A Level Economics Syllabus
1. A Level Basics of Economics
- Introduction to economics
- Basic economic concepts and principles
- Scarcity and choice
- Opportunity cost
- Factors of production
- Production possibility curve
- Market forces of demand and supply
- Elasticity of demand and supply
- Price determination in different markets
2. A Level Introduction to Macroeconomics
- Macroeconomic objectives
- Circular flow of income
- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
- Macroeconomic indicators (GDP, inflation, unemployment)
- Business cycles and economic fluctuations
- Fiscal policy
- Monetary policy
- International trade and globalization
3. A Level National Income Accounting
- National income and its measurement
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Gross National Product (GNP)
- Disposable income
- Real vs. nominal GDP
- GDP deflator
- Limitations of GDP as a measure of welfare
4. A Level Money & Banking
- Functions of money
- Central bank and commercial banks
- Money creation and money supply
- Monetary policy tools
- Money market and interest rates
- Role of banks in the economy
- Financial intermediation
5. A Level Determination of Income & Employment
- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply model
- Aggregate demand components (consumption, investment, government spending, net exports)
- Keynesian vs. classical economics
- Multiplier effect
- Fiscal policy and its impact on income and employment
- Crowding out effect
6. A Level Government Budget & the Economy
- Government revenue and expenditure
- Budget deficit and surplus
- Public debt and its implications
- Types of taxes (direct and indirect)
- Tax incidence and tax burden
- Government expenditure policies
- Fiscal consolidation and austerity measures
7. A Level Open Economy Macroeconomics
- Balance of payments
- Exchange rates and their determination
- Foreign exchange market
- Current account and capital account
- Trade policies (tariffs, quotas, subsidies)
- Economic integration (EU, NAFTA, ASEAN)
- Exchange rate regimes (fixed, floating, managed)
8. A Level Introduction to Microeconomics
- Microeconomic principles and concepts
- Demand and supply analysis
- Consumer behavior and utility theory
- Elasticity of demand and supply
- Production and cost analysis
- Market structures (perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition)
- Price determination in different market structures
9. A Level Theory of Consumer Behaviour
- Marginal utility and consumer choice
- Budget constraint and consumer equilibrium
- Indifference curve analysis
- Income and substitution effects
- Price and income elasticity of demand
- Consumer surplus
10. A Level Production & Costs
- Production function and its relationship with inputs
- Short-run and long-run production decisions
- Total, average, and marginal product
- Law of diminishing returns
- Cost concepts (fixed cost, variable cost, total cost, average cost, marginal cost)
- Economies of scale and diseconomies of scale
11. A Level The Theory of the Firm under Perfect Competition
- Characteristics of perfect competition
- Profit maximization in the short run and long run
- Shut-down condition
- Entry and exit decisions
- Allocative and productive efficiency
- Price and output determination in the short run and long run
- Perfectly competitive market equilibrium
12. A Level Market Equilibrium
- Price determination in different market structures
- Market equilibrium and disequilibrium
- Surplus and shortage
- Price floors and price ceilings
- Market interventions and their impact
- Consumer and producer surplus analysis
13. A Level Non Competitive Markets
- Monopoly and its characteristics
- Monopoly power and market control
- Price discrimination
- Natural monopoly
- Monopolistic competition and product differentiation
- Oligopoly and strategic behavior
- Collusion and cartel formation
14. A Level Introduction: Statistics for Economics
- Importance of statistics in economics
- Data collection and sources
- Types of data (primary and secondary)
- Sampling techniques (random sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling)
- Sampling errors and bias
- Data presentation and analysis
- Descriptive statistics
15. A Level Collection of Data
- Census and sample surveys
- Questionnaire design and administration
- Interview techniques
- Observation methods
- Experimentation in economics
- Data collection challenges and limitations
- Ethical considerations in data collection
16. A Level Organisation of Data
- Classification and tabulation of data
- Frequency distribution
- Grouped and ungrouped data
- Data coding and data entry
- Data editing and cleaning
- Data storage and retrieval
- Data management software (Excel, SPSS, etc.)
17. A Level Presentation of Data
- Graphical representation of data
- Bar charts and histograms
- Line graphs and time series
- Pie charts and percentage distribution
- Scatter plots and correlation analysis
- Box plots and quartiles
- Data visualization techniques
18. A Level Measures of Central Tendency
- Mean, median, and mode
- Weighted mean
- Properties of measures of central tendency
- Skewness and its interpretation
- Comparing measures of central tendency
- Uses and limitations of measures of central tendency
19. A Level Measures of Dispersion
- Range and interquartile range
- Variance and standard deviation
- Coefficient of variation
- Properties of measures of dispersion
- Skewness and kurtosis
- Uses and limitations of measures of dispersion
- Sampling variability
20. A Level Correlation
- Scatter plots and correlation coefficient
- Positive and negative correlation
- Strength and direction of correlation
- Karl Pearson's coefficient of correlation
- Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
- Testing the significance of correlation
- Causation vs. correlation
21. A Level Index Number
- Uses and importance of index numbers
- Construction of index numbers
- Laspeyres, Paasche, and Fisher index numbers
- Price index and quantity index
- Chain base and fixed base index numbers
- Limitations of index numbers
- Inflation and deflation measurement
22. A Level Use of Statistical Tools
- Hypothesis testing and significance level
- Type I and Type II errors
- One-sample and two-sample tests
- t-test and z-test
- Chi-square test
- Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
- Regression analysis and interpretation
23. A Level The UK Economy- Performance & Policies
- Overview of the UK economy
- Economic indicators and performance
- Economic policies in the UK
- Monetary policy of the Bank of England
- Fiscal policy and government interventions
- Inequality and poverty issues
- Brexit and its impact on the UK economy
Note: This syllabus is intended as a general guideline and may vary depending on the specific curriculum and examination board. Students are advised to refer to their respective course materials and syllabi for detailed information.
This course is helpful for the following exams: Year 13, A Level