Economics
Economics is a contemporary, thought provoking and evolving subject. It is always in the news, unearthing new problems and proposing new remedies. Economics is one of the social sciences: a group of subjects that study various aspects of human behaviour. The challenge of learning about something that exerts a significant influence over your behaviour and life should be given serious consideration.
It concentrates on how we behave when faced with the economic problem that the world has too few resources to produce enough goods and services to satisfy all of its people. Given this economic problem, choices have to be made about what, how and for whom to produce goods and services. Economists study how people, businesses and governments make choices and the consequences of their decisions.
The course being followed is the AQA Economics Specification (7136).
Entry Requirements
Grade 6 in Economics, Business, or a Humanities subject if studied at GCSE
During the A Level course, you will encounter the underlying models and theories of Economics and be expected to apply them to various real-world situations. In addition to acquiring a sound knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, you will also need to develop your powers of logical analysis and evaluation. To be successful it will help to keep abreast of current affairs and to read around the subject. The statistical and data handling aspects of the work require no more than a competent performance at GCSE Mathematics.
Topics Covered
Over the two year course, students will study the following:
Individuals, firms, markets, and market failure (microeconomics)
- Economic methodology and the economic problem
- Individual economic decision making
- Price determination in a competitive market
- Production, costs & revenue
- Perfect competition, imperfectly competitive markets & monopoly
- The labour market
- The distribution of income & wealth: poverty & inequality
- The market mechanism, market failure & government intervention in markets
The national and international economy (macroeconomics)
- The measurement of macroeconomic performance
- How the macroeconomy works: aggregate demand & supply analysis
- Economic performance
- Financial markets and monetary policy
- Fiscal policy and supply-side policy
- The international economy
Methods of Assessment
Lower Sixth
A mixture of written work throughout the course and end of year assessment which will examine the material covered to date and the assessment skills for A Level.
Upper Sixth
3 final written papers (33% each)
Enrichment Opportunities
• Economics Society
• Economics Reading group
• International Economics Olympiad
• External essay competitions
• Tycoon (Peter Jones Foundation)
• London Economics trip
Meet the staff
If you have a specific enquiry for the Economics Department, email ps@kes.hants.sch.uk
| Mr P Sheppard BSc | Head of Economics and Business |
| Mr ND Culver MA (Oxon) | Teacher of Economics |
| Mr MO Laverty BA | Business Coordinator, Teacher of Economics & Business |
| Mrs A Sparkes | Teacher of Economics & Business |
| Mr SJ Ritchie BA | Teacher of Economics & Business |
