Join us for a friendly online taster lecture to support your current studies and find out what it might be like to study economics at university.
Session time: Thursday 19 March, 2.30-3.15pm
In this Economics session, Duncan Watson, Professor of Applied Economics in the School of Economics at University of East Anglia, will run an interactive talk for students on Market Failure at Work? Modern Slavery in the UK.
If markets are meant to allocate resources efficiently and eliminate harmful behaviour, why does modern slavery persist in the UK?
This interactive university taster session starts from market failure, a core concept in A-level Economics, and uses labour market economics to examine modern slavery in the UK as a real-world case study. Students are invited to test what labour market models predict should happen when workers can leave jobs, wages adjust, and firms compete for labour — and then explore what happens when these conditions fail.
Through live questions and decision-making activities, students will analyse how cost pressure, limited worker choice, and incentives can distort labour markets and allow illegal outcomes to persist even where strong laws exist. Real UK examples are used throughout to connect theory to practice.
The session concludes by asking whether modern slavery is best understood as a case of market failure, or whether it exposes deeper limits in how economists think about labour markets themselves.
Suitable for: Aged 16+ pre-university students studying, or with a possible interest in studying, Economics and related disciplines. Student groups as well as students and teachers joining individually are very welcome.
For details and to book your place, visit:
https://www.channeltalent.co.uk/event/economics-market-failure-at-work-modern-slavery-in-the-uk-with-professor-duncan-watson-from-university-of-east-anglia/