorial | ||
| Tuesday 11 August 2020 | Tutorial | ||
| Wednesday 12 August 2020 | Tutorial | ||
| Thursday 13 August 2020 | Tutorial | ||
| Friday 14 August 2020 | Tutorial |
Course Content:
This reading list complements the seminars in the 2-week Summer School. Items marked with (*) indicate the minimum required preparation; additional links are provided if you’d like to dig deeper into a topic.
WEEK 1
- Introductions & Economics 101
A chance to get to know your fellow students, understand what to expect over the 2 weeks in terms of subject specific work and refresh basic economic principles/concepts.
- 12 Things You Should Know About Economics (*)
- Durham Society for Economic Pluralism: Economic Schools of Thought (*)
- Ted Talk: An Economist Walks Into A Bar
- Video: The 10 Principles of Economics (only funny if you’ve had some basic econ!)
- Video: Fear the Boom & Bust – Keynes v Hayek
- Game Theory & Behavioural Economics
Introduction to core ideas and a chance to explore how game theory & behavioural economics can be applied to real life economic, social and business challenges. Microeconomics.
- Video: Behavioural Economics: A Very Short Introduction | Michelle Baddeley (*)
- Game Theory: Adam Hayes, 2019 (*)
- Atlantic: Using Game Theory to Break the Climate Gridlock. Parts 1 and 2 (*)
- Behavioural Insights Team: EAST Model (Executive Summary only *)
- Ted Talk: Nudge behavior for a more inclusive world | Tinna Nielsen | TEDxAarhus
- Game Theory: Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff
- Hwang, Sung-Ha and Bowles, Samuel, "Is altruism bad for cooperation?" (2008).
- A Game-Theoretic Model Of International Climate Change Negotiations (2011). Shi-Ling Hsu.
- FT: Behavioural economics and public policy (2014). Tim Harford
- Forbes: 5 Behavioral Economics Principles Marketers Can't Afford to Ignore (2018). Mukul Patki.
- Freakonomics Podcast: Jane Austen – Game Theorist.
- Video: Fun example of the Prisoner’s Dilemma in practice. Do you agree with Nick’s strategy?
- Infographic: Cognitive Bias Codex
- Long Run Growth
What impacts growth in the long run, away from the boom & bust cycle? Intro to simple Solow Model. Is growth the cure to all ills? Or what can be a new way to look at this? Macroeconomics.
- Gareth Dale, June 2019 – Economic Growth: A Short History (*)
- Economic Review, Berkley. Beyond GDP: Economics & Happiness. Oct 2018. (*)
- Video Debate: Intelligence Squared – Is the party over for economic growth?
- Equitable, Ecological Degrowth: Feminist Contributions. March 2010, Patricia E. (Ellie) Perkins
- Social Enterprise as a Business Model
Learn about a business model that combines purpose with profit. What are the strengths & weaknesses? What are the specific political & managerial challenges? Business & Management.
- Video: What’s a social enterprise? (*)
- Social Enterprise – What’s it all about? (*)
- Taub, June 2015 – Buying TOMS shoes is a terrible way to help poor people (*)
- Pioneers Post, Gallick, June 2020 - Ten days of transformation: The Big Issue’s big shakeup (*)
- B Corp Certification
- Ted Talk: Why social impact startups are set up to fail | Clara Brenner
- Markland, September 2017 – Reimagining ageing: how social enterprise can help us grow old well
- Statistics & Forecasting
Get to know why economists rely on statistics, forecasting and econometrics – and what can go wrong! Look at the application of tools & approaches (namely Bayesian Inference). Econometrics.
- RSA Interview: The Signal & the Noise, Nate Silver (*)
- Ted Talk: Economics in Real-Time | Jasper McMahon (*)
- Blog: Bayesian Statistics explained to Beginners in Simple English (*)
- Video: David Spiegelhalter | If You Can Calculate Risk, You Can Make Better Judgments
- Case study: The Art and Science of Forecasting in Healthcare Products
- HBR article: What research tells us about making accurate predictions
WEEK 2
- Addressing Poverty in the UK
What is poverty and the poverty premium? How can we best measure poverty? Is it a problem in the UK? How can policy makers begin to address it? Politics & Philosophy.
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2019/20 UK Poverty Report (*)
- Ted Talk: Basic Income & Other Ways to Fix Capitalism | Federico Pistono, Sep 2015 (*)
- A Simple Question: 'The Rise of Poverty in the UK', 2018.
- NPR (read/listen): Aizenman, August 2017- How to fix poverty? Why not just give money?
- Social Capital & Crime
Explore another type of capital beyond machines and education. Learn about why economists care about, and try to model, crime. Microeconomics.
