Our Economics Students Run the British Economy Best!!!!

Taken from CEG's ezine and http://www.catscollege.com/en/cambridge/static/news/?newsitem=347

Four CATS College Cambridge Economics students have emerged as the winners of an Economics competition held at Cambridge University's Faculty of Economics last week, in which they had to control a simulation of the UK economy.

The A level students, Anisa Lulo, Gresilda Xhaferi, Florinda Egra, and Francesca Le, defeated five other schools from Cambridge including Hills Road, The Leys, The Perse, MPW and St. Ivo School in a computer-simulated game conducted by Professor Tony Cockerill, Fellow at the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, to run the British economy.

"The key to their success was not only their strong grounding in the principles of economics, but also that they were willing to admit the mistake they made. The result was that our students achieved 300 points more than the nearest challenger!” said Economics tutor Ian Tay.

"All of us participating felt proud to take first place for our school. Obviously, winning was a great feeling, especially because we were competing against some strong competition. It took a lot of effort, but it was fun and I enjoyed it,” said Florinda.

"The experience was delightful, as it encouraged both team work and individual thinking. I have to say 100% of our success is because of our economics lessons and our tutor. The theory we learnt in school helped us make important decisions that obviously led us towards winning the game," commented Anisa.

"Winning an economics competition held at Cambridge University was great for me. What I enjoyed the most was the competitive environment and the feeling of accomplishment when applying my knowledge of macroeconomics. This is exactly the kind of experience that thrills those who are fond of the subject and want to study it at a higher level" said Gresilda.

The students were asked to control variables such as Income Tax, VAT, Government Spending, and Money Supply in order to influence the economy and to gain the most welfare points for the society. The welfare function in this simulation was:

WELFARE = 3 X [Consumption ^0.6 x (Investment + Exports + Imports)^0.2 x G ^0.2] – Unemployment² – Inflation² – 5 X Budget

Congratulations to Anisa, Gresilda, Francesca, and Florinda!!!!!!!

(These students were selected based on their Summer 2011 AS Unit 2 Economics Exam results - they were the top scorers in this exam)