Economics B

Aims of the course

• building knowledge of core microeconomic and macroeconomic concepts.
• investigating economic theory through real-world businesses and the environments in which they operate.
• Breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding with applications to more complex concepts and models are developed in the second year of study.
• apply their knowledge and understanding to both familiar and unfamiliar contexts in the assessment and demonstrate an awareness of current economic events and policies.

Course content

Theme 1 – Markets, consumers and firms

• Scarcity, choice and potential conflicts
• Enterprise, business and the economy
• Introducing the market
• The role of credit in the economy
• Market failure and government intervention
• Revenue, costs, profits and cash

Theme 2 – The wider economic environment

• Business growth and competitive advantage
• Firms, consumers and elasticity of demand
• Productive efficiency
• Life in a global economy
• The economic cycle
• Introduction to macroeconomic policy.

Theme 3 – The global economy

• This theme develops the concepts introduced in Theme 2.
• Globalisation
• Economic factors in business expansion
• Impact of globalisation on global companies
• Impact of globalisation on local and national economies
• Global labour markets
• Inequality and redistribution.

Theme 4 – Making markets work

• This theme develops the concepts introduced in Theme 1.
• Competition and market power
• Market power and market failure
• Market failure across the economy
• Macroeconomic policies and impact on firms and individuals
• Risk and the financial sector.

Assessment

Paper 1 will assess markets and questions will be drawn from Themes 1 and 4.

Overview of assessment

• Written examination.
• The paper comprises three sections.
• Students answer all questions from all sections.
• Section A comprises one data response question
• Sections B and C each comprise one extended open-response question based on data.

Paper 2 will assess the global economic environment and questions will be drawn from Themes 2 and 3.

Overview of assessment

• Written examination.
• The paper comprises three sections.
• Students answer all questions from all sections.
• Section A comprises one data response question.
• Sections B and C each comprise one extended open-response question based on data.

Paper 3 there will be a pre-released context document issued in November of the previous year. The context will be broad, such as an economy, industry, market or economic issue.

The question paper will be in two sections:

• The first section will focus on the broad context provided. This will be outlined through the pre-released document.
• The second section will focus on at least one strand within the context provided, such as a particular firm.

Career Opportunities

The transferable skills that are developed in the study of Economics will allow access to a range of career opportunities. However, there are certain sectors that are particularly relevant:

• Accountancy and finance
• Data analysis
• Banking and investments
• Business management
• Marketing
• Finance