Friday 21 October 2011

Various teaching links

1. Terrific piece on energy and externalities with quantification of external effects and global warming policy by Bill Nordhaus.

2. Can Italy really be this bad?  It just might be.

3. Can the World Feed 9 Billion People?  A great piece from Tim Taylor who sets out the Economist's view of this, quite contrary to Malthus.  Exercise: draw a supply and demand curve for food.  With nothing else changing, as the population grows, what would have to happen for food to "run out"?  What if anything saves the world from this outcome?  What does the behaviour of food prices suggest about the balance of forces in the world food market?

4. Steve Gibbons has a very good post on the right use of evidence to overcome suspicion, this time regarding the beneficial use of competition in the NHS.