Introduction

This course, Exploring economics: the secret life of t-shirts, aims to describe what goes into making and selling a t-shirt: which resources, which markets, who is involved, the income people get, the income and value they create. You will explore these questions at different stages of the production of a t-shirt, and will use concepts from economics such as supply chains and value-added to answer them. The secret life of t-shirts will be described using data. This will help you to think about key numbers and data which help to construct evidence of how a t-shirt is produced, from raw cotton to our wardrobe. To look at data, to interpret it, and to construct your own, means that you will also be developing some maths skills.

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 organized 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.