EconomicsQ&A by dot point

2.2 Aggregate demand: the components of AD (consumption, investment, government spending and net exports), the determinants of each, and why the AD curve slopes downward and shifts.

2.2 Aggregate supply and equilibrium: short-run and long-run aggregate supply, the Keynesian and classical LRAS views, macroeconomic equilibrium, and the effect of AD and AS shifts on output and the price level.

2.2 Economic growth and the cycle: the causes of short-run and long-run growth, the phases of the economic cycle, output gaps, and the costs and benefits of growth.

2.2 The circular flow of income: the flow between households and firms, injections and withdrawals, the equilibrium level of national income, and the difference between income, expenditure and output.

2.2 The multiplier and the accelerator: the multiplier process, the marginal propensities and the multiplier formula, the accelerator effect, and their role in the economic cycle.

1.4 Business objectives: profit maximisation, revenue and sales maximisation, growth, satisficing and corporate social responsibility, and the principal-agent problem from the divorce of ownership and control.

1.4 Costs, revenues and profit: fixed and variable costs, marginal, average and total cost, the law of diminishing returns, economies and diseconomies of scale, total, average and marginal revenue, and normal and supernormal profit.

1.4 Market structures: the spectrum of competition, the characteristics and outcomes of perfect competition, barriers to entry and exit, and the theory of contestable markets.

1.4 Imperfect competition: monopolistic competition, oligopoly and interdependence, monopoly and price discrimination, and the costs and benefits of monopoly power.

1.4 The labour market: the demand for and supply of labour, wage determination in competitive labour markets, monopsony, trade unions, and the effect of a national minimum wage.

2.4 Economic development: the difference between growth and development, the measurement of development including the HDI, the barriers to development, and strategies to promote development.

2.4 Exchange rates and the balance of payments: floating and fixed exchange-rate systems, the causes and effects of exchange-rate changes, and the structure of the balance of payments and the current account.

2.4 Globalisation and protectionism: the causes and effects of globalisation, trading blocs, the methods of protection (tariffs, quotas and subsidies), and the arguments for and against protectionism.

2.4 International trade: absolute and comparative advantage, the gains from specialisation and trade, the terms of trade, and the limitations of comparative advantage.

Component 3 synoptic: drawing together microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis to evaluate an unseen theme, the structure of the Themes in economics paper, and the synoptic skills examiners reward.

1.2 Demand, supply and market equilibrium: the determinants of demand and supply, movements versus shifts, equilibrium and disequilibrium, and consumer and producer surplus.

1.2 Economic systems and efficiency: market, planned and mixed economies, the role of the price mechanism in resource allocation, and allocative, productive and dynamic efficiency.

1.2 Elasticities: price, income and cross elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply, their calculation and determinants, and the link between PED and total revenue.

1.1 Production possibility frontiers: the PPF as a model of scarcity and choice, points on, inside and beyond the curve, opportunity cost along the frontier, the shape of the curve, and shifts representing growth or decline.

1.1 Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost: the basic economic problem, finite resources and infinite wants, the factors of production, and positive versus normative statements.

2.1 Measuring growth: real and nominal GDP, GDP per capita, index numbers and the rate of growth, the difference between actual and potential growth, and the limitations of GDP.

2.1 Employment and unemployment: the measurement of unemployment (the Labour Force Survey and the claimant count), the types and causes of unemployment, and the economic costs of unemployment.

2.1 Inequality: the difference between income and wealth, the measurement of inequality through the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient, the causes of inequality, and the equity-efficiency trade-off.

2.1 Inflation: the CPI and RPI, how the index is constructed, demand-pull and cost-push causes, the role of the money supply, and the costs of inflation, deflation and disinflation.

2.1 Economic policy objectives: economic growth, low and stable inflation, low unemployment, a satisfactory balance of payments, and other objectives such as low inequality and environmental sustainability.

2.3 Fiscal policy: government spending and taxation, the budget balance and the national debt, direct and indirect and progressive and regressive taxes, automatic stabilisers, and the strengths and weaknesses of fiscal policy.

2.3 Monetary policy and the financial sector: interest rates and the transmission mechanism, quantitative easing, the role of the central bank and the inflation target, the functions of the financial sector, and financial regulation.

2.3 Policy conflicts and trade-offs: the conflicts between macroeconomic objectives, the short-run Phillips curve trade-off between inflation and unemployment, and the long-run Phillips curve.

2.3 Supply-side policies: market-based and interventionist supply-side policies, their effect on LRAS and the macroeconomic objectives, and their costs, time lags and limitations.

1.3 Externalities: positive and negative externalities of production and consumption, the divergence of private and social costs and benefits, the welfare loss, and the social optimum.

1.3 Government failure: the causes of government failure including distorted price signals, unintended consequences, information gaps and administrative costs, and the case for and against intervention.

1.3 Information failure: imperfect and asymmetric information, moral hazard and adverse selection, and merit and demerit goods leading to under-consumption or over-consumption.

1.3 Public goods: the characteristics of non-rivalry and non-excludability, the free-rider problem, quasi-public goods, and why public goods cause complete market failure.

1.3 Methods of intervention: indirect taxes and subsidies, the incidence of tax and elasticity, maximum and minimum prices, tradable pollution permits, regulation, state provision and information provision.