← Economics syllabus

Northern IrelandEconomics

AS 1: The Market System

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do demand and supply interact to set the price and quantity in a market?

The determinants of demand and supply, movements along and shifts of the curves, market equilibrium and disequilibrium, and consumer and producer surplus.
A focused CCEA A-Level Economics answer on demand and supply, covering the laws of demand and supply, the determinants that shift each curve, the difference between movements and shifts, how equilibrium price and quantity are set, disequilibrium, and consumer and producer surplus, with a worked equilibrium analysis.
10 min answer →

How responsive are demand and supply to changes in price and income, and why does that matter?

Price, income and cross elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply, their calculation, determinants, and applications to revenue, taxation and producers.
A focused CCEA A-Level Economics answer on elasticity, covering price, income and cross elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply, how each is calculated and interpreted, the determinants of each, and applications to total revenue, taxation incidence and producer decisions, with worked calculations.
11 min answer →

How can governments correct market failure, and why might intervention make things worse?

Methods of government intervention - indirect taxes, subsidies, regulation, price controls, tradable permits and state provision - their effects, and the causes of government failure.
A focused CCEA A-Level Economics answer on government intervention, covering indirect taxes, subsidies, regulation, maximum and minimum prices, tradable pollution permits, provision of public and merit goods and information, the incidence of taxation, and the causes of government failure, with worked tax incidence.
11 min answer →

When and why does the free market fail to allocate resources efficiently?

The types of market failure - externalities, public goods, merit and demerit goods, information failure, and the abuse of monopoly power - and the resulting welfare loss.
A focused CCEA A-Level Economics answer on market failure, covering positive and negative externalities, public goods, merit and demerit goods, information failure, factor immobility and monopoly power, with the social versus private cost framework, the welfare loss triangle and worked externality analysis.
11 min answer →

Why does scarcity force every economy to choose, and how do different systems decide what to produce?

The fundamental economic problem of scarcity, opportunity cost, the factors of production, the production possibility frontier, and the market, command and mixed economic systems.
A focused CCEA A-Level Economics answer on the basic economic problem, covering scarcity, opportunity cost, the four factors of production, the production possibility frontier and its shifts, and the market, command and mixed economic systems, with worked PPF reasoning and exam technique.
10 min answer →

How do prices allocate scarce resources, and how does consumer utility explain demand?

The functions of the price mechanism, the inter-relationships between markets, and the theory of consumer utility including marginal utility and the paradox of value.
A focused CCEA A-Level Economics answer on the price mechanism and consumer utility, covering the signalling, incentive and rationing functions of prices, how related markets interact, total and marginal utility, the law of diminishing marginal utility, and the diamond-water paradox of value, with worked reasoning.
10 min answer →