(Oxford) Diploma : Dogonomics and Thinking Economics

Descripción

Course One : Dogonomics: What Dogs Teach Us About Economics A Practical, Playful, and Powerful Introduction to Economic Thinking What can the market for Labradors teach us about supply and demand? What does pet insurance reveal about moral hazard? Why does responsible sterilization create scarcity? How can a frustrated dog buyer uncover entrepreneurial opportunity? Welcome to Dogonomics — a course that uses the world of dogs to teach core economic principles in a way that is clear, applied, and unforgettable. You don’t need a background in economics. You don’t need to love maths. You just need curiosity. What You’ll Learn Through real-world case studies (San Francisco vs. Oregon dog markets, pet insurance decisions, breed fads, working dogs, property law disputes, and more), you’ll master the core tools of economic reasoning: • Supply and demand • Thick vs. thin markets • Search costs and matching markets • Opportunity cost and time–money trade-offs • Externalities (positive & negative spillovers) • Moral hazard and insurance distortions • Family economics (dogs as complements or substitutes for children) • Property rights and legal evolution • Comparative advantage and specialization • Entrepreneurship and market disruption By the end of the course, you will see markets differently — everywhere. Why Dogs? Because dogs are: • Emotional goods • Household members • Legal property • Working capital • Insurance subjects • Cultural symbols • Entrepreneurial opportunities They sit at the intersection of economics, psychology, law, culture, and public policy. And when you understand the economics of something as personal as a dog, you understand economics at a deeper level. What Makes This Course Different Most economics courses start with equations. This one starts with a beach dog. From there, we build a structured framework that applies to: • Housing markets • Labour markets • Healthcare • Technology • Dating apps • Insurance systems • Regulatory debates • And yes — pet adoption You will learn to: Identify hidden incentives Diagnose market failures Recognize thin markets Spot arbitrage opportunities Understand unintended consequences Think like an economist in everyday life Course Two :Thinking Economics New topics introduced in 2026: • Trade balance (goods vs services) • Current account vs bilateral deficit narratives • Gains from trade and interdependence • Tariffs: incidence, pass-through, deadweight loss • Retaliation and trade war dynamics • Elasticity of demand/supply; substitution effects • Trade diversion and third-country substitution • Exchange rates and competitiveness • Inflation transmission from trade policy • Policy uncertainty and investment effects • Climate externalities and market failure • Physical climate risk vs transition risk • Climate risk pricing and risk premia • Cost of capital and sovereign borrowing spreads • Insurance market withdrawal / uninsurability • Risk pooling limits and correlated shocks • Regulation/standards as risk reduction • Adaptation investment and resilience finance • Energy market design (energy-only vs capacity) • Reliability as a system constraint • Capacity adequacy and reserve margins • Dispatchable generation and flexibility • Grid transmission/distribution bottlenecks • Storage economics and demand response • Peak demand, load growth, load duration curves • Option value of reliability resources • AI/data-centre electricity demand as a driver • General-purpose technologies (GPTs) and diffusion • Complementary investments (skills, data, processes) • Adoption S-curves and productivity lags • Measurement/realization of productivity gains • Capital deepening vs TFP growth • Automation vs augmentation (substitutes vs complements) • Skill-biased technological change • Job polarization and entry-level displacement • Bargaining power (labour vs capital) • Labour share vs capital share of income • Competition policy and rent concentration • “Jobless growth” • Social legitimacy (“social permission”) of technology • Welfare states, safety nets, and adjustment costs • Education and reskilling policy • Economic statecraft and coercive diplomacy • Credible threats, deterrence, commitment problems • Signalling, reputation, and strategic interaction • Sanctions/retaliation risk and market reactions • Structured finance and contract design • Sukuk structures and asset-backing • Risk allocation and cash-flow waterfalls • Information asymmetry, certification, and standards • Liquidity, investor base diversification • Agglomeration economies and clusters • FDI attraction and place-based industrial policy • Spillovers (knowledge, suppliers, networks) • Human capital pipelines and skill ecosystems • Infrastructure as a complement to investment • Institutions and political legitimacy • Collective action and protest dynamics • State capacity and enforcement costs • Credibility of reform and path dependence • Political economy of ideology vs material incentives