Many congratulations to Richard Cavaye and his colleagues in the Gordonstoun Economics Department who are the winners of the Great Economics Today Song Contest! They win a subscription to Volume 30 of Economics Today. You can get yours here:
The contest involved choosing a song to link to any topic on the A-level microeconomics course. The link could be in the song title or the group. The winning entry as “U can’t touch this!” by MC Hammer, which links to the service sector of the UK economy.
The links from the entries and quite a few that we’ve generated ourselves are below. There are still quite a few blank topics! We hope you enjoy and please do keep adding suggestions by reply to this post even though the competition has now closed.
| Topic | Song |
| Scarcity | You can’t always get what you want – The Rolling Stones
All out of love – Air Supply (Gordonstoun Economics) |
| Goods | Touch me – Sam Fox |
| Services | U can’t touch this – MC Hammer (Gordonstoun Economics) |
| Utility | (I can’t get no) satisfaction – Rolling Stones (Ali Mclean) |
| PPFs | Borderline – Madonna |
| Opportunity cost | Sacrifice – Elton John
Making your mind up – Bucks Fizz Opportunity cost – G-Eazy (dailylifeecon) |
| Rationality/maximising behaviour | I want it all – Queen |
| Demand | Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! – Abba |
| Supply | Stand and Deliver – Adam and the Ants |
| Market equilibrium | Price tag – Jessie J |
| Elasticity | |
| Substitutes | Substitute – The Who |
| Complements | We go together – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John |
| Derived demand | |
| Composite demand | |
| Joint supply | |
| Productive efficiency | Nobody does it better – Carly Simon |
| Allocative efficiency | |
| Invisible hand | (Invisible) hand in glove – The (Adam) Smiths – Andy Threadgould |
| Market failure | |
| Externalities | |
| Merit goods | Healing hands – Elton John (Eleni Papaspyrou, Nick Brady) |
| Demerit goods | Addicted to love – Robert Palmer |
| Public goods | Ticket to (free) ride – The Beatles
All out of love – Air Supply |
| Resource immobility | Stuck in the middle with you – Stealers Wheel |
| Imperfect information | They don’t know – Kirsty McColl or Tracey Ullman |
| Lack of equity | |
| Taxes | |
| Subsidies | |
| Maximum prices | |
| Minimum prices | |
| Buffer stocks | |
| State provision | |
| Regulation | |
| Pollution permits | |
| Allocation of property rights | |
| Division of labour | |
| Gains from specialisation | Ghost Town – The Specials |
| Law of diminishing returns | |
| Economies of scale | |
| Diseconomies of scale | |
| Technological change | Rocket Man – Elton John (Andy Kerr) |
| Price makers | |
| Price takers | |
| Marginal analysis | One Step Further – Bardo
One Step Beyond – Madness – Nick Brady |
| Profit maximisation | |
| Divorce of ownership and control | |
| Satisficing | |
| Perfect competition | Perfect – Fairground Attraction Perfect – Ed Sheeran |
| Monopoly | Soul Provider – Michael Bolton |
| Price discrimination | |
| Monopolistic competition | |
| Oligopoly | The name of the game – Abba |
| Kinked demand curve | Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks |
| Collusive oligopoly | Let’s stick together – Bryan Ferry
Riders on the storm – The Doors (Chuck McNicholls) |
| Competitive oligopoly/price wars | Two tribes – Frankie Goes to Hollywood |
| Entry barriers | Stop – Sam Brown Locked out – Crowded House |
| Product differentiation | Advertising Space – Robbie Williams |
| Contestable markets | Take it to the limit (price) – Eagles |
| Demand for labour | |
| Supply of labour | I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more – Bob Dylan (Gordonstoun Economics) |
| Wage determination/wage differentials | Wages Day – Deacon Blue |
| Trade unions | All Together Now – The Farm
Only You – The Flying Pickets Union City Blue – Blondie |
| Monopsony employers | |
| Bilateral monopoly | Two Tribes – Frankie Goes to Hollywood |
| The national minimum wage | |
| Distribution of income | |
| Distribution of wealth | |
| Gini coefficient | Gini in a Bottle – Christina Aguilera |
| Poverty | |
| Competition policy | |
| Privatisation | |
| Nationalisation | |
| Deregulation | |
| Behavioural economics | |
| Bounded rationality | |
| Bounded self-control | |
| Present moment bias | |
| Availability bias | |
| Anchoring | |
| Social norms | |
| Altruism | |
| Nudges | |
| Choice architecture | |
| Default option | |
| Framing | |
| Restricted choice | |
| Mandated choice |
