Economics class: teaching ideas

Recommended FT articles and tasks picked by our panel of teacher advisers to help improve  exam and interview success, with suggestions on questions for class activities and discussion. 

Read a selection of FT articles, sample exam questions and wider teaching materials produced in conjunction with Core (free registration required). Read FT articles mapped to the curriculum below:

• Exchange rates: Sterling’s faded illusion of sovereignty
• Development: Pandemic brings Italy’s black market out of the shadows
• Economic development: Latin America’s taxing problem
• Competition/market structures: Pain in Spain for telecoms groups as competition heats up
• Economic Development: Zambia feels the way for distressed nations in seeking debt talks
• Distribution of Income and Wealth: Spain to push through minimum income guarantee to fight poverty
• Trading blocs: The chain of events that led to Germany’s change over Europe’s recovery fund
• Public goods: Any Covid-19 vaccine must be treated as a global public good
• Inflation: A return to 1970s stagflation is only a broken supply chain away
• Theory of the firm: Ryanair to axe up to 3,000 jobs as it warns over slow recovery
• Competition & regulation: Britain’s private schools warned against fee collusion
• Price mechanism: Oil-producing nations grapple with latest price fall
  
• Money: Rishi Sunak prepares to offer 100% guarantees on small business loans
• Market failure: Boris Johnson can now redeem his debt to the NHS
• Circular Flow of Income: India’s exporters face crunch as coronavirus pummels economy
• Market structures: British Airways to suspend more than 30,000 staff amid coronavirus crisis
• Unemployment: US jobless claims surge to record 3.3m as America locks down
• Exchange rates: Why the Fed is trying to tame the dollar
• Oligopoly: Eight days that shook the oil market — and the world
• Employment: Germany’s minimum wage boosted productivity but hit small companies
• Labour markets, government intervention: Income inequality increases in UK
  
• Aggregate demand: Italy unveils €3.6bn stimulus to tackle coronavirus
• Elasticities, Market Structures: Can £5bn revitalise England’s bus services?
• Economic growth and development: Restructuring Argentina’s debt will require IMF support
• Market structures: Climate change and the prisoner’s dilemma
• Labour markets: The unions taking on the gig economy and outsourcing
• Demand & Supply, Exchange Rates, Elasticity:  Commodities may not stay cheap
• Monetary policy: US debt investors seek protection against inflation
• Market/government failure: Air quality remains dangerously low
• Supply side policy, capital flows: Tide turns for Polish émigrés
• Distribution of income and wealth: Before we soak the rich
  
• Supply & demand: Fortnum & Mason boosted by demand for loose leaf tea 
• Macroeconomic objectives: Iran’s economy strangled under US sanctions
• Financial markets, exchange rates: Dollar shortage shakes confidence in Lebanon’s banks
• Competition and market structures: Sony pulls plug on PlayStation Vue
  
• Developing economies: Ethiopia’s path to prosperity is opening up
• Economic Growth, macroeconomic objectives: UK economy  to avert recession
  
• Demand & supply, taxation: UK’s slowing housing market hits stamp duty
• Market failure: French tobacconists fear business will go up in smoke
• Objectives of firms: The limits of the pursuit of profits
• Labour markets: How does British Airways pilot pay compare?
• Introductory economics: China acts on pork prices 
• Fiscal policy: Javid shift in strategy after decade of austerity
• Economic cycles: A long economic recovery is not necessarily a better one
  
• Demand and Supply, Market Structures: Iran warns Opec ‘might die’
• Trade policies and negotiations: Mexico ratifies Nafta’s replacement
• Economic development: CDC to invest $300m in Africa’s power networks
• Allocation of resources: Old economists can teach us new tricks
  
• Financial markets: China dumps US Treasuries
• Allocation of  resources: EBRD mulls sub-Saharan Africa loans
• Demand and supply: Iran’s economy slumps on US sanctions
• Circular flow of income: Fear over UK’s low national savings rate
  
• Financial markets: US mortgage reform
• Macroeconomic policy: UK inflation rises 1.9%
• Money: The continued appeal of cash
• Monetary policy: Monetary policy has run its course
• Inflation: UK basket gains popcorn
• Balance of payments: US trade deficit
• Financial markets: Zimbabwe’s currency reforms criticised
• Externalities and traffic congestion: Luxembourg tackles congestion
• Economic growth and development: IMF funds Ecuador
• Demand and supply, externalities: university applications rise
• Trade: China’s economy slows
• Market structures, nationalisation: rail privatisation
• Trade, balance of payments: service exports
• Exchange rates and Brexit
• The price of fish farms
• Demand & Supply: stock markets tumble
• Development, exchange rates: African loans
• Productivity: zero workforce growth
• Government intervention: tech regulation
• Demand & Supply, commodities: oil price fall
• Market failure: wind and solar costs
  
• Supply and demand: oil volatility
• Supply and demand: chip prices
• Exchange rates/balance of payments: depreciation dangers
  
• Price determination: vanilla
• Subsidies: UK farmers prepare for Brexit
• Technological innovation: escooter rentals
• Public finances: UK near bottom of IMF league
• Markets, supply/demand: cocoa prices
• Labour markets: Amazon pay rise 
• Fed interest rate impact
• The impact of migration
• Low wage growth
• Brexit uncertainty
• Coca Cola, Costa and economies of scale
• The end of QE
• Oligopolies and price discrimination
• UK productivity
• Coffee shops and market entry
• Argentina hikes interest rates
• Reversing QE
• Privatisation and nationalisation
• Audit monopolies
• Child mortality and development
• China’s household debt
• Trade policies and anti-dumping
• IMF, Kenya and economic policy
• German trade
• Sterling weakness
• British manufacturing recovery
• France’s declining fertility
• Venezuela’s imploding economy
• Measuring GDP
• Inflation climbs to 3.1%
• Venezuela debt: US, Russia and China play for high stakes
• Productivity, smartphones and the crisis of attention
• Diesel taxes
• Agriculture and trade after Brexit
• Monetary policy uncertainty
• Natural monopolies and regulation
• Richard Thaler and behavioural economics
• EU fines Scania for price-fixing cartel
• Monarch airline’s failure
  
• Bank of England and Brexit
• Brexit-free trade illusions
• Supply and demand for coal
• Bank of England interest rates debate
• Amazon and food retail competition
• Brexit and the generational divide: a price worth paying?
• EU-Japan trade: the shift in commerce 
• Retail sales: how external factors influence demand