Mr Hounsel - Economics

Key information for Economics September 2016

GCSE requirements:

1.) A grade 5 or higher in Maths & in English Language

2.) IF you have studied GCSE Business or Economics, a grade 5 or a merit in Btec

Course Structure AS Level:

Theme 1: Introduction to markets and market failure
Students will develop an understanding of:
● nature of economics
● how markets work
● market failure
● government intervention.

Theme 2: The UK economy – performance and policies
Students will develop an understanding of:
● measures of economic performance
● aggregate demand
● aggregate supply
● national income
● economic growth
● macroeconomic objectives and policy

Course Structure A Level:

Students build knowledge and understanding of core economic models and concepts in Themes 1 and 2, and then build on this and apply their knowledge to more complex concepts and models in Themes 3 and 4.

Theme 3: Business behaviour and the labour market
Students will develop an understanding of:
● business growth
● business objectives
● revenues, costs and profits
● market structures
● labour market
● government intervention.

Theme 4: A global perspective
Students will develop an understanding of:
● international economics
● poverty and inequality
● emerging and developing economies
● the financial sector
● role of the state in the macroeconomy

Overview of assessment
● 3 Written examination.
● The paper comprises MCQ in paper 1 & 2, then two sections.
● Each section comprises one data response question broken down into a number of parts, including a choice of extended open-response questions; students select one from a choice of two.
● Duration: 2 hours.
● 100 marks available.

Micro Economics

World population clock & trend

Known for his work on population growth, Thomas Robert Malthus argued that, left unchecked, a population will outgrow its resources. He discussed two ways to 'check' a population: preventive checks, like the moral restraint of postponing marriage, or positive checks, like famine, disease and warfare. These occur when you hit your crisis point.

1. Is there any evidence of this argument being true ?
2. What ideas may contradict Malthus?
3. How do we solve this economic problem?

The economic problem:

What do we produce and how do we distribute it?
Group task: What would be the most efficient way to distribute a bag of jelly babies?