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On a more encouraging note, Alston observed an opening up of the conversation on mental health, a much overdue de-stigmatisation, which has facilitated the gradual emergence of initiatives aimed to mitigate the problem, found in places as far-flung as New York and Mangalore. Although a welcome sign, it’s clear much more needs to be done – too many young people are falling through the cracks.

Its defining feature lies in the assumption that production, rather than demand, is the primary factor in creating and sustaining economic growth. To that end, its proponents advocate the lowering of taxes and removal of regulation. Less taxation, they claim, means more profits for businesses, who, freed of red-tape and compelled by self interest, can reinvest their increased earnings, generating a larger supply of goods and jobs. It’s thus that the economy grows - tax cuts pay for themselves.

The following article is an analysis of data taken from the INOMICS Salary Report 2020/21 - which is available to download in full here. Specifically, this article looks at the average salaries of economists around the world working in academia, the public sector and the private sector. It is the first instalment in a series of insights handling the Report’s findings.

'The greatest science policy failure for a generation’ is how the editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, described the UK’s COVID response last June. It was a widely shared sentiment  – made credible by the UK having one of the highest death rates in the western world. Fast forward to the present, and the government has finally claimed a ‘much needed win’ – a big one, too.

Reading economics blogs can be an easy way to get your fill of knowledge and, in many cases, they're more palatable compared with academic journals, which can be dense and gruelling. The blogs we've listed - in no particular order - are the ones we here at INOMICS turn to when we're looking for interesting, informative, and occasionally offbeat articles on a wide range of economic topics. With much of the outside world still off-limits, they also provide an excellent and productive means of passing the time. So go on, dive in.

But we knew this. Consumers are aware of the tradeoff they make buying books on Amazon instead of at the bookshop they walk past on their commute. And shopkeepers, obviously, don’t need telling - they’ve been struggling against internet forces, and before that out-of-town superstores, for years. Now, though, in this COVID-defined moment, lingering hope for a reprieve may well have been dashed, as, in accordance with lockdown and social distancing, even the most committed high street consumers have been kept away - and it’s unclear in what numbers they’ll return.

In the words of Economist, Dambisa Moyo, the answer is zero: African people ‘are worse off; much worse off… aid has helped make the poor poorer, and growth slower’. A strong condemnation this may be, but Moyo's assessment is no outlier. Development expert, William Easterly, has drawn similar conclusions – his study ‘Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth’ revealing an inverse correlation between aid and per capita growth.

At INOMICS, we are dedicated to helping you get the most out of your economics further education and career. For more information and career advice, download the INOMICS Handbook, which contains interesting insights into the world of economics, as well as recommended institutions and study offers for you.

Although over a decade later neoliberalism is yet to be replaced, its grip on power has considerably loosened, the pandemic – and all its attendant injustice – forcing the most recent reckoning with its shortcomings. It’s a process we can see in real time, with new political formations emerging on both the right and left. Indeed, alternatives that in previous years would have been dismissed as too radical, utopian or even regressive, are now earnestly discussed as people seek an exit from the current political model. 

The carriers must pay attention to their passport validity An erection of a harder border between the UK and EU involves not only changes in customs work, fees and tax calculations, and other money-related issues, but a lot of small details, many of which were previously ignored by carriers, and which are now critically important. 

Increasingly sidelined, the one-time arbiter of sensible, down-to-earth politics, has seen its stock plummet and the centre-ground left barren, sparsely populated by members of a fading political establishment. As Mehdi Hasan has observed, ‘labels like 'centrist' and 'moderate,' which common sense tells us should reflect the views of a majority… have come to be applied to those who represent minority interests and opinions”. But why? How exactly has this come to pass? And where, if anywhere, does the future of the centre lie?

However simple sounding this choice may be, the question is, in fact, a tricky one. What’s even meant by each term? In the current polarised political climate, where both are bandied about and often weaponised, definitions have blurred. Deplorable in the eyes of some, the roadmap to utopia to others. Many are understandably confused. What should one make of being branded a champagne-sipping socialist? Or a capitalist pig? To make sense of it all, we have delineated each term as concisely as possible.

The damage wrought by COVID, far from equalising, has been pointedly prejudiced. While the virus itself may struggle to differentiate between people, the world in which it operates has no such problem. Indeed, its structures have ensured COVID’s disruption of employment has fallen unevenly across regions - the experience of economists a case in point.

That the world of work has radically changed we know, we see it before our eyes: kitchens have replaced offices; pyjamas, suits; and housemates often now fill the space previously occupied by colleagues. But how have these changes - and others - been felt by economists around the world? Through a textual analysis undertaken in the INOMICS Salary Survey, we answer that question and, in doing so, paint an anecdotal picture of economists’ COVID experience.

Perhaps a worse indictment, however, is that for many they never had much effect. They never came close to capturing their actual reality: the shortage of food, the fragmentation of community, the political alienation. While coping with these concerns, that the 1% had further increased their collective wealth by X trillion dollars was only ever background noise, a little salt on the wound. Statistics of this kind may sell newspapers, but they don’t capture experience.

A couple of steps short of humanitarian disaster and incalculable damage to the environment At the end of the year around Christmas, up to 10,000 trucks headed from Dover to Calais via the Eurotunnel. When France suddenly closed its border with the UK, all trucks and their drivers that were still in Britain got stranded in the ports without any information about when they would be able to continue their journeys, and without food or access to essential hygiene facilities.

Less than a year on from COVID’s genome sequencing, vaccination programs are being rolled out around the world. And while the pandemic is far from over, it would appear we’re approaching its endgame, arriving there faster than anyone dared hope. The previous fastest ever vaccine to be developed was for Mumps - and that took four years.

The holidays are coming up soon, with Christmas just around the corner. If you want to avoid last-minute panicked present-buying, you had better get to planning the gifts you'll be giving. And what if you have an economist in your life? What would be the perfect gift for them? We're here to help your Christmas gift woes with some fun suggestions for the 10 best gift ideas for an economist. Happy holidays!

Hundreds of thousands of ship crew members who leave their ships every month to go home after a voyage have not been able to do so during a pandemic. Most ports have imposed restrictions on ships and their crews, with around 120 countries imposing restrictions and 92 completely banning crew changes, according to Inchcape Shipping Services.

Although we’ve been told time and again that the pandemic doesn’t care about who you are, in reality it hasn’t affected everyone equally. Senior Editor William Pearse has already written about how COVID-19 has been harder on those from ethnic minorities and on poorer communities in the UK.

In 2020, INOMICS once again carried out its salary survey, examining the state and health of the economics profession worldwide. As in previous years, the survey considered pay, sector, seniority, location, gender and educational background. Our 2020 survey was launched in the spring as cases of coronavirus began to increase exponentially around the world. Consequently, we added new questions related to the coronavirus pandemic to assess the effect of the crisis on economists and economics students.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) stipulates that the primary responsibility for vessels lies with the flag state of the vessel. Consequently, this means that each merchant vessel must be registered under the flag of a specific state. The flag state of the vessel is responsible for the inspection of the vessel and compliance with safety, pollution prevention, crew certification and international standards.

Halloween is probably one of the best occasions to demonstrate how seriously you take yourself (or not!) and how far your creativity can go to show it. If you think that Halloween is below your intellectual level, well, they say that even Paul Krugman threw one economics-themed party, where “two guests came as Asian tigers, several came as hedge funds, one woman came as capital, dressed as a column..."

Economics is serious business, but sometimes we all need a break! And that's when the internet is there: to sympathise, to commiserate, and to make us smile at the end of a tough day. Fortunately the stereotype of economists being humourless is not true – there are plenty of fun and funny economists who are out there sharing their humour. From students to senior professors, there are memes on the internet to express all aspects of the study and practice of economics. Below you'll find 10 of our favourite memes that we know all economists will love!