Economics Online (Page 10)

Economics Online

Tablet and monitor displaying rising green and red candlestick trading charts

Financial Markets

Real Options Theory: Why Traditional Valuation Breaks Down for AI Companies

Standard corporate finance approaches derive an organisation's value by discounting future expected cash flows to today. For stable and predictable organisations, a discounted cash flow (DCF) model is an acceptable method of estimating that value. However, for development-stage organisations (like Anthropic), much of the value will likely come

AI robots working on laptops in a row

Innovation & Technology

AI chatbots displace tasks, not jobs: the task-based model of automation

Most companies that implement AI technology to automate customer service do not entirely replace the entire workforce. Instead, AI chatbots automate the repetitive tasks that customer service agents are expected to do so that they can spend more time assisting with more complicated tasks and problems that require human intervention

Wooden letter tiles spelling bond on reflective surface with greenery background

Business economics

Barriers to Entry: What Insurance Broker Bonds Reveal About the Economics of Occupational Licensing

Anyone thinking about entering a profession that requires a licence has to reckon with what that licence will actually cost before they've even finished the training needed to get it. Insurance brokers are a good example. The clearest data on this comes from the United States, where licensing

A pile of cash of various amounts with currencies from all over the world including US Dollar, and Myanmar Kyats among other currencies.xican Pesos, Korean Won, Kyats

Global economics

The Economics of Currency Markets and International Remittances

International remittances are a very large element of the global economy. Each year millions of migrant workers and expatriates send money home, which in turn is used for food, education, health care, and local business. Although from users’ point of view this is an easy process, behind the scenes it

Man wearing headphones editing a video on a computer monitor.

Innovation & Technology

Comparative Advantage and the New Trade Map of Global Media Localisation

The theory of comparative advantage was developed by David Ricardo around the wine-and-cloth example. Two hundred years later, that same logic explains how a Korean drama can be broadcast in perfect German the week it debuts — and why a studio in Los Angeles no longer needs to keep dubbing houses

When consumers can make more small transactions instead of single large transactions, they tend to spend more money overall.

Microtransactions and the Psychology of Spending

Psychology helps explain why consumers are likely to spend more money in total when they can make many small transactions instead of fewer large transactions. Why is this the case, and what can consumers do to limit overspending?

Thanks to the Internet, consumers share tremendous volumes of personal data with sellers, sometimes without realizing it.

When Data Becomes Capital: The Economics of Digital Identity

Your behavior as a consumer is valuable, as it can help sellers generate more revenue. What are your rights and protections as a consumer in this era of rampant digital data collection? How far can companies go to learn about your behavior?

Digital nomad visas can allow remote workers to live in other countries, bringing in revenue but straining local communities.

The Rise of Digital Nomad Visas: Talent Arbitrage in Real Time

Since the Covid pandemic and rise of widespread remote work, many nations have created digital nomad visas to attract foreign workers who bring in their foreign wages. But, what economic costs do local communities incur from hosting digital nomads?

Close up of a person holding 4 paper bags while standing against a white background

Managing the economy

The Economics of Inflation and Household Purchasing Power

Inflation is an issue which is at the fore of global macroeconomic issues which households face. It is the process by which the price of goods and services on the whole goes up over time which in turn reduces the value of money. As inflation grows at a rate which

Managing Multi-Asset Class Complexity Without Operational Friction

Innovation & Technology

Managing Multi-Asset Class Complexity Without Operational Friction

Introduction You know the drill, it’s a Monday, and you have to deal with an entirely unreasonable number of reconciliations: six asset classes, three custodians, and two jurisdictions (that’s before you send out the investor reports). Private equity settles overnight, and private credit is a monthly book, with

Rows of data centre servers in a rack, with blinking status lights and network cables, representing cloud computing and digital infrastructure

Innovation & Technology

Scarcity and Efficiency: The Economics of Server Sharing Through VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting has emerged as an important method of allocating computing resources. The digital economy is driven by the allocation of limited resources among competing users, reflecting the economic principle of scarcity. Understanding scarcity as a fundamental economic problem helps explain why VPS hosting developed as a

Stock market trading dashboard on a computer screen showing global indices with price changes and a green area chart tracking intraday performance.

Financial Markets

Liquidity Preference: Why Rational Investors Settle for Lower Returns

Cash has no interest, and typically depreciates due to inflation while it is being held. Cash is still held by trillions of dollars, even though savings accounts, stocks, and bonds usually offer better returns. John Maynard Keynes proposed an explanation for this in 1936. He explained that liquidity has intrinsic

Tweezers placing a microchip onto a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller board.

