AQA A-Level Economics

Last Accessed

Recently visited lessons will appear here for quick access.Start exploring your first lesson today!

Microeconomics

Economic choices and decision making

3.1.1.1 - Economic methodologyLearn how economists use models and evidence to explain people's choices, distinguish testable claims from value judgements, and reach reasoned decisions when both consequences and priorities are disputed.
3.1.1.2–3.1.1.4 - Resources, scarcity and economic choicesLearn why production serves needs and wants, how land, labour, capital and enterprise make it possible, and why scarce resources force choices with an opportunity cost, including choices about the environment.
3.1.1.5 - Production possibility diagramsLearn to draw and interpret production possibility frontiers, calculate the output forgone in a trade-off, and distinguish unused resources, growth in capacity and the output mix that best meets society's wants.
3.1.2.1 - Utility and rational choiceLearn how the rational-choice model links incentives, satisfaction and decisions about one extra unit, and why diminishing marginal utility helps explain a downward-sloping demand curve.
3.1.2.2 - Imperfect and asymmetric informationLearn how missing or unevenly shared information can distort economic choices, prevent beneficial trades and change behaviour after a contract, and how better information can help.
3.1.2.3 - Behavioural economic theoryLearn why limited processing, weak self-control, shortcuts and social influences can change economic choices, and how evidence can distinguish these explanations from a simple rational-choice model.
3.1.2.4 - Behavioural economics and policyLearn how the presentation of choices, nudges, defaults and required decisions can influence behaviour, then weigh their effectiveness, costs and implications for people's preferences.

Demand, supply and market prices

3.1.3.1 - Demand and its determinantsLearn what a demand curve holds constant, why a price change causes a movement along it, and how changes in consumers' circumstances shift the whole curve.
3.1.3.2 - Price elasticity of demandLearn to calculate and interpret consumers' responsiveness to price, explain what makes demand elastic or inelastic, and use the result to reason about total revenue.
3.1.3.2 - Income and cross elasticities of demandLearn how changes in income and other products' prices shift demand, calculate their elasticities, and use their signs and sizes to identify normal and inferior goods, substitutes and complements.
3.1.3.3 - Supply and its determinantsLearn why sellers offer more output at a higher price, how changes in production conditions shift supply, and why a competitive firm's supply decision is connected to marginal cost.
3.1.3.4 - Price elasticity of supplyLearn to calculate and interpret how strongly quantity supplied responds to price, and explain how time, spare capacity and production conditions change that response.
3.1.3.5 - Equilibrium and changing market pricesLearn how demand and supply determine a market-clearing price, why shortages and surpluses create pressure for adjustment, and how to explain new equilibria while checking the model's assumptions.
3.1.3.6 - Interrelated marketsLearn how a change in one market travels to another through complementary or substitute goods, competing uses, production inputs and joint products. Trace each link rather than assuming all related prices move together.

Production, costs and revenue

3.1.4.1–3.1.4.2 - Production, productivity and specialisationLearn how firms turn resources into output, measure productivity and use specialisation to produce more effectively. Then explain why specialised producers need an efficient way to exchange what they make.
3.1.4.3 - Diminishing returns and returns to scaleLearn how output changes when a firm adds one input to fixed capacity, and when it expands all inputs together. Use total, average and marginal product to distinguish diminishing returns from returns to scale and connect them to costs.
3.1.4.4 - Calculating production costsLearn to distinguish fixed, variable, total, average and marginal costs and calculate them from complete data. Use the short-run and long-run distinction to compare production methods without confusing low unit costs with high profit.
3.1.4.4 - Cost curves and factor choicesLearn why total, average and marginal cost curves have their characteristic shapes and how to draw and interpret them consistently. Then explain how factor prices and productivity affect costs and the choice of production inputs.
3.1.4.5 - Economies of scale and efficient firm sizeLearn why expanding a firm can reduce or increase its cost per unit, and why growth of an industry can affect even a small producer. Use long-run average cost to explain efficient firm size, industry structure and barriers to entry.
3.1.4.6 - Revenue and revenue curvesLearn to calculate total, average and marginal revenue, and explain why they behave differently when a firm changes its sales. Connect numerical tables to revenue curves and use them to judge the revenue effect of a price change.
3.1.4.7 - Profit and its roleLearn how economists measure profit, including the opportunity cost of keeping resources in a business. Calculate normal and supernormal profit and explain how profit and loss influence production, investment and entry.
3.1.4.8 - Technological change and innovationLearn how new ideas become economic changes when firms put them into use. Trace their effects on production costs, products, markets and competition, and explain why productivity gains can arrive alongside difficult adjustments for firms and workers.

Competition, market power and efficiency

3.1.5.1 - The spectrum of market structuresLearn how the number of suppliers, differences between products and barriers to entry shape competition, and how to choose a useful market model from evidence.
3.1.5.2 - Objectives and decisions of firmsLearn how firms choose output under different objectives, why profit maximisation uses marginal reasoning, and how owners' and managers' interests can affect decisions.
3.1.5.3 - Perfect competitionLearn how price-taking firms choose output, how entry and exit change competitive equilibrium, and which assumptions are needed for claims about efficiency.
3.1.5.4 - Monopolistic competitionLearn how differentiated firms choose output and price, how entry removes economic profit, and why competition over quality and service continues in the long run.
3.1.5.5 - Oligopoly and market concentrationLearn how to recognise oligopoly, calculate concentration ratios, and use evidence about entry, differentiation and actual rivalry to explain market performance.
3.1.5.5 - Oligopoly strategy and interdependenceLearn how rival reactions shape oligopoly decisions, why coordination can be unstable, and how different models explain prices, investment and market performance.
3.1.5.6 - Monopoly and monopoly powerLearn how a price maker chooses output and price, why monopoly profit may persist, and how market power affects consumers and producers. The monopoly model is a benchmark: judging a real firm also requires evidence about substitutes, entry, costs and investment.
3.1.5.7 - Price discriminationLearn when a firm can charge different customers different prices for the same service, how it chooses those prices, and who gains or loses. Use the conditions, a two-market diagram and real examples to judge effects on access, profit and welfare.
3.1.5.8–3.1.5.9 - Dynamic competition and contestabilityLearn how competition changes prices, products and production over time. Section 3.1.5.8 explains rivalry and creative destruction; 3.1.5.9 explains why the threat of entry can affect an industry even when few firms currently operate in it.
3.1.5.10 - Static and dynamic efficiencyLearn how to distinguish low production costs, an efficient output mix and improvement over time. Apply these benchmarks to firms with different market structures, using evidence about behaviour and performance rather than assuming that a market label determines the result.
3.1.5.11 - Consumer and producer surplusLearn to read and calculate the gains from exchange, distinguish redistribution from lost welfare, and explain monopoly deadweight loss. Use surplus geometry to assess price discrimination while keeping assumptions about costs, externalities and fairness explicit.

Labour markets, inequality and poverty

3.1.6.1 - Labour demand and marginal productivityLearn why firms employ labour, how an extra worker's contribution to revenue affects hiring, and why some occupations lose more jobs than others when wages rise.
3.1.6.2 - Labour supply to occupationsLearn how wages, working conditions and access to training influence the number of people willing and able to work in an occupation, and distinguish a movement along labour supply from a shift.
3.1.6.3 - Competitive wages and employmentLearn how labour demand and supply determine a competitive wage and employment, why wages differ between occupations, and how the model helps interpret imperfect real markets.
3.1.6.4 - Monopsony and imperfect labour marketsLearn how employer power and other labour-market imperfections affect pay, and use average cost, marginal cost and marginal revenue product to explain a monopsonist's wage and employment choices.
3.1.6.5 - Trade unions, wages and employmentLearn what gives trade unions bargaining power and why the same negotiated wage increase can have different employment effects in competitive and monopsony labour markets.
3.1.6.6 - The National Minimum WageLