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Subject Specific Values Education

Subject Specific Values Education. Let’s examine some examples illustrating how the core values can be integrated into Year 1 Economics courses. Year 1 Economics. Example 1:

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Subject Specific Values Education

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  1. Subject Specific Values Education • Let’s examine some examples illustrating how the core values can be integrated into Year 1 Economics courses.

  2. Year 1 Economics • Example 1: • Collusion: In markets with insufficient competition (e.g., very few sellers of a product), it is possible that sellers can collude together explicitly or implicitly in order to keep the price “high”. • Businesses need to resist the temptation to make profits by such collusion. • Which sectors in HK have too little competition? • Do we need effective anti-trust laws to enforce competition? • Values Illustrated:

  3. Year 1 Economics • Example 1: • Collusion: In markets with insufficient competition (e.g., very few sellers of a product), it is possible that sellers can collude together explicitly or implicitly in order to keep the price “high”. • Businesses need to resist the temptation to make profits by such collusion. • Which sectors in HK have too little competition? • Do we need effective anti-trust laws to enforce competition? • Values Illustrated: Honesty/Integrity

  4. Year 1 Economics • Example 2: • Economists measure a country’s Standard of Living by per-capita Real GDP. However, this measurement ignores • “Non-market goods” and services. • the environmental damage caused by the pollution which accompanies production of output. • The water supply in HK is subsidized. Nearly 40% of the water is lost due to leaky pipes. Consumers also use water carelessly as they do not have to pay the “full” price of water. The water supplies department of the government loses HK$ 2 billion/year. • Values: Respect (for people and the environment)

  5. Year 1 Economics • Example 3: • Informal evidence suggests that income inequality in HK has been growing since the 1970’s. • Should the government be concerned about the distribution of income? • The HK government does not collect or analyze any data on inequality in HK. • Value:

  6. Year 1 Economics • Example 3: • Informal evidence suggests that income inequality in HK has been growing since the 1970’s. • Should the government be concerned about the distribution of income? • The HK government does not collect or analyze any data on inequality in HK. • Value: Fairness

  7. Year 1 Economics Example 4: Warren Buffett • Started an investment partnership in 1956. • Earned a 29.5% annual return (compound) until 1969. • In 1969 he found the market highly speculative, with P/E ratios of 50 or 100 quite common. • He dissolved the investment partnership with the following statement to his partners:

  8. Example 4 Continued “I will not abandon a previous approach whose logic I understand, although I find it difficult to apply, even though it may mean forgoing large and apparently easy profits to embrace an approach which I don’t fully understand, have not practiced successfully and which could lead to substantial permanent loss of capital.”

  9. Year 1 Economics • Example 5: • In 1971, Richard Titmuss published “The gift of relationship: from human blood to social policy” • The book compares different systems by which human blood was collected for transfusions. • In Britain, blood was collected through voluntary donations, while in the U.S., there was a “market” for blood.

  10. Year 1 Economics • In which country do we expect shortages of blood to be more severe? • In which country do we expect the quality of blood to be better? • The existence of a market for blood actually reduces people’s willingness to donate blood • With a market for blood, people no longer feel that they are donating the “gift of life” – rather they feel that they are donating the equivalent of the “price of blood”. • People’s moral beliefs affect economic outcomes. • Social and Economic Institutions affect people’s moral commitments • Value:

  11. Year 1 Economics • In which country do we expect shortages of blood to be more severe? • In which country do we expect the quality of blood to be better? • The existence of a market for blood actually reduces people’s willingness to donate blood • With a market for blood, people no longer feel that they are donating the “gift of life” – rather they feel that they are donating the equivalent of the “price of blood”. • People’s moral beliefs affect economic outcomes. • Social and Economic Institutions affect people’s moral commitments • Value: Benevolence

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