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Exploring economics: the secret life of t-shirts

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Exploring economics: the secret life of t-shirts
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This free course, Exploring economics: the secret life of t-shirts, aims to describe what goes into making and selling t-shirts. Which resources, which markets, who is involved, the income people get, the income and value they create are all discussed. You will explore these questions at different stages of the production of a t-shirt, and you'll use concepts from economics such as 'supply chains' or 'value added' to answer them. The course will be described using data. You should think about key numbers and data which help constructing evidence of how a t-shirt is produced, from raw cotton to our wardrobe.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • define a supply chain and understand how different stages of the t-shirt production chain can be organised differently
  • engage with different data sources and their objectives
  • read into data to tell an economic story
  • evaluate what the 'made in...' tag on your t-shirt really means.

First Published: 06/06/2019

Updated: 01/04/2020

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