The A level Economics course will consider how markets work, looking at how supply and demand interact to allocate resources in local, national and international markets.

Having investigated how markets work, students will then look at market failure. They will look at the nature and causes of market failure before considering the strengths and weaknesses of possible government intervention to remedy market failures. In conjunction with this, students will also be introduced to the aggregate demand/aggregate supply model so that they can use it to analyse changes in real output and the price level.

The Core Concepts

Students will:

• Examine the use of demand-side policies, supply-side policies and direct controls as means of improving an economy's performance
• Recognise the underlying assumptions
• Predict the likely impact and effectiveness of such policies and consider these in an historical context.

The course is split into the following four themes.

Theme 1

This theme introduces students to the microeconomic nature of economics, looking at economic problems and the ways economists think and work.

Theme 2

This theme is one of two in this qualification that focuses on macroeconomics. This theme introduces the key measures of economic performance and the main instruments of economic policy primarily in a UK context.

Theme 3

This theme builds on the content of Theme 1: Introduction to markets and market failure and focuses on business economics. Students will need to build upon the knowledge, skills and understanding developed from Theme 1 in Theme 3, making connections across these two microeconomic themes in Paper 1.

Theme 4

This theme builds on the knowledge and skills gained in Theme 2: The UK economy – performance and policies and applies them in a global context. Students will need to build upon the knowledge, skills and understanding developed from Theme 2.