1. First up today, a gleaning from last week’s TLS (Times Literary Supplement), from the Munich research group, CESifo, A Matter of Taste: The Negative Welfare Effect of Expert Judgments by Nicolas Lagios & Pierre-Guillaume Méon https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4991796#

From the glitz and glamor of film festivals to the sophistication of wine or culinary awards, expert judgments can drive consumers to or away from the products they review (Ginsburgh, 2003, Ashenfelter and Jones, 2013, English, 2014). Those judgments are particularly important for experience goods, the utility of which consumers, by definition, cannot know prior to consumption. By assessing those goods and sharing their judgments with the public, experts send a quality signal that may be received by consumers and persuade them to choose better goods, thereby delivering welfare gains.

However, the view of experts’ work as welfare-enhancing rests on the assumption that their judgments reflect the tastes of consumers or, to put it simply, that they can tell consumers what they will like. This assumption is questionable on several grounds …

PDF below.

2. The latest episode of the Monocle podcast features Steve McQueen talking about his new film, ‘Blitz’, which details the lives of 20th-century Britons during the Second World Warhttps://monocle.com/radio/shows/monocle-on-culture/684/play/

3. From the Riverford Wicked Leeks blog, Does organic food have a perceived class problem? https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/does-organic-food-have-a-class-problem-in-this-country/

Imagine that tomorrow Keir Starmer announced modest subsidies for organic farmers. Perhaps there’d be a photo opportunity outside Number 10, featuring a podium of organic produce and their proud, organic growers. Across most of Europe this would be a fairly neutral news story. But in England, the dailies would have a field day – accusing Starmer of promoting ‘posh produce’ at the expense of ordinary food. In the opinion columns that followed, journalists and farming union representatives would argue that organic is the preserve of the elites. That it’s backed by the likes of King Charles III and Lady Carole Bamford and eaten by out-of-touch celebrities at upmarket restaurants like Raymond Blanc’s luxury organic Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.

Well, is it (just) a class thing, I wonder, when an organic chicken will cost you £21.45 from Riverford and a non-organic one of the same weight £5 or less from most supermarkets?

4. The ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) is organising a think tank next Wednesday, 4^th December, on the topic “Fostering motivation in language education: what role for decision-makers and educators?” which will be live-streamed on YouTube in both French and English. More info and YouTube links herehttps://www.ecml.at/Cooperation/ThinktankFosteringmotivationinlanguageeducation/tabid/5930/Default.aspx

According to the 2023 edition of the Eurydice report for the European Union – Key data on teaching languages at school in Europe (PDF below) – there has been a decrease in the percentage of students in lower secondary education learning two or more foreign languages since the 2013 edition. Moreover, the findings are even less auspicious in the context of secondary vocational education. This is in stark contrast to the situation regarding the learning of English: more and more education systems are introducing English at an earlier age (in primary or even pre-primary) and currently almost all students (in Europe) in lower secondary are learning English.

Also below, a PDF of the other key document under discussion at the think tank, the Eurobarometer 2024 – “Europeans and their languages”

5. And, finally, the decline and fall of the Lionel Messi-endorsed Indian education colossus Byju’s, as told by Philip Kerr, courtesy (yet again) of OLDaily https://adaptivelearninginelt.wordpress.com/2024/11/19/edtech-winners-and-losers/  Some of the teaching material Philip highlights would be laughable if people hadn’t paid for it …