The news is still full of COVID-19 and the impact it will have. In this blog there are links to 3 news paper articles, which caught my eye at the time the article was written. As often with economic news, a few days/weeks/months later, they are less relevant as new data has already been published. To remind you, this blog is to get you thinking about economics beyond the theory of ECNU211 and to show how it impacts everyone.
The Reopening of stores in the middle of June saw long queing lines, with a rush for certain products. While reading it, keep yourself asking questions, e.g.:
- is this microeconomics or macroeconomics?
- what is the impact on demand and supply and the equilibrium?
- what is the reason behind the rush buying of certain products?
In the economic theory there are 4 resources for production: labour, land, capital and Entrepreneurship. This second article highlights the positive effect of a recession on entrepreneurship. Why do you think that is the case? What would happen to the profitability of industries?
The last article shows the impact of the COVID-19 shock on the UK’s GDP. This is more macroeconomics, but the effect will be felt by each individual household and firm too. Although May saw on increase of 1.8%, remember that this is compared to the previous month. If compared to the beginning of 2020, it was still about 25% lower. Think about the consequences of this fall, not only for the UK as a country, but also for demand and supply of in some industries and for households.