Economics In Ten

As they sing in Oliver! - Food, glorious food...and we LOVE our food. We love being in the kitchen, we love coming up with recipe ideas and we love gifting food-related books like Snoop Dogg’s glorious cookbook... but what can food (and drink) teach us about economics? Lots of course! In this special, Pete and Gav, your friendly neighbourhood economists, stuff so much economics into ten questions about 10 ingredients, you’ll have to loosen your belt to take it all in! And at the end, there are even ideas for a four course meal based around the ingredients mentioned. Wow! How good is that? Technical support as always comes from Marco Pierre Nic. Music comes from Jukedeck and you can create your own at jukedeck.com. Bon Appetit everyone!!

'A Study of Economics as if People Mattered' was the subtitle of E F Schumacher's most famous work, 'Small is Beautiful'. It might seem jarring to non-economists that people might not "matter" in economic theory but Schumacher's contention was that the "simplifying" assumptions of mainstream economics were decidedly non-trivial - they were "assuming away" the very essence of our humanity. Seen by many as the godfather of the modern environmental movement Schumacher viewed with alarm the alienation caused by the rapid industrialisation of the modern era and with even greater concern the devastating ecological impact of mankind's frenetic race to produce more and more. On the eve of COP26 Schumacher's ideas are arguably more relevant that ever. In the second episode of our fifth season, your friendly neighbourhood economists, Pete and Gav, take you on a journey through the colourful life and evolving intellectual landscape of Ernst Friedrich Schumacher. Along the way you can test your knowledge on other famous Schumachers and debate the ethics of naming a child after an old flame... As always, technical support is provided by Mr Shingles and music comes from jukedeck. You can make your own at jukedeck.com. PS Pete prematurely refers to the COP27 rather than COP26 meetings throughout - apologies!

To establish whether you are in good shape a doctor might take your pulse. In economics, Gross Domestic Product (aka GDP) is the go-to metric for determining economic health. Governments can be toppled off the back of disappointing GDP data - think recessions  (or even worse the dreaded double-dip recession!).  But who was the man behind the creation of this powerful if often misunderstood concept and what might he make of the latter-day uses and abuses of GDP today? In the first episode of our fifth season, your friendly neighbourhood economists, Pete and Gav, explore the life and ideas of Simon Kuznets. A man of mystery, they hunt down how he became such a hugely influential figure in the world of economics and how he ended up having at least two curves named after him, the ultimate if unspoken dream of every academic economist. Along the way, you can test your knowledge of Belarus, the birth place of Kuznets and hear us (!) eating some food related to his Jewish background. As always, technical support is provided by a very tired Nic and music comes from Jukedeck. You can create your own at Jukedeck.com.

“A word after a word after a word is power.” – Margaret Atwood. Many of the great economists we have looked at in our past episodes were voracious readers, and whilst we in no way put ourselves in their company we are great believers in reading widely. Simply put we at EconomicsInTen are great believers in the power of reading and the power of words.  Therefore in this sequel to the first Summer Reading special, your friendly neighbourhood economists Pete and Gav answer one simple question 10 times. What book would they recommend and why? All the books are linked to economics in some way and if you read them all, you will become a better economist and who knows, perhaps a better human being too! So while away those long summer days catching up with our podcast and reading these beauties.   As always, this podcast comes with technical support from the great Nic and comes with music from Jukedeck – create your own at jukedeck.com. PS Apologies for the delay in this episodes release; we hoped to get it out at the start of summer but have been hit by "pings", mic problems and various other modern ills. These books will keep you going well into the Autumn!

