The Commentary Box …

The Economics Network have just published a report into the Skills and Knowledge of the Graduate Economist written by Richard O’Doherty, Deborah Street and Chris Webber of the University of the West of England, Bristol. The report aims to “understand employers’ requirements of Economics graduates, to establish whether they think these graduates generally possess the required skills and knowledge and to reveal any clear shortfalls in order to inform the UK Economics academic community.”

The 2007 Developments in Economics Education (DEE) Conference (formerly known as DEBE) will be held in the Møller Centre, Cambridge, UK on Thursday 6th and Friday 7th September. It is now open for bookings and features keynotes from Tim Harford, the Undercover Economist, David Hendry of Oxford University and Andy Ross of the Government Economic Service and HM Treasury.

Intute: Social Sciences features more Internet resources on the topic of Economics.

The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) today launches Vox, a new policy portal featuring research-based analysis and commentary from Europe’s leading economists.

The primary intended audience is economists – and users of economic research – in governments, international organisations, academia and the private sector as well as journalists and commentators specialising in economics, finance and business.

Vox aims to enrich the economic policy debate in Europe and beyond. On the supply side, Vox will make it easier for serious researchers to contribute. On the demand side, Vox will make the knowledge of researchers more accessible to the public.

Among the first columns:

• Saving Africa: improved trade preferences should be high on the agenda – Paul Collier and Tony Venables
• Combating child labour: reducing rich countries’ protectionist policies will be far more effective than bans – Guillermo de la Dehesa
• Inflation targeting has made exchange rate crises a thing of the past – Andrew Rose
• Massive growth of foreign exchange reserves is an insurance policy for developing countries – Charles Wyplosz
• Unwinding global imbalances: likely effects on the European economy – Philip Lane and Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti

Find more Economics related Internet resources with Intute: Economics

A recent article in The Nation highlighted the issue of heterodox economics and prompted extensive debate in the Economics blogosphere and elsewhere. Although some commentators and academics, do not find it a particularly useful label.

For the uninitiated, heterodox economics refers to those economists whose theories fall outside the mainstream of economic thought, by rejecting some of the key assumptions of Neoclassical economics.

The Association for Heterodox Economics Conference – Pluralism in Action – is to be held on 13-15 July, 2007 at the University of West of the England, in Bristol and in the run-up to that conference we will be adding more heterodox economics resources to Intute: Social Sciences.

But in the meantime, why not try exploring our existing resources on Economic Systems and Theories

The new brand and logo for the London Olympics in 2012 was launched yesterday and has caused widespread discussion. It has drawn much criticism on the BBC News website with many readers complaining about the new logo, while others have pointed out some similarities with the 1970′s children’s TV programme Tiswas and others have had a go at coming up with a logo themselves.

It appears that Olympic logos are a controversial area, with the recent news that Chicago is having to redesign its logo for bidding for the 2016 games and that China’s Dancing Beijing logo for the 2008 games is also running into some intellectual property issues.

Search Intute: Social Sciences for more on topics of the Olympic Games and branding.