Nobel laureate James Heckman is the world's leading authority on the economics of human development. He is a huge advocate of the need for kids to develop maths and IT skills from an early age. He is also a big advocate of the need to develop 'soft skills' in children. In the short video below, he outlines his views on soft skills and why they are so important. These are skills that we at Queen's University Management School try to develop in our students.
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.