Hans Rosling
Hans Rosling is a co-founder of gapminder.org. Gapminder ‘turns boring time series of development statistics into attractive moving graphics'. It allows the user to follow the development of one to all countries, measuring development statistics such as life expectancy, income and bad teeth per child. This clip is a fantastic example of the work of Gapminder with a brilliant lecture from Hans Rosling.
Photo by Reinn on Flickr
Stand-up Economist
He claims to be the worlds first stand up economist, giving comic performances all over North America. With a PhD in Economics from Washington University, Yoram Bauman is not to be taken lightly. Bauman teaches at the University of Washington in Environmental Economics, his PhD field. Bauman, as part of his stand up economist act interprets (or translates) Greg Mankiw's 10 Principles of Economics.
Haggling Brian
First-degree price discrimination is one of those economic theories where it's difficult to get real world examples aside from a doctor in a third world country. However, for a slightly different example of first degree price discrimination, have a look at the clip from Monty Python's ‘Life of Brian'.
Big Picture TV
This site streams free videos from a range of thinkers, activists and academics. The videos are short - around 5 minutes and cover a range of different topics. Big Picture TV has a specialist economics area. The site has an underlying theme of promoting environmental protection and sustainability, providing insights from many different disciplines. The economics section has over 40 different video clips, ranging from the late Dame Anita Roddick - the Body shop founder, to Professor Richard Heinburg - who foresaw peak oil in the 1950's.
Ghanese Currency
The Republic of Ghana in West Africa changed the national currency from old cedi's to new cedi's with four zeroes being removed from the old cedi. A very chirpy and catchy advert was released to promote and explain the new currency which was adopted in July 2007.
The Importance of Proofreading
We all have to write essays in economics. This is a polemic about the need for good profreding. I grantee you will see yourself in this (short) talk (p.s. spot the mistake).
What Motivates us?
People react to incentives, right? Well Dan Pink's fantastic TED talk on what motivates us just got a little bit better. This version has been animated by some clever chaps at RSA and is highly watchable. Yet it is further proof of the importance of Behavioral Economics and a lesson to companies that workers need time to develop their own projects.