Economics is a social science, which studies the production, distribution, and consumption of services and goods. Macroeconomics looks at the behavior and performance of an economy, as a whole. It focuses on the aggregate changes in the economy such as growth rate, gross domestic product, unemployment, and inflation. Microeconomics looks at the behavior of how individuals, groups and businesses make decisions at the small scale, including topics such as: marginal utility and demand; diminishing returns and supply; elasticity of demand and supply; market structures; role of prices and profits in determining resource allocation.
Students who study GCSE or IGCSE Economics learn how consumers, producers and governments interact in markets, nationally and internationally. This course introduces students to the basic economics concepts and helps them develop the appropriate range of analytical, critical and reasoning skills to enable them to begin to think as economists. Not many students elect to study Economics at GCSE and most schools cannot offer it in an already over-crowded GCSE curriculum. GCSE Exam Boards for Economics include AQA, OCR, IGCSE Edexcel, CCEA.
GCSE Economics should increase a student's understanding of the world in which they live and enable them to engage more effectively with current and historical economic issues on a local, national and global level. Students will develop economic knowledge, understanding and skills, and be able to read and comprehend articles written by leading economists. They should also be able to consider the ethical, moral and sustainability issues that arise as a result of the impact of economic activity.
At A-Level, students explore different types of economic behaviour in order to understand different factors and how they interrelate; they evaluate economic models and policies; they investigate why markets fail in the free market system and what governments can do to solve this; they investigate economic problems such as inflation and unemployment, along with the best policies that governments can adopt.
Economics is a rigorous academic subject and is well respected by top universities. Many A-Level students will go on to pursue university degrees in Economics and other business-related subjects, with many choosing career paths in finance. However, the wide variety of skills developed through this course will also provide a solid foundation for a host of other degrees and careers.