- Summary of Social Capital, Summary by Reeder of Halpern 2005, Social Capital, Cambridge (*)
- Eide, Erling & Rubin, Paul & Shepherd, Joanna. (1978). Economics of Crime. Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics. 2. 10.1561/0700000014. (*)
- The Impact of Social Capital on Crime: Evidence from the Netherlands, 2008. Akcomak, Semih and ter Weel, Bas. IZA Discussion Paper No. 3603. (*)
- Podcast: Mike Lee on Measuring Social Capital & the Closeness of Communities
- Video: Social Capital Theory, Alex Lyon
- Crime, David Friedman. The Library of Economics & Liberty.
- McDoom, O. (2013). It’s Who You Know: Social Networks, Interpersonal Connections, and Participation in Collective Violence
- Paras, Pablo G., "The Power of Perceptions: How Social Capital is being impacted by Crime and Corruption in Mexico" (2013). Doctoral Dissertations. Paper 113.
- Buonanno, P., Montolio, D., Vanin, P. (2009). Does social capital reduce crime? Journal of Law and Economics 52(1), 145-170. Summary presentation.
- The Role of Banks & Investment
What is the purpose of banks? Why do bank runs happen, and can we expect one soon? What makes for good investments & what should banks now be investing in? Macroeconomics.
- The Role of Banks (*)
- Video: Banking Explained – Money & Credit (*)
- Video: Weaknesses of fractional reserve lending (*) NB: See here for a short summary of fractional reserve lending
- Investment Banking overview
- Rethinking Economics: Whither Central Banks?
- PINE Open Letter: Evidence suggests that Maastricht University’s teaching on how banks work is flawed – and why this matters a lot!
- Feminist Economics
What is feminist economics? How do we measure the gender pay gap? What is the impact of involving women in economic decision making? What does all this mean for policy makers? Politics & Philosophy.
- Women’s Budget Group: What is feminist economics? (*)
- Equals Podcast: The Sexist Economy - Meet Devaki Jain, A Mother of Feminist Economics (*)
- True Currency Podcast: Ep 1. If Women Counted, July 2020 (*)
- New Economic Thinking Video: America’s First Black Economist
- The Guardian: Feminist Economics – the obstacles US women face under capitalism
- Ted Talk: Can you afford to ignore the female economy? | Jacinta Carboon
- Exploring Economics: Feminist Economics
- Article: Feminist Economic Realities – Building the Worlds We Need. March 2020.
- Davos, 2013. Women in Economic Decision-making.
- Ted Talk: Equipping the female economy | Chinwe Egwim
- Learning Review
A chance for us to reflect as a group on the learning from the two weeks, discuss any outstanding questions and debates, and think about what next to help you continue expanding your economics knowledge.
homework
During the Summer School you will hand in & have marked work for 2 of the 5 questions below[1]. Please select whichever you are most interested in. The additional reading is optional. You can also present findings from your own research provided you cite your sources.
Homework Deadlines:
- 1pm, Wed 5th August – an essay plan (outline, draft bullet points). 1:1s held Fri 7th
- 1pm, Tue 11th August – a full essay. 1:1s held Thu 13th & Fri 14th
Microeconomics
For a (economic / social / political / business / personal) challenge of your choice
- EITHER: Explain how game theory can be applied, to what extent it is a good representation of the real-world challenge and what policy implications it has.
- OR: design an experiment testing the effectiveness of “nudges” to solve this issue. Discuss which cognitive biases these relate to, your hypothesis of how they would work and policy implications.
Macroeconomics
“To what extent is Fintech eroding the effectiveness and purpose of traditional banks?”
- Bank of England, Quarterly Bulletin: Embracing the promise of fintech
- Unleashing the potential of Fintech in banking. EY, 2017.
Business & Management
LatchAid wants to scale quickly. What business model, management & funding strategy would you advise?
Politics & Philosophy
‘We should introduce quotes for BAME economists to be in senior decision-making positions at all major economic institutions, like the Bank of England and the IMF.’
Statistics & Econometrics
‘It is ok for charities or advocacy groups to misuse statistics because it is hard to gather and analyse data ’
- James Gray, Sep 2011, Guardian - Charities must use statistics truthfully
- Pro Bono Economics lecture with Tim Harford – Good Causes & Bad Statistics
- Third Sector Trends Study Measuring Impact: easy to say, hard to do
- Gugerty & Karlan, 2018 – Ten Reasons Not to Measure Impact—and What to Do Instead
- Podcast: More or Less – Sexist Data Crisis (Download if you can’t register to listen online)
[1]Please discuss with me if there is a different topic you’d like to focus on; we may be able to agree an alternative question.