Economics (9640)

27 sections available · 89 chapters available

Free Economics (9640) study notes for Oxford AQA International A-level students. Each chapter below covers a key topic with worked examples and practice prompts you can take into the thinka app.

The operation of markets, market failure and the role of government

  • The economic problem and methodology

  • How markets work

  • An introduction to production, costs, revenue and profit

  • Competitive and concentrated markets

  • Market failure and government intervention in markets

The economic problem and methodology

    How markets work

    • Price elasticity of supply

    Unit 1 (AS): The economic problem, demand and supply

    • The nature and purpose of economic activity

    • Economic resources

    • Scarcity, choice and the allocation of resources

    • Production possibility diagrams

    • Economic methodology

    • The demand for goods and services

    • Price, income and cross elasticities of demand

    • The supply of goods and services and price elasticity of supply

    An introduction to production, costs, revenue and profit

    • Economies and diseconomies of scale

    Unit 1 (AS): Prices, production and competitive markets

    • The determination of market prices

    • The interrelationship between markets

    • How markets and prices allocate resources

    • Production and productivity

    • Specialisation, division of labour and exchange

    • Costs of production, economies and diseconomies of scale

    • Average revenue, total revenue and profit

    • Market structures and the objectives of firms (AS)

    Unit 1 (AS): Competition, market failure and government intervention

    • Competitive markets (AS)

    • Monopoly, monopoly power and the competitive market process (AS)

    • The meaning of market failure

    • Private goods, public goods and quasi-public goods

    • Positive and negative externalities in consumption and production

    • Merit and demerit goods

    • Market imperfections and an inequitable distribution of income and wealth

    • Government intervention in markets and government failure

    Competitive and concentrated markets

    • The objectives of firms

    • The competitive market process

    Market failure and government intervention in markets

    • An inequitable distribution of income and wealth

    • Government failure

    Unit 2 (AS): Measuring performance and how the macroeconomy works

    • The objectives of government economic policy

    • Macroeconomic indicators

    • The circular flow of income

    • Aggregate demand and aggregate supply analysis

    • Determinants of aggregate demand

    • Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity

    • Determinants of short-run aggregate supply

    • Determinants of long-run aggregate supply

    Unit 2 (AS): Economic performance and macroeconomic policy

    • Economic growth and the economic cycle

    • Employment and unemployment

    • Inflation and deflation

    • The balance of payments on current account

    • Possible conflicts between macroeconomic policy objectives

    • Monetary policy

    • Fiscal policy

    • Supply-side policies

    The measurement of macroeconomic performance

      Unit 3 (A2 only): Business objectives, costs, revenue and profits

      • Rational decision making and behavioural influences

      • The objectives of firms

      • The growth of firms

      • The law of diminishing returns and returns to scale

      • Short-run and long-run cost curves

      • Marginal, average and total revenue curves

      • Profit

      • Technological change

      How the macroeconomy works

        Economic performance

          Unit 3 (A2 only): Market structures, competition and efficiency

          • Market structures (A2)

          • Perfect competition

          • Monopolistic competition

          • Oligopoly

          • Monopoly, monopoly power and price discrimination

          • Contestable markets and the dynamics of competition

          • Static and dynamic efficiency, consumer and producer surplus

          • Competition policy, privatisation and regulation

          Unit 3 (A2 only): The labour market, poverty and inequality

          • The demand for labour, marginal productivity theory

          • The supply of labour to different labour markets

          • Wages and employment in perfectly competitive labour markets

          • Wages and employment in imperfectly competitive labour markets

          • Discrimination in the labour market

          • Minimum wage laws

          • The distribution of income and wealth within an economy

          • Government policies on poverty and the distribution of income and wealth

          Macroeconomic policy

            The objectives of individuals and firms

            • Behavioural influences on individual economic decision making

            Unit 4 (A2 only): Economic development and the global economy

            • Globalisation

            • Trade, comparative advantage and protectionism

            • The balance of payments

            • Exchange rates

            • Financial markets

            • Measuring economic growth, development and living standards

            • Factors that affect economic development

            • Policies to promote development

            Costs, revenue and profits

            • Long-run cost curves

            Perfect competition, imperfectly competitive markets and monopoly

            • Price discrimination

            • The dynamics of competition and competitive market processes

            • Consumer and producer surplus

            • Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets

            The labour market

              Poverty and inequality

                Globalisation and trade

                  The balance of payments, exchange rates and financial markets

                    Economic growth and development

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