Why Did I Buy All That – Egg and spoon race
Why do Easter eggs hit the shelves on Boxing Day? Taylor's answer is a tidy piece of oligopoly logic: once one supermarket brings Easter forward, rivals follow or risk losing not just the egg sale but the customer's whole shop, the same reasoning that keeps stores open 24 hours. She adds a behavioural layer on scarcity and FOMO around novelty products (a giant caramel croissant, a chocolate biscuit) that we buy early for fear of missing out. Useful for interdependence and str
Classroom Games and Experiments for A-level Economics Teaching
I found Chris and Matt's session at the Bank of England Teacher Conference really interesting. I'm wary of overgamification, but this wasn't the type of 'game' they mean at all: the games here are simulations forcing students to think about incentives and are pretty powerful. I'm really pleased to say they have agreed to join us at the November EconEdChat on Tuesday 3rd November In June, Aston University hosted the Bank of England Teacher Conference. The conference brought t
Why Did I Buy All That – 16 Million Dollar Pikachu
Logan Paul's $16.5mn Pokemon card is the hook for a clear lesson in scarcity and value. With 10.2bn cards printed in a year, Taylor asks why one is worth millions, and lands on authentication and condition: grading services like PSA make scarcity credible in a market full of forgeries, much as provenance turned a £45 painting into a half-billion-dollar Leonardo. She also covers booster packs as a blind gamble and the 'stock market for Pokemon' where speculators trade on futur