Category: Podcasts and Videos

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Lending just a little at a time

Microfinance is a topic we have addressed before in these news items and we make no apologies for returning to it again. The articles linked to below include an interview in the Guardian with Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank which is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with small loans – microfinance. There is also a podcast from Mervyn Davies the Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank Plc.

Microfinance and financial inclusion Times Online podcast (18/0/07)
Microfinance and financial inclusion (transcript for podcast) Times Online (18/0/07)
What’s the big idea? Guardian (16/2/08)

Questions

1. Explain what is meant by ‘microfinancing’.
2. Discuss the likely effectiveness of microfinancing as a tool for promoting economic development (as opposed to economic growth).
3. Evaluate two policies other than microfinancing that will help to promote economic development.
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The price of drink – is it connected with binge drinking?

In real terms the price of alcohol has been gradually falling, but to what extent might this have been a factor in rising levels of binge drinking in the UK? The link below is to an extract from the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme and will require real player installed on your computer to listen to it.

The price of alcohol and binge drinking BBC Today Programme(January 2008)

Questions

  1. What are principal determinants of demand for alcohol?
  2. Assess the relative importance of price against the other determinants of demand for alcohol.
  3. What are the principal factors that determine the price elasticity of demand for alcohol? Assess the extent to which an increase in the price of alcohol will lead to a fall in spending on alcohol.
  4. How effective would a rise in the tax on alcohol be in raising revenue for the government?