Aylesford school 16

Economics

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Economics is the study of the behaviour of individuals, firms and government in aiming to achieve wealth and well-being in society. It gives students the skills to reason logically and think in terms of the short and long-term consequences of actions on the UK and global economy.

Year 12 Term 1 Term 2 Term 3
Key Topic: Market structures, market failure and government interventions into markets How economy works. Macroeconomic policies International economy
New Knowledge:
  • Market structures
  • Price discrimination
  • Consumer and producer’s surplus
  • The meaning of market failure
  • Private and public goods, quasi-public goods
  • Merit and demerit goods
  • Externalities
  • Information failure
  • Government interventions to tackle market failure
  • Government failure
  • Circular flow model
  • AD/AS model
  • The objectives of government economic policy
  • Economic growth and economic cycle
  • Unemployment
  • Inflation and deflation
  • The balance of payment on current account
  • Possible conflicts between macroeconomic objectives
  • Macroeconomic policies
  • World economic indexes
  • Trade
  • The Balance of Payments
  • Exchange rate system
  • Revision on Micro & Macro topics
  • End of year assessment and feedback
Previous Knowledge Required:

Mathematics skills:

  • Fractions
  • Means and medians
  • percentages and percentages changes
  • Diagrams and graph plotting
  • Areas on diagrams
  • Calculation of concentration ratios, means and medians, percentages and percentage change
  • Economic chains of reasoning using microeconomics specific terms
  • Analytical reasoning, and critical thinking
  • Opportunity cost calculation
  • PPF and other diagrams applied in new context
  • Price index
  • Percentage economic values, like bank rate and percentage change like inflation rate = percentage change in CPI
  • Diagrammatical analysis
New Skills:
  • Calculation of opportunity cost, total, average, and marginal microeconomic values, concentration ratios
  • Using graphs and diagrams to calculate consumer and producer surplus, profit and losses, tax gain or tax burden, social welfare loss etc.
  • Developing analytical reasoning, evaluation and critical thinking, on economic problems
  • Calculation of macroeconomic ratios, means, medians and indexes
  • Percentage economic values, like bank rate and inflation rate
  • Using AD/AS model to analyse the impact on macroeconomic performance 
  • Further development of diagrammatical analysis
  • Expanding the research skill on suggested Economics topics
  • Solving Economics MCQ s and various exam type questions
  • Exam type skills, like time management, planning and writing a long answer
Links to the School Curriculum:
  • Mathematics: calculations and graphs analysis
  • Psychology: understanding changes in behaviour, choices, demand determinants etc.
  • Business: market structures, business objectives, cost, revenue and profit, Government policies and interventions.
  • Geography: environmental impact of growth, renewable/non-renewable resources, negative externalities from production and consumption
  • Mathematics: calculations of fractions, ratios, percentages and graphs analysis etc.
  • Business: fiscal policy and supply side policy, inflation and unemployment.
  • Mathematics: calculations and graphs analysis
  • Geography: economic growth and economic development indicators. Global economic flows, and Trade Unions.  Globalisation and TNCs
Independent Activities:

Wider reading:

  • ­Freakonomics: Steven D. Levitt
  • The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey: Ken Schoolland
  • Thinking Fast and Slow: D Kahneman and A Tversky
  • Murder at the Margin: Marshall Jevons

Film:

  • Chain reaction, 2022
  • The story of stuff, 2007
  • The End of Poverty?, 2008

Wider reading :

  • 23 Things they don’t tell you about capitalism: Ha Joon Chang
  • Good economics for hard times: AV. Banerjee and E Duflo

Film:

  • The Money masters, 1996
  • Crash: Are we Ready for the Next Crisis, 2019
  • Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, 2005 

Wider reading

  • Economics in One Lesson: H Hazlitt
  • The Undercover Economist: T Harford

Film:

  • Gold: The Story of Man's 6000 Year Obsession, 2018
  • Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It, 2015
Web Links: https://www.economist.com/https://www.theguardian.comhttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tedx+talks+Dan+arielyhttps://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/videos/economics-for-peoplehttps://www.sporcle.com/games/tags/basiceconomics https://topessaywriter.org/100-basic-economics-questions-economics-quiz/https://www.councilforeconed.org/economic-literacy-quiz/ https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/nowtopia-a-documentary-about-economic-alternatives-2020/https://www.econlib.org/library/topics/highschool/divisionoflaborspecialization.htmlhttps://www.fresheconomicthinking.com/p/teaching.html
Year 13 Term 1 Term 2 Term 3
Key Topic: Market structures, market failure and government interventions into markets National and International economy Study leave and AQA Exams
New Knowledge:
  • Competitive market structures
  • Contestable markets
  • Impact of technology on competition
  • The objectives and behaviour of firms
  • Labour market & perfectly competitive labour markets
  • Wage differences and discrimination
  • Government interventions on labour market
  • Unions and employment
  • Information failure
  • Income and wealth inequalities and market failure
  • Intervention through taxation and government failure
  • Intervention through price and government failure
  • UK’s NMW policy
  • Competition policy
  • Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets 
  • The objectives of government economic policy
  • Macroeconomic indicators
  • Possible conflicts between macroeconomic objectives
  • The structure of financial markets and financial assets
  • Commercial banks and investment banks
  • The regulations of financial system
  • Globalization
  • The role of the WTO, and other commercial unions and agreements
  • Deeper analysis of  the balance of payments
  • Exchange rate system and different exchange regimes
  • Economic growth and development
  • Revision Paper 1, 2 & 3
  • Layout and potential content of exam papers
  • Strategies for answering questions
  • Feedback and improvements from mock exams
Previous Knowledge Required:
  • Market structures
  • Allocative, productive, static and dynamic efficiency
  • Consumer and producer’s surplus
  • The meaning of total or partial market failure
  • Private and public goods, quasi-public goods
  • Different externalities and market failure through marginal analysis
  • Government interventions to tackle information failure
  • Government failure
  • Macroeconomic policies
  • The measurements of macroeconomic performance
  • AD/AS analysis and related concepts
  • Economic growth and economic cycle
  • Types, effects, and measurement of unemployment
  • Inflation and deflation
  • The balance of payment on current account
  • Possible conflicts between macroeconomic objectives
  • Monetary, fiscal and supply side policy and QE
  • Trade and currency exchange rate
  • All Paper 1 content for revision
  • All Paper 2 content for revision
  • All Paper 3 content for revision
  • All formulae and calculations required
  • All key terms required
New Skills:
  • Developing calculation skills on economic raw data, marginal and average product returns and graph plotting
  • Ability to draw and interpret a variety of diagrams to show price and output determination
  • Interpretation of a variety of diagrams and graphs
  • Expanding independent research and analysis skills
  • Calculations of the multiplier using the MPC and diagrammatic analysis under classical or Keynesian model
  • Ability to build relevant chains of reasoning  to analyse the impact of different policy changes on macroeconomic performance
  • More diagrammatic practice to illustrate growth, unemployment and inflation issues
  • Extension of evaluation and critical assessment on alternative policies through advantages/disadvantages charts
  • Further development of economic essay writing skill
  • Problem solving and economics MCQ answering
  • Further developing time management, revision planning and self-assessing exam knowledge
  • Synoptic analytical reasoning, evaluation and critical thinking
Links to the School Curriculum:
  • Mathematics: calculations and analysis of graphs
  • Psychology: behaviourist approach on human choices, the role of formal and informal institutions on behaviour.
  • Business: market structures and objectives of firms, cost, revenue and profit. Government policy and intervention.
  • Geography: environmental impact of growth, renewable/non-renewable resources, negative externalities from production and consumption
  • Sociology: inequality and policies to fight poverty; theory and research methods subjectivity, objectivity and value judgement
  • Mathematics: calculations of fractions, ratios, percentages, graphs and raw data analysis etc.
  • Business: fiscal policy and supply side policies, inflation and unemployment. Financial markets
  • Sociology: supply-side policies, with focus on education.
 
Independent Activities:

Wider reading:

  • Wealth, Poverty and Politics: T Sowell 

Film:

  • 99 Homes, 2014
  • The Company Men, 2010
  • Margin Call, 2011

Wider reading:

  • Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism: Mariana Mazzucato
  • Film:

    The Big Short, 2015

Wider reading:

  • The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations: J Soll
  • Development as Freedom: Amartya Sen
  • Doughnut Economics: Kate Raworth

Film:

  • China: Power and Prosperity, 2019
  • Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, 2002 
Web Links: https://www.economist.com/https://www.theguardian.comhttps://www.youtube.com/c/NewEconomicThinkinghttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tedx+talks+economics https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/29/99-homes-review-andrew-garfield-and-michael-shannon-flog-the-foundations-of-america https://www.investopedia.comhttps://prosperityeconomics.orghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEYdS5sUR90 https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/020115/big-short-explained.asphttps://prosperityeconomics.org/lessons-big-short/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/our-work/https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_raworth_a_healthy_economy_should_be_designed_to_thrive_not_grow?language=en

Economics Curriculum

 

 

Economics Curriculum