New lectures and Case Studies added. mid-Jan 2026 In an age where artificial intelligence promises unprecedented efficiency and assistance, the question arises: what becomes of humanity’s ability to think deeply, critically, and consciously? Across sectors—be it governance, education, labour, or technology—there is a growing tension between the allure of convenience and the imperative of maintaining human judgment. These case studies explore the philosophical and economic challenges posed by AI, emphasizing the need for conscious thought as the cornerstone of innovation, freedom, and progress. Case Study Summaries • The Erosion of Critical Thinking in the AI Economy: Explores how AI’s automation of decision-making risks diminishing critical thought, urging policies that prioritize education and intellectual empowerment to sustain long-term economic growth. • The Paradox of AI Assistance and Human Autonomy: Examines the tension between AI’s efficiency and its potential to foster dependency, advocating for conscious policies that elevate human agency alongside technological progress. • Inequality and Power in an AI-Driven World: Highlights the risk of AI concentrating power in the hands of a few, stressing the need for deliberate thought and action to address systemic inequities and preserve democratic participation. • Education as the Battleground for Human Reason: Focuses on the role of education in cultivating critical thinking and ethical reasoning, urging reforms to ensure future generations think critically in a world dominated by AI. • Governance and the Balance of Ethics and Innovation: Explores policy solutions to ensure AI assists rather than replaces human reasoning, emphasizing the need for conscious thought in balancing innovation with ethical responsibility. Welcome to Thinking Economics. A summary as to what is include in terms of topics: CONTENTS: THINKING ECONOMICS • Philosophers and economics • Ethics • Valuation • Automation • Globalisation • Climate change • Nudges • New Economic Thought • Thought experiments • Behavioural Economics • Learning and Mind Maps • Current economics But within those broad categories there are many other topics: • War and its impact on economies. Can a war ever be just? What is given up to go to war? • The Allocation of Scarce Resources: Economic philosophers from Adam Smith to modern economists have pondered how to allocate these scarce resources efficiently. This issue encompasses questions of production (what to produce, how to produce) and distribution (for whom to produce). • The Balance Between Equity and Efficiency: Philosophers have long debated the trade-off between equity (fairness) and efficiency (the optimal allocation of resources). • The Role of Government in the Economy: The extent to which the government should be involved in the economy is a central question in economic philosophy. Views range from the laissez-faire approach, which advocates for minimal government intervention as espoused by Adam Smith, to the belief in a significant role for government in regulating markets, redistributing income, and providing public goods, as argued by economists like John Maynard Keynes. • The Nature and Causes of Economic Growth: Understanding what drives economic growth and how to sustain it is a core concern. This course is made up of: • Lectures - including resources for further research - and questions to make you think • Educational Announcements detailing updates • Manual(s) • The Q/A - this is where 'real' learning takes place as you can discuss the case studies and other homework

Lo que aprenderás

• Explain supply and demand clearly using real-world examples — not just graphs.
• Distinguish between thick and thin markets and predict how scarcity affects price, availability, and behaviour.
• Identify search costs and matching frictions in everyday markets such as housing, jobs, healthcare, and dating apps.
• Analyse opportunity costs and time–money trade-offs to make smarter personal and professional decisions.
• Recognize positive and negative externalities and evaluate when policy intervention may be justified.
• Diagnose moral hazard problems in insurance, healthcare, and other risk-sharing systems.
• Apply family economics models to understand household decisions involving pets, children, and long-term commitments.
• Understand how property rights shape incentives, legal outcomes, and economic efficiency.
• Use comparative advantage to explain specialization — whether in working dogs, technology, or labour markets.
• Spot entrepreneurial opportunities created by undersupply, frustration, and market gaps.
• Evaluate real-world policies using basic cost–benefit reasoning, including willingness-to-pay and risk valuation.
• Think like an economist in everyday life — recognizing incentives, trade-offs, and unintended consequences.
• Apply the 10 Concept Dogonomics Framework to analyse any market with clarity and confidence.

Requisitos

• Think creatively when faced with photos of smiling dogs!