A-Level Economics
Curriculum:
Click to Expand Year 12 Autumn Content:
Economic Methodology and the Economic Problem
Price Determination in a Competitive Market
Production, Costs and Revenue
Competitive and Concentrated Markets
The Market Mechanism, Market Failure and Government Intervention in Markets
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
- The difference between positive and normative statements
- The central purpose of economic activity is the production of goods and services to satisfy needs and wants
- The key economic decisions are: what to produce, how to produce, and who is to benefit from the goods and services produced
- The economists’ classification of economic resources into land, labour, capital and enterprise, which are the factors of production
- The idea of scarcity and Opportunity Cost
- Production Possibility diagrams
- Allocative and productive efficiency
- The factors which determine the demand for a good or service
- A demand curve shows the relationship between price and quantity demanded
- The causes of shifts in the demand curve
- Calculating and Interpreting PED, YED and XED
- Factors that influence elasticity
- The factors which determine the supply of a good or service
- A supply curve shows the relationship between price and quantity supplied
- The causes of shifts in the supply curve
- Calculating and Interpreting PES
- Determining equilibrium points
- How and why some markets impact on other markets
- The meaning of production and productivity
- The benefits and drawbacks of specialisation
- Calculating Total, Fixed and Variable costs
- Determining Short-run and Long-run costs
- Types of Economy and Diseconomy of scale
- Calculating Profit and Revenue
- The concept of ‘Marginal’ costs, revenue and profit
- The range of market structures
- How to identify market structures
- Objectives of firms depending on market structure type
- How price is determined in competitive markets
- The difference between a monopoly and monopoly power
- Calculating concentration ratios
- Benefits and drawbacks of the existence of monopolies
- Non-price competition
- The functions of price
- What is market failure and how does it occur
- Types of market failure
- Types of goods (public, private, merit and demerit)
- Positive and Negative Externalities
- Distribution of income and wealth
- Government policies to correct market failure
- Government failure
Click to Expand Year 12 Spring Content:
The Measurement of Macroeconomic Performance
How the Macroeconomy Works
Economic Performance
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
- The main objectives of the government
- Possible conflicts between objectives
- Economic indicators e.g. GDP
- Calculating index numbers
- The circular flow of income
- Injections and withdrawals to national income
- Determinants of aggregate demand and aggregate supply
- How to use aggregate demand and aggregate supply to show economic growth
- The multiplier effect
- The difference between short run and long run growth
- Positive and Negative output gaps
- Real vs Trend growth
- How unemployment is measured
- Types of unemployment
- Consequences of unemployment
- What is inflation/deflation/disinflation/stagflation
- Types of inflation/deflation
- How trade impacts the UK
- Conflicts between objectives
Click to Expand Year 12 Summer Content:
Macroeconomic Policy
Economic Methodology and the Economic Problem
Individual Economic Decision Making
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
- What is monetary policy
- The role of the Bank of England in the economy
- How interest rates are set
- The impact of monetary policy on the economy
- What is fiscal policy
- The role of the government in the economy
- Different types of tax
- How and why the government spend money
- Policies to increase aggregate supply
- A recap of all Year 12 content (see Autumn Term topic web)
- How decisions are made
- The theory of utility and the margin
- The impact of imperfect information
- The emergence of behavioural economics
- Behavioural economic policy
Click to Expand Year 13 Autumn Content:
Price Determination in a Competitive Market
Production, Costs and Revenue
Perfect Competition, Imperfectly Competitive Markets and Monopoly
The Labour Market
The Distribution of Income and Wealth: Poverty and Inequality
The Market Mechanism, Market Failure and Government Intervention in Markets
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
- A recap of Year 12 content (see Year 12 Autumn Content)
- A recap of Year 12 content (see Year 12 Autumn Content)
- The law of diminishing returns
- Returns to scale
- Marginal and Average revenue curves
- The relationship between marginal and average revenue
- Supernormal profit
- The impact of technology of costs and production
- The profit maximising point
- Divorce of ownership and satisficing
- Diagram analysis of all market structures
- Behaviour of firms
- Collusive oligopolies
- The kinked demand curves
- The interdependence of firms in an oligopolistic market
- Advantages and disadvantages of oligopolistic markets
- Types of price discrimination
- Producer and consumer surplus
- Advantages and disadvantages of price discrimination
- Contestable vs non-contestable markets
- Types of efficiency
- The demand and supply for labour
- Marginal productivity/revenue
- Determinants of labour demand and supply
- The substitution effect
- Non-monetary considerations
- How to determine a wage rate
- The role of trade unions and the government
- The national minimum/living wage
- Discrimination in the labour market
- The Lorenz curve and Gini Coefficient
- Costs and benefits of inequality
- Types of poverty
- Causes and effects of poverty
- Government policies to solve inequality
- A recap of Year 12 content (see Year 12 Autumn Content)
- Competition policy
- Public vs private ownership
- Privatisation, nationalisation and re-nationalisation
- Regulatory capture
Click to Expand Year 13 Spring Content:
The Measurement of Macroeconomic Performance
How the Macroeconomy Works
Economic Performance
Financial Markets and Monetary Policy
Fiscal Policy and Supply-side Policies
The International Economy
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
Key Concepts:
- A recap of Year 12 content (see Year 12 Autumn Content)
- The use and limitations of using data to assess living standards
- The use of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
- A recap of Year 12 content (see Year 12 Autumn Content)
- A recap of Year 12 content (see Year 12 Autumn Content)
- The functions of money
- The difference between narrow money and broad money
- The role of financial markets in the economy
- The difference between debt and equity
- Calculating bond yields
- The difference between commercial and investment banks
- How banks create credit
- Regulation of the financial system
- Calculating and analysing ratios
- A recap of Year 12 content (see Year 12 Autumn Content)
- Causes of globalisation
- Consequences of globalisation for developed and developing economies
- The model of comparative and competitive advantage
- Benefits and drawbacks to trade
- Protectionism and its consequences
- Custom and currency unions
- Types of exchange rate systems (advantages and disadvantages)
- The difference between economic growth and economic development
- Barriers to growth and development
- Policies to help promote both growth and development
Click to Expand Year 13 Summer Content:
By this point in the academic year, we have completed the course content and we are focusing on revision, exam technique and pace.
Subject Overview:
A-Level students have 5 Economics lessons each week.
Students have Economics homework set each lesson, however all students in Sixth Form are expected to allocate time outside of lessons for further study.
Assessments:
Students sit an assessment at the end of each topic and unit.
Additionally, completed exam questions set in class or for homework are formally assessed