Innovation & Technology

Lenovo Gains Ground as AI Demand Reshapes the Memory Market

Memory is already becoming scarcer than oil for AI, and Lenovo has unexpectedly emerged as one of the main beneficiaries of this new reality. According to the latest earnings reports, the world's largest PC manufacturer reported a 27% increase in quarterly revenue to $21.6 billion, significantly exceeding

A graphic of a shopping cart filled with cardboard boxes against a blue background. On the ground, there are paper wrapped boxes and bags.

Business economics

Comparative Advantage and Platform Power: The Economics Driving the Rise of Digital Commerce

Firms are able to produce, distribute, and compete in different ways because digital commerce is reshaping how businesses operate. Comparative advantage is at the heart of digital commerce. As a result, comparative advantage occurs when companies, workers, or countries focus on activities where they have the lowest opportunity cost relative

Website coding IDE for web scraping

Business economics

The Role of Web Scraping in the Modern World of the Economy

If you are looking at a dynamic sector, static public records won't provide much more accurate results. An empirical study depends on immediate and highly accurate observations of competitors' actions. Modern-day scholars use the web scraping process to gather these important metrics from open web directories. This

Stock market screen with tickers

Financial Markets

Best Stock Trading Courses Worth Knowing in 2026

Most people learn to trade the hard way. A tip on YouTube, a thread on Reddit, a friend who got lucky once. A good course gives you a clear plan to follow instead of guessing. The hard part is spotting the few who teach a real method. Most just sell

Stock ticker and charting software

Innovation & Technology

The New Economics of Crypto Exchanges: How Security, Liquidity and Compliance Became Barriers to Entry

Security failures within the cryptocurrency market create negative externalities for more than just the exchange impacted by a given security breach. According to Chainalysis, in 2024, losses due to attacks on cryptocurrency services amounted to over $3.4 billion; the Bybit breach represents the largest theft in the history of

Construction cranes working with backdrop of sunset

Managing the economy

How financial management has become a strategic tool for implementing megaprojects

You could call it a paradox for the world’s biggest energy projects over the last two decades: capital is no longer the thing holding development back. The hard part now is to ensure investments are sustainable in the long run, given political risks, shifting regulations, ESG demands, and the

A closeup of a hand with a marker writing on a transparent white board

Innovation & Technology

Creative Destruction: How Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Business Formation Drive Economic Growth

Entrepreneurship, innovation and the formation of companies are key drivers of economic growth. Economic growth cannot be attributed solely to increases in labour force size, investment, or consumption. The principle of creative destruction, developed by Joseph Schumpeter, explains how businesses, technologies, and ideas replace older systems, improve productivity, and reshape

A modern industrial style office meeting space with floor to ceiling windows and concrete floors and ceilings offset with a long wooden table and Scandinavian style pink chairs

Behavioural economics

The Economics of Executive Tables: Signalling Theory, Status Goods, and Corporate Identity

While simple on the surface, executive tables represent an economic asset with much greater value than their immediate physical utility. In essence, a modern executive table is just a working surface—a place to store papers and files and organise stationery. However, many high-end executive desks can be priced well

Office with workers sitting on chairs in open setting

Efficiency Wages and Worker Productivity: How Investment in the Workplace Can Be a Sound Economic Decision

In 1984, economist George Akerlof formalised the belief held by many employers that paying workers above the market price (i.e. the market-clearing wage) will increase worker productivity to a level that will more than offset the cost of paying higher wages. In addition to paying above market wages, Akerlof&

A graphic of a purple, shiny 3D cloud plugged into a microprocessing chip

Business economics

SaaS and the Subscription Economy: How Cloud Software Is Reshaping Business Competition and Market Concentration

Subscription pricing did something to the software business that one-time licensing never could: it turned a purchase into a relationship, and a relationship into a recurring claim on a buyer's budget. Cloud consultancies that move clients between competing platforms — among them Cloudfresh, which handles migrations across Google Workspace,

Cloud kitchens, also known as ghost kitchens, have no storefront and produce food entirely for takeout or delivery.

The Microeconomics of Cloud Kitchens: Efficiency or Exploitation?

Cloud kitchens, also known as ghost kitchens, have no storefront and produce food entirely for either takeout or, most often, delivery apps. Are these rapidly proliferating operations good for economic competition, or exploitative?

A shirt promoting environmentalism, which is part of the ethical consumption and clean energy movements.

Green Premiums and the Price of Ethical Consumption

Most consumers support, to some extent, green premiums to pay higher costs for ethically produced, environmentally friendly goods and energy. What are the economic benefits and challenges of ethical production, ethical consumption, and being "green"?

ESPN+ is a subsidiary of Disney and can be bundled with other Disney streaming services.

Streaming Fatigue and the Fragmentation of Digital Entertainment

Today, consumers can pick and choose among many digital entertainment streaming platforms. However, with rising costs and streaming fatigue, what is the future of this streaming entertainment market?