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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life

Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life

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More or Less: The Power of Pension Fees

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03/01/2014

The Power of Pension Fees

BBC Radio 4 - More or Less, The Power of Pension Fees

Tim Harford and Money Box's Paul Lewis show how small charges hit pension funds hard.

Tim Harford and Money Box's Paul Lewis show how small charges hit pension funds hard. Plus, imperial measures, cycling deaths, and do 100,000 Christians die as martyrs each year?

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 Paul 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).

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.

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