This site is intended to help you to gain access to some materials that you may find useful in learning on modules that deal with the effects of the economic environment on businesses. If you have any suggestions for improving the site feel free to drop me a message at j.ramsay@staffs.ac.uk.
Assessment material Competition and Market Structure Economic systems Financial markets and data General economic theory and data International Trade Market Failure Supply and demand analysis
Your help and understanding is needed please. Some of the links on this page take you to sites in a variety of locations around the world. I have no control over them. The average life span of sites on the Web is 45 days. I have several sites to maintain, and although I would quite like to become a full-time web-nerd, nothing in life is perfect. There are not enough hours in the day for me to run around checking every international link on every web-site every morning. Consequently, it is quite possible that some of the links below will be dead when you get to them. If you find such a dead link I would be grateful if you would let me know. If you come across a site that you think would be appropriate for connecting to this site I would also be very grateful if you could let me have the URL.
Given the speed with which sites change and the unlimited number of potential connections that can be made to any given web-site, it is impossible for me to vouch for the academic quality of the material you find on any of the sites linked below. Web-sites are simply not like text-books.
In general, unless a website is on an official Government or University server, the safest policy is to assume that its content is no more reliable than something that a bloke told you in the pub last night. Do not assume that because it is on the web it must be true! I am afraid that you must use your own common-sense and judgment when accessing and using the material on anything other than government or university sites. My advice is to read everything with an extremely sceptical eye.
For much more detail on how to use the web safely and professionally have a look at this:
How to use the web as an academic source for data, quotations, evidence and arguments
Regards
John Ramsay
You can find an enormous amount of very high quality academic papers by using the the EBSCO database that is accessible through the 'eresources' link on the University library website.
I recommend that you tick the boxes on the enquiry page for 'per reviewed' and 'full text' to make sure you get the best material.
An excellent portal to a huge range of carefully selected sites that have been vetted and are known to contain useful and valid material: Social Science Gateway. NB this site will be of use whatever kind of academic enquiry you have in a whole range of different subjects/modules.
An online digital economics material site: tutor 2 u
Google's economics web directory
Biz/Ed's economics material site
The British Government's statistical service
‘Planning in Cuba Today’ by A. Campbell available via the EBSCO database on the University library website (see above).
‘Command vs. Planned Economy’ by Q. Hui available via the EBSCO database on the University library website (see above). This paper discusses dveglopments in China. You can find a lot of material by going to EBSCO and enquiring by ‘Planned economy’.
A short description of the central planning system in the Soviet Union (as was).
An excellent piece of work discussing the insatiable nature of human needs and the pointlessness of consumption.
The truth about Adam Smith's "invisible hand"
NB if you really want to know what Adam Smith really meant you could always drift over to the library and read his own words in, for example, 'The wealth of nations' at location 330.153. Alternatively you might like to have a look at a groovy little book on the subject called: ' Adam Smith's Wealth of nations: new interdisciplinary essays' Copley, S. & Sutherland, K. (Eds.) at the same location, in which is it revealed that Smith believed that monopoly power was bad, companies should not be allowed to get too close to governments and wages should be maximised in order to maximise GDP. For some reason right-wing idealogues never mention these opinions of his!
The following site contains some comments from A. Greenspan on the collapse of command economies. This must be read with skepticism and caution. The author has a vested interest in promoting capitalism and the raw market. Consequently his views are not balanced in any way at all: The transition from central planning to free markets.
The following paper is available via the EBSCO database: ' The 1950s--the triumph of the Soviet economy', Khanin, G.. Europe-Asia Studies, Dec2003, Vol. 55 Issue 8, pp. 1187-1212
The following paper is available via the EBSCO database: 'Coercion, compliance, and the collapse of the Soviet command economy', Harrison, M.. Economic History Review, Aug 2002, Vol. 55 Issue 3, pp. 397-433,
An illustration of equilibrium prices
Different people may find different explanations of graphs helpful, so I have added a range of sites:
The Competition Commission's web-page
European Commission's Competition site
The world's 100 largest economic entities 2000 (URL courtesy of N. Dranko)
The world's 100 largest economic entities 2007 (URL courtesy of Mongabay.com)
The world's largest companies 2009 (courtesy of CNN.com)
Oligopolies tend to become extremely interested in the behaviour of the small number of companies that they share their market with, and some indulge in heavy advertising in an effort to win market share. You may believe that you are more or less immune to the effects of advertising. Well, read this paper and think again!
Canadian market-based environmental measures
Paper dealing with
'Environmental Externalities in Electric Power Markets:
Acid Rain, Urban Ozone, and Climate Change'
Some American introductory notes on externalities
Gordon Brown's speech on the role of the market to the social market foundation
An illustration of the costs associated with externalities and pollution
In 2007 the entire contents of volume 25 issue 6 of the European Management Journal, which is available via the library website, was devoted to climate change and emissions trading.
Live chart of FTSE 100
A variety of data on the UK economy
The official UK Treasury site
Fair trade organisation resources
The next site is a useful piece of evidence for anyone trying to assess how serious Western countries are in their commitment to Free Trade being :A site explaining how to use (and link to) the EU site listing all the tariffs that the EU levies on imports from other countries
For: Here are Nobel Prize winning right-wing economist Milton Freidman and his wife Rose putting: The case for free trade
Against: The following paper by Herman Daly gives an excellent summary of some of the main arguments against free-trade: 'Against free trade: Neoclassical and steady-state perspectives' and can be obtained via EBSCO.
Maskus, K. 'Policy Paper Number 2: Trade Policy and Economic Growth' (Fall 1998)
Warning, be aware that the following sites are all run by political activists and are not academic in tone. I have only added then because the content is interesting and relevant and the topics are not covered well by academics on the web.
Some critics argue that in 'the race to the bottom', profit seeking, unethical companies are tempted to exploit their workers, and that free trade encourages this kind of behaviour. See the paper 'Trade and Environmental Policy: A Race to the Bottom? that is available on EBSCO for example.
If you find this topic interesting you might like to have a look at N. Klein's paperback: 'No logo' published in 2000. There is also a related website No logo. NB it does not focus only on Trade issues.
Here is an argument against the race to the bottom argument:
An overview?
Warning the following site is written by an economist at George Washington University who concludes:
'Thus, the conclusion reached by many economists is that while free trade may not
be "technically optimal", it remains "pragmatically optimal". That is, given our
informational deficiencies and the other problems inherent with any system of
selected protectionism, free trade remains the policy most likely to produce the
highest level of economic efficiency attainable'
Hence although he offers arguments for and against, he is a believer in the benefits of free trade overall: Evaluating the Controversy Between Free Trade and Protectionism
You will find a lot of useful material on assessment techniques -writing skills and the like on this site: Learning and Grade Improvement Techniques which contains such topics as:
A selection of common faults (and how to correct them) as found in students' assignments and essays
Selecting an appropriate essay/assignment style
Writing a good introduction
Constructing a sound argument
Writing a good essay conclusion
Adding non-electronic quotations and references to your written work
Adding electronic quotations and references to your written work
How to write business reports
The secrets of the apostrophe
Understanding what essay questions or assignment tasks actually want you to do
Making sure that what you are writing is actually answering the question or completing the task you have been set
General Essay / Assignment Assessment Criteria
Writing assessment criteria and degree classifications
A real student assignment fully marked and heavily annotated with comments on style, content and so on.
NB since I maintain that a site myself, so if you want something to do with a learning or assessment skill and you can't find it on that site I would be grateful if you would let me know (j.ramsay@staffs.ac.uk) so that I can add it. (JR)
Examiner's comments on the January 2004 tasks
Question 1
Don’t waste your time writing simple descriptions of what or definitions of what, for example, markets are; get on and focus on the question. You may well need to describe things as you go along, but only if it is necessary to make sense of your answer to the question. In general, at degree level you will only be expected to spend a lot of time on simple descriptions if the task you have been set asks you to: ’Describe…..’
Factual corrections
Several of you appear to believe that the command system is a special kind of market economy – it is not. There are no markets in a pure command system, nor are there government regulations concerning markets (in general) or any company profits. NB The USSR no longer exists.
Question 2
This question asked you to ‘critically assess’ the S-C-P model, but droves of you did not bother to do that and seemed to assume instead that the model was excellent and all you needed to do was describe what managers might use it for. The discussion of what managers might use it for is reasonable, but in order to get a decent grade you needed to criticise the model – as I did in class……
Overall
Writing skills
The most common failing in this batch of assignments was a deep lack of knowledge of how to write an academic essay. This showed itself in a variety of ways such as a total ignorance of how to do references and quotations; no understanding of what a good introduction or conclusion to an essay looks like; the strange belief that ‘i.e.’ means ‘for example’ and so on. Rather than waste a lot of words going into details here, I suggest that you drop over to the sister site to this one:
John Ramsay's Learning and Grade Improvement Techniques Web Site:
There you will find huge amounts of detail on such topics under the heading of ‘Writing techniques’.
Plagiarism
Quite a few of you do not appear to understand what plagiarism is. I attached a long explanation of the University’s attitudes towards and procedures concerning plagiarism to the original assignment – READ IT!!!!! The basic rule is really quite simple. If you feel compelled to read a website with, for example, comments from Alan Greenspan about the transition from planned economies to the market system, then re-write those comments using your own words!
There were also quite a large number of very good answers!!! Thanks to everybody who tried hard.
John Ramsay 27.1.04
Don’t waste your time writing simple descriptions of what markets are or how individual prices for specific products were arrived at in Bulgaria in 1987. Get on and focus on the question. You may well need to describe things as you go along, but only to if it is necessary to make sense of your answer to the question. In general, at degree level you will only be expected to spend a lot of time on simple descriptions if the task asks you to: ’Describe…..’
Many people did not understand what the S-C-P model was. Instead of stopping and finding out, they apparently decided to waffle instead. This is a deeply unwise strategy at this level and I recommend that, if you are one those students, you stop it immediately!! In an assignment there is simply no excuse. If you don’t know or understand, go and read some more books; talk to colleagues who do know; ask a member of staff, but DO something - don’t just guess!
The most common failing in this batch of assignments was a deep lack of knowledge of how to write an academic essay. This showed itself in a variety of ways such as a total ignorance of how to do references and quotations; no understanding of what a good introduction or conclusion to an essay looks like; the strange belief that ‘i.e.’ means ‘for example’ and so on. Rather than waste a lot of words going into details here, I suggest that you drop over to the site mentioned above:
John Ramsay's Learning and Grade Improvement Techniques Web Site
There you will find huge amounts of detail on such topics under the heading of ‘Writing techniques’.
Quite a few of you do not appear to understand what plagiarism is. I attached a long explanation of the University’s attitudes towards and procedures concerning plagiarism to the original assignment – READ IT!!!!! The basic rule is really quite simple. If you feel compelled to read a website with, for example, comments from Alan Greenspan about the transition from planned economies to the market system, then re-write those comments using your own words!
That’s enough wingeing. There were also quite a large number of very good answers!!! Thanks to everybody who tried hard.
John Ramsay
Semester 2 2004 - The Examination questions