AS

Supply and Demand

The structure of AS Economics

Unit One

This is called “Competitive Markets - How They Work and Why They Fail”. You will cover the basics of Economics – the vital tools of supply and demand. You will also look at some important applications of supply and demand – why has the house price fallen recently, for example? Once we have learned how basic markets work, we then go on to consider why markets might fail. For example, why are roads congested? Why are fish stocks falling? Would street lights be provided without government support? We try to answer these questions and many others.

Unit Two

This is called “Managing the Economy”. This is the unit that covers ‘big’ issues that affect the whole economy. Why has inflation been so low for so many years? Why has unemployment been relatively low? Why is it now rising so quickly? Why does the UK import more goods than it exports? Does it matter? We look at lots of ‘macro’ issues, and also learn the tools of macroeconomic analysis – aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves.

Keynes

The examinations

As with most AS subjects, you will have two exams assessing the two units. There will be no coursework. You will sit unit one in January and unit two in June. Both exams are one and a half hours long. In the Economics Department, we take the EDEXCEL exam board examinations, partly because the Head of Department is a Senior Examiner with this board. The structure of the exams is as follows:

• Unit 1: Eight ‘supported’ multiple choice questions plus a choice of one out of two data response questions. The ‘supported’ multiple choice questions require a brief explanation of the answer you pick. This is to avoid lucky guessing! The data response (or ‘stimulus’) questions involve some numerical data or some written text from a newspaper with four short questions and two longer, 'mini-essay' type questions. 
   
• Unit 2: A choice of one out of two data response questions. Each question will be in seven or eight parts - clearly there are more questions than for unit one because there is no multiple choice. The early parts tend to be much shorter questions, perhaps requiring a calculation. The final part will be worth much more marks and will require extended prose and evaluation (much more on that later).