Available online
Description
When the government announced that fees charged by pension providers could be capped, many listeners were sceptical that the benefits could be as great as was being claimed. Money Box presenter Pau...l Lewis explains why the numbers do add up. And Tim Harford interviews Dr Matt Levy of UCL about the power of compound charges, and why people often find it so hard a mathematical concept to understand.Are Christians "by far the most persecuted religious body on the planet"? It's claimed that an average of 100,000 have died as martyrs every year for the past decade. The Vatican's called it a credible number. But is it? Ruth Alexander and Tim Harford fact-check the widely-quoted statistic.Plus, the logic of imperial measures, as explored by Number Hub presenter Matt Parker; and is Britain's railway really Europe's 'most improved'?Also, six cyclists were killed in just two weeks in London at the end of 2013. Does this statistic show dangers have increased for cyclists? Tim interviews Jody Aberdein, who has crunched the numbers for Significance Magazine (You can find the article Jody co-wrote with Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2013.00715.x/pdf).
When the government announced that fees charged by pension providers could be capped, many listeners were sceptical that the benefits could be as great as was being claimed. Money Box presenter Pau...l Lewis explains why the numbers do add up. And Tim Harford interviews Dr Matt Levy of UCL about the power of compound charges, and why people often find it so hard a mathematical concept to understand.Are Christians "by far the most persecuted religious body on the planet"? It's claimed that an average of 100,000 have died as martyrs every year for the past decade. The Vatican's called it a credible number. But is it? Ruth Alexander and Tim Harford fact-check the widely-quoted statistic.Plus, the logic of imperial measures, as explored by Number Hub presenter Matt Parker; and is Britain's railway really Europe's 'most improved'?Also, six cyclists were killed in just two weeks in London at the end of 2013. Does this statistic show dangers have increased for cyclists? Tim interviews Jody Aberdein, who has crunched the numbers for Significance Magazine (You can find the article Jody co-wrote with Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2013.00715.x/pdf).
| Series: | More or less |
|---|---|
| Episode | 3 |
| First transmission date: | 2014-01-03 |
| Original broadcast channel: | BBC Radio 4 |
| Published: | 2014 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:25:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producers: | Ruth Alexander; Richard Vadon |
| Presenter: | Tim Harford |
| Contributors: | Tim Harford; Paul Lewis; Matt Levy; Ruth Alexander; Matt Parker; Jody Aberdein |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Subject terms: | Economics; Mathematics; Statistics |
| Production number: | AUDA854B |
| Available to public: | no |