Have you heard of the ‘Randomistas’? Seemingly they are taking the economics world by storm and at the heart of this group of research economists is a French-American named Esther Duflo. With her husband Abhijit Banerjee and colleague Michael Kremer, she became only the second woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics, for her use of Randomised Control Trials, aimed at testing the efficacy of different social policies in combatting poverty and other ills in the developing (and in parts of the developed) world. Lauded by world leaders (and philanthropists with deep pockets) they have put forward a vision of economics unclouded by prejudice and politics.  But in a profession seemingly divided between free marketeers and interventionists, does she successfully cut through the noise by dealing only in the data? In other words is it possible or even desirable to be free of ideology in the pursuit of economic truth and "what works"? This question and many more surrounding the life and ideas of Duflo, are discussed as always by your friendly neighbourhood economists, Pete and Gav. Technical support is provided by Nic and music comes from Jukedeck. You can create your own at Jukedeck.com

Quiz Question: Who is the only economist to win the Nobel Peace Prize? Answer: Muhammad Yunus.... and yet strangely he has never been in the running to win the equivalent Economics Prize.  Is there a reason why his ideas,  and those of the institution he founded - The Grameen Bank - have been so welcomed by US Presidents and other dignitaries and yet not been as well received by his peers? It could be the fact that microfinance, his big idea to solve poverty, has proved somewhat controversial in the world of development economics... Whatever you believe we think you will find Yunus's life and thoughts fascinating, particularly if you have ever struggled to get credit or been a member of the Scout Movement. Warming themselves around the podcast campfire as always are Pete and Gav, your friendly neighbourhood economists. Technical support is provided by "Akela" Nic and music comes from Jukedeck. You can create your own at Jukedeck.com

How do you know if a country is "doing well" economically? How can we say that one country is "more developed" than another? For many years incomes (GDP) and other measures of how much "stuff" a country was making were the standard yardstick but then along came Amartya Sen and changed our viewpoint on how development was measured forever. Those ideas, shaped by a childhood that spanned the partition of India, would eventually win him the Economics Nobel Prize but there is so much more to the man, even though he rejected  'The Mother Teresa of Economics' moniker. Guiding you through Sen's life and ideas as always are Pete and Gav, your friendly neighbourhood economists. Technical support is provided by 'WD40Man' Nic and music comes from Jukedeck. You can create your own at Jukedeck.com Note - in our India quiz, Pete gets 3 out of 5 correct. In the boardgame question, there are in fact two right answers. Apologies...do not shout at the podcast when the error arises!

Are you lucky enough to own your own home or business? But do you ever stop and think about what you would do if someone tried to take it from you, or bulldoze it? Do you ever stop and reflect on the economic power that legally protected property gives you? It's very easy to take property rights for granted but one economist is convinced that they are the key to the success of capitalism and unlocking the entrepreneurial power of the developing world; his name is Hernando de Soto. So if you are interested in the ideas of the man Bill Clinton calls 'the world's greatest living economist' then have a listen and discover the potential power of 'dead capital'! Guiding you through as always is Pete and Gav, your friendly neighbourhood economists. Technical support is provided by our good friend Nic (or 'The Weaver' as we like to call him) and music comes from Jukedeck. You can create your own at Jukedeck.com.

Have you ever wanted to know about inequality but didn’t know where to start? In this latest special by Pete and Gav, your friendly neighbourhood economists, you will be guided through the economics of inequality. Along the way you will come across stocks and flows, a curve that looks like an elephant and a coefficient that has nothing to do with Aladdin but everything to do with an Italian economist. As always, it comes with lots of suggested reading and if you ever end up in government, ideas that might help to reduce inequality. Technical support is provided as always by our good friend Nic and music comes from Jukedeck. You can create your own at Jukedeck.com.

Did you hear about the psychologist that won the Nobel Prize for Economics? Sounds like the start of a joke doesn’t it? But in 2002 Daniel Kahneman won the award for the revolutionary work on "prospect theory"  carried out with his colleague and friend Amos Tversky.  Their work changed the course of economics by introducing the world to behavioural economics. So if you’ve ever felt like you have been tricked into buying something at a higher price or have fallen into the trap of just following the crowd, then you could do with knowing some of the behavioural biases that mean you don't quite conform to the model of homo economicus aka rational economic man (or woman).  Guiding you through Kahneman’s life and ideas as always are Pete and Gav, your friendly neighbourhood economists. Technical support is provided by our good friend Nic and music comes from Jukedeck. You can create your own at Jukedeck.com