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Introduction to Economic Principles (AS Unit 1)

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 determine price in a product market, and what do the elasticities tell us about how markets respond?

Demand and supply in product markets, market equilibrium, consumer and producer surplus, and price, income and cross elasticities of demand and supply.
A focused answer to the WJEC A-Level Economics topic of demand, supply and elasticity, covering market equilibrium, consumer and producer surplus, and price, income and cross elasticities of demand and the price elasticity of supply, with worked calculations and UK examples.
13 min answer →

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

Government intervention to correct market failure (taxation, subsidies, price controls, regulation and public provision) and government failure.
A focused answer to the WJEC A-Level Economics topic of government intervention and government failure, covering indirect taxes, subsidies, price controls, regulation and public provision, and the causes of government failure, with UK examples.
13 min answer →

How are wages determined in a labour market, and what happens when minimum wages, trade unions and migration intervene?

Wage determination through the demand for and supply of labour, labour market issues, the national minimum wage and the effects of migration.
A focused answer to the WJEC A-Level Economics topic of labour markets, covering wage determination by the demand for and supply of labour, the national minimum wage, trade unions, labour market failures and the effects of migration, with UK examples.
12 min answer →

Why do free markets sometimes fail to allocate resources efficiently or fairly?

Market failure: externalities, public and merit goods, monopoly power, information failure and inequality.
A focused answer to the WJEC A-Level Economics topic of market failure, covering externalities, public and merit goods, monopoly power, information failure and inequality, with diagrams, welfare analysis and UK examples.
13 min answer →

Why must every economy make choices, and how does the production possibility frontier model the cost of those choices?

Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost; the production possibility frontier; specialisation, the division of labour and productivity.
A focused answer to the WJEC A-Level Economics topic of scarcity, choice and the production possibility frontier, covering opportunity cost, the PPF and its shifts, and specialisation, the division of labour and productivity, with UK and Welsh examples.
12 min answer →

How does the price mechanism allocate resources in a free market, and how rationally do consumers and producers actually behave?

The allocation of resources in a free market, the functions of the price mechanism, and assumptions of rational economic behaviour.
A focused answer to the WJEC A-Level Economics topic of resource allocation in a free market, covering the rationing, signalling and incentive functions of the price mechanism and the assumption of rational economic behaviour, with UK examples and behavioural critiques.
12 min answer →