Examiner’s Tips
Economics examiner and Manchester United fan, Swithun Dobson, provides step by step guides to help you produce A* essays for A level Economics .
He helps you to get behind different types of exam questions to understand what the question is really about and what the examiner wants to read.
The key is getting the structure right so you put the information in the best place to maximise your analysis and evaluation marks. In this case, splitting the essay between oil importing and oil exporting countries allows an easy way to analyse the various effects of a fall in oil prices.
The question is really about the four macro economic objectives: stable growth, low unemployment, 2% inflation and a balance on the current account.
For an oil exporter, a fall in the price of oil will reduce export revenues because oil has an inelastic PED. So AD will fall, unemployment will increase, the economy could fall into recession and inflation could fall, even producing deflation. Clearly, this will make the county’s current account less positive/more negative.
For an oil importer, a fall in the oil price will reduce the cost of production and shift the SRAS rightwards, increasing output. Since the demand for oil has an inelastic PED this country will now spend less on it than they did before reducing the size of imports so AD will actually increase which will mean even more growth and a fall in cyclical unemployment. The effect on prices is unclear since AD increased and SRAS increased. The current account will become less negative/more positive.
This question is taken from an AQA past paper but the principles can help you achieve top marks for all exam boards such as Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and more.
This question is quite straightforward but benefits from arguing in the introduction that sugar has a negative externality in consumption. Without this analysis we do not have a yardstick with which to measure whether the tax is a success or failure.
The argument for the sugar tax is essentially that it will reduce the consumption of fizzy drinks to the socially optimal level. Additionally it will reduce the costs to the NHS and will encourage consumers to switch to drinks such as water or diet soft drinks.
The argument against the sugar tax is many fold. Firstly, the government can’t accurately calculate the cost of the negative externality due to sugar. Secondly, it does not know the price elasticity of demand of the demand curve so will likely tax at the wrong level. In addition, taxation will encourage a black market and harm the occasional soft drink consumer by making them pay more when their actions do not cause any costs to the NHS.
This question is taken from an AQA past paper but the principles can help you achieve top marks for all exam boards such as Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and more.
The key is getting the structure right so you put the information in the best place to maximise your analysis and evaluation marks. The structure presented helps you evaluate all the way through.
The question could be taken many ways but the easiest split is to analyse free trade and free immigration. Whilst related, they are quite distinct which provides clear sections to analyse and evaluate.
The arguments for free trade revolve primarily around the maximisation of total welfare, in particular that of consumer surplus. In addition, the exploitation of comparative advantage allows a greater level of specialisation which increases average productivity and hence wages.
The argument against free trade, that is the argument for protectionism, is that foreign competition could kill infant industries and generally cause structural unemployment.
The argument for free immigration is that a greater quantity of labour increases LRAS and also reduces costs for firms.
The argument against free immigration is that it lowers wages of native employees, particularly those of low skilled workers. Further, immigration will likely increase costs to schools and the NHS in the long-run as well as increasing house prices.
This question is taken from an AQA past paper but the principles can help you achieve top marks for all exam boards such as Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and more.
In this case, Swithun uses an eight paragraph structure which helps you evaluate all the way through.
This video highlights why examples are important. Examples help you to apply the theory and make your essay significantly less abstract. You will see Citroen, Tesco, Morrisons and also Top Gear make an appearance.
This question is taken from an AQA past paper but the principles can help you achieve top marks for all exam boards such as Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and more.