AS Economics₇₁₃₅

During their course of study, students should be encouraged to develop a critical approach to economic models and methods of enquiry. They should have a good knowledge of developments in the UK economy and government policies over the past fifteen years.

Students will be assessed through two examination papers. The first paper will examine mainly the microeconomic topics that are outlined in Section 3.1 of the specification but economic principles included in Section 3.2 of the specification may also enrich a student’s response to some questions. Similarly, the second paper will examine mainly the macroeconomic topics that are outlined in Section 3.2 of the specification but may draw on economic principles from Section 3.1.

Students will be expected to acquire competence in quantitative skills that are relevant to the subject content and be familiar with the various types of statistical and other data which are commonly used by economists. They should be able to make relevant calculations from economic data and be able to interpret data presented in the form of index numbers. Examples of other relevant quantitative skills include: the construction and use of graphs and the application of statistical measures such as the mean and median.

Students should understand the role of evidence in economic decision making but should appreciate the importance of value judgements.

It is expected that students will acquire a good knowledge of trends and developments in the economy which have taken place over the past fifteen years and also have an awareness of earlier events where this helps to give recent developments a longer term perspective.

• •3.1 The operation of markets and market failure
• •3.2 The national economy in a global context