Economists Undertake Aston University Visit

Economists at Solihull Sixth Form College have been benefitting from a series of lectures at Aston University, aimed at stretching their learning.
    
Learners from both Year 12 and Year 13 of the A level Economics course attended an event organised and delivered by the Economics department of the University. The key theme of the lectures centred around the fundamental economic concept of ‘choice’, which underpins all economic thought. The undergraduate level lectures began by illustrating, using economic infographics, how consumer expenditure has recovered since the pandemic and how the choices on where and how people spend their income has shifted dramatically towards online retail, as households strive to maximum their material welfare.

Following the lecture, the next activity involved a social and economic experiment called the ‘ultimatum and dictator experiment’, which questioned the classical economic assumption that individuals will always seek to maximise their satisfaction by acting rationally and selfishly. By bringing in fairness and altruism, the aforementioned assumptions were questioned and this highlighted how firms within certain industries can be punished by consumers if they are perceived to that act “unfairly” when pricing products. For example, consumers are willing (sometimes begrudgingly) to accept price increases if it is the result of increasing costs to the firm, but will penalise those firms that raise prices as a result of growing demand as they do not see that as being fair, even though that is what economic theory dictates. Students were asked to consider why this view exists whilst consumers demonstrate the same behaviour when selling homes to the highest bidder.

Manish Patel, Economics teacher at the College, commented:

"The day at Aston University was a great experience for our young people and exposed them to undergraduate level ideas. Learners were also given the opportunity to ask questions with the head of the Economics department and other lecturers on what it is like to study an Economics degree, as well as with a postgraduate Student Ambassador which they also found invaluable."

5 December 2024