14:20 8 April 2020 Universities and other institutions continue to put courses and programs online. As of today, two more courses have gone online:

If you’ve decided it’s time to take a break from all the hard studying you’re doing during this coronavirus isolation period, why not kill some hours playing a video game? Better yet, why not kill some hours playing a video game which will help you accrue business acumen and improve your real-world economics knowledge? Sound too good to be true? Thankfully, there are some games which offer just that.

With university doors firmly shut, and no indication when they may reopen, educators are becoming increasingly creative with their methods of teaching. Necessity, as we know, breeds innovation. Of course, the shift toward online learning pre-dates the coronavirus, but its spread is speeding up the process. With each passing day, more and more courses can now be found on online, allowing students to continue with their studies, albeit from the comfort of their own home.

Technological advancement gives college kids an unprecedented medium for boosting their academic performance with just a few taps on their smartphones. Modernizing and optimizing the studying habits of today’s students, digitalization provides essential tools and techniques which, especially in the current isolated state of affairs, they may not be able to access. Mobile applications for studying are surely novel, but have the benefit of being innovative and finding new ways to help students learn, rather than simply repeating the old tired techniques.

With the coronavirus making studying from home the new norm, it’s imperative we look beyond the frustrations of no longer having face-to-face contact and find a routine to keep our brains alert, and educational progress on track. Yes, it’s a difficult time, but INOMICS is here to help. 

The emergence of Joe Biden as the unassailable front-runner in the Democratic Primary belies a contest that at various turns broke new ground. From its unprecedented field, larger and more representative than ever (save the brief participation of two billionaires), to the remarkable resuscitation of one moribund campaign, the departure from custom was clear. Nowhere was this more obvious than in policy, where the inclusion of senators, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, dragged the conversation leftwards into distinctly uncharted territory.

There are plenty of books which are important for economists to read in the non-fiction department, from the very popular to the extremely academic. But what of fiction books - novels, plays, and the like? It's important not to forget that even stories which aren't 'true' in the dictionary definition sense of the word can tell us a lot about the realities of the world.

As the spread of the coronavirus continues across the world, many questions remain unanswered, not least what is going to happen to those thousands of students whose universities have also been affected by the pandemic. Schools, offices, museums, restaurants and bars are being closed across the world, and curfews are in place in particularly affected countries. Similarly, universities have begun shutting up shop, not willing to risk large swathes of students being affected by the virus.

The continued existence of fossil fuel subsidies in a time of their almost universal condemnation reveals something about the governments that rule us, something pernicious, but also something all-too-predictable. Like no other area, they expose a gulf between rhetoric and action, a disconnect so stark that, if the risks it posed were less catastrophic, would almost be comical. Back in reality, though, the cognitive dissonance, cynicism, or whatever its cause, serves only to warm our planet and threaten all life. 

Here at INOMICS, we’ve always been dedicated to trying to help you, the economist (fledgling or otherwise) get the most out of your education and career. Whether that be offering you the best new courses and conferences, nudging you towards the perfect university degree, or helping you apply to jobs once you’re done studying, we’re there to give advice and present opportunities you may not have otherwise found.

To help you choose your perfect course in economics, we hand-picked top summer schools taking place this year in Europe. The organizers from the list are currently recruiting. If you were thinking about applying, but were unsure due to the current health situation worldwide, please do not hesitate and apply – we are monitoring the situation closely together with the course organizers and will keep you updated in case of any changes.

Supply-side economics. Squabbling over its merits – or lack thereof – has underpinned much modern political discourse; belief in, or rejection of, its principles helping demarcate Republican from Democrat, Tory supporter from Labour devotee, etc. Over the course of its life it's operated under a number of guises; its tenets followed to varying degrees; and ever since its conception in the 1970s, it's remained one of politics’ most volatile fault lines.

Individuals derive utility from the consumption of goods and services, and choose these so as to maximise their utility under any given budget.

Having helped so many economists take their next career step, we at INOMICS know full well how rewarding working in economics can be. When you find that solution you've been looking for, or contribute some research that actually seems to get read and make a difference, it can be the best feeling in the world. But this won't happen unless you work on yourself and the skills that are essential for becoming a successful economist and academic in general.

Pareto efficiency (or also Pareto optimality) is an important efficiency concept in economics used to evaluate or compare different allocations of resources, names after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923). An allocation of resources is Pareto efficient if it cannot be modified to increase the wellbeing of one individual without diminishing the wellbeing of any other individual.

Marginal utility is the change in wellbeing (or change in total utility) that a person experiences if they consume one additional unit of a good or service. One of the most basic ideas in economics is that the consumption of goods and services changes our level of satisfaction or happiness (also referred to as utility). Often, we measure this change in satisfaction in monetary terms. If, for example, we want to know how much the wellbeing of a person changes if we give them a book (for free), we can simply ask this person how much he or she is willing to pay for the book.

A monopoly describes a market in which there is only one firm and it does not face any competition. A monopolist is a firm that offers a unique product or service without close substitutes and therefore does not have any competitors. This means that the monopolist faces the entire market demand and each customer interested in buying the product can choose whether to buy from the monopolist at the respective price or not to buy at all.

The prisoner's dilemma is a well-known game in non-cooperative game theory that highlights how the individually rational behaviour of 'players' can lead to an outcome that is suboptimal for all involved. It is a game that is often used to analyze the possibility of cooperation in situations where self-interested individuals interact strategically.

An exciting opportunity open to many undergraduate students is the chance to participate in an exchange program, in which a student can study at a different institution as part of their degree. Typically, students will use this opportunity to study abroad; to learn about their subject in a different setting and to become familiar with a different culture. Yes, we know, it sounds incredible...

The current moment is one defined by crisis. It can be found everywhere: in the climate, economy, mental health, even in democracy. It’s so ubiquitous as to have almost become the new norm. Amid the chaos, politics has struggled to keep up, its landscape is in permanent shift, its rulebook long thrown away. New formations have emerged, metastasized, sometimes died, and occasionally taken over - developments often surprising and hard to make sense of. What’s clear, though, is that polarisation has set in.

Applying for scholarships is different to applying for a Master’s program. We have collected the best and most relevant tips applicable to the different stages of application. 1. Research different scholarship options available Start your research early, as collecting and preparing documents can take a lot of time. It’s never a good idea to have to do everything in the last minute.

Studying macroeconomics, as many INOMICS users have done, opens doors to countless different jobs down the line.

A market is in equilibrium if at the market price the quantity demanded is equal to the quantity supplied. The price at which the quantity demanded is equal to the quantity supplied is called the equilibrium price or market clearing price and the corresponding quantity is the equilibrium quantity.

Nash equilibrium is an important equilibrium or solution concept in non-cooperative game theory. A Nash equilibrium is a strategy profile (i.e. a strategy for each player) in which each player is playing a best response to the strategy of the other(s). More simply, a Nash equilibrium describes a situation in which each person acts optimally given the actions of the others, so that no one wants to change his or her action.