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A‑Level Economics (UK) tutor

1 Economic methodology and the economic problem

Scarcity forces every economy to choose what to produce, how to produce it and who gets the output, and each choice costs the next best alternative given up. Topics: Economic methodology, The nature and purpose of economic activity, and economic resources, Scarcity, choice and the allocation of resources, Production possibility diagrams.

2 Individual economic decision making

The traditional model assumes agents choose whatever they expect to make them best off, and this unit tests that assumption. Topics: Consumer behaviour, Imperfect information, Aspects of behavioural economic theory, Behavioural economics and economic policy.

3 Price determination in a competitive market

The demand and supply model and everything a student needs to run it: what shifts each curve, how elastic the response is, how equilibrium is reached, and how a change in one market spreads to related ones. Topics: The determinants of the demand for goods and services, Price, income and cross elasticities of demand, The determinants of the supply of goods and services, Price elasticity of supply, The determination of equilibrium market prices, The interrelationship between markets.

4 Production, costs and revenue

What happens inside the firm before market structure is brought in: how inputs become output, how output relates to cost in the short and long run, how revenue varies with price and quantity, and what profit is for. Topics: Production and productivity, Specialisation, division of labour and exchange, The law of diminishing returns and returns to scale, Costs of production, Economies and diseconomies of scale, Marginal, average and total revenue, Profit, Technological change.

5 Perfect competition, imperfectly competitive markets and monopoly

Firms behave differently depending on how much competition they face, so this unit works along the spectrum from perfect competition to monopoly, one structure at a time. Topics: Market structures, The objectives of firms, Perfect competition, Monopolistic competition, Oligopoly, Monopoly and monopoly power, Price discrimination, The dynamics of competition and competitive market processes, Contestable and non-contestable markets, Market structure, static efficiency, dynamic efficiency and resource allocation, Consumer and producer surplus.

6 The labour market

The demand and supply model applied to labour, where the good being traded is work and the price is the wage. Topics: The demand for labour, marginal productivity theory, Influences upon the supply of labour to different markets, Wage rates and employment in perfectly competitive labour markets, Wage rates and employment in imperfectly competitive labour markets, The influence of trade unions on wages and employment, The National Minimum Wage, Discrimination in the labour market.

7 The distribution of income and wealth: poverty and inequality

How income and wealth are actually spread in the UK, how that distribution is measured, and why calling it fair is a value judgement rather than an economic finding. Topics: The distribution of income and wealth, The problem of poverty, Government policies to alleviate poverty and influence distribution.

8 The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets

The largest micro unit and the heart of Paper 1. Topics: How markets and prices allocate resources, The meaning of market failure, Public goods, private goods and quasi-public goods, Positive and negative externalities in consumption and production, Merit and demerit goods, Market imperfections, Competition policy, Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets, Government intervention in markets, Government failure.

9 The measurement of macroeconomic performance

What governments are trying to achieve for the economy, and the data used to tell whether they are achieving it. Topics: The objectives of government economic policy, Macroeconomic indicators, Uses of index numbers, Uses of national income data.

10 How the macroeconomy works: the circular flow of income, AD/AS analysis and related concepts

The models used to explain national output and the price level: the circular flow of income, and AD/AS analysis with its determinants on both sides. Topics: The circular flow of income, Aggregate demand and aggregate supply analysis, The determinants of aggregate demand, Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity, Determinants of short-run aggregate supply, Determinants of long-run aggregate supply.

11 Economic performance

The three macroeconomic problems examiners return to - growth and the cycle, unemployment, and inflation and deflation - and then the awkward fact that acting on one can worsen another. Topics: Economic growth and the economic cycle, Employment and unemployment, Inflation and deflation, Possible conflicts between macroeconomic policy objectives.

12 Financial markets and monetary policy

How the financial system works and how the Bank of England acts on it. Topics: The structure of financial markets and financial assets, Commercial banks and investment banks, Central banks and monetary policy, The regulation of the financial system.

13 Fiscal policy and supply-side policies

The two policy levers that are not monetary. Topics: Fiscal policy, Supply-side policies.

14 The international economy

The UK economy in its global setting: globalisation and the multinationals driving it, the case for trade and the protectionism that resists it, the balance of payments, exchange rate systems, and growth and development in poorer economies. Topics: Globalisation, Trade, The balance of payments, Exchange rate systems, Economic growth and development.

Data response and quantitative skills

Aristotle's own unit, not an AQA section. Topics: Working with the data-response stimulus, Quantitative skills in economics.

Essays, evaluation and exam technique

Aristotle's own unit, not an AQA section. Topics: Reading the question and building the answer, Evaluation and judgement, Handling the three paper formats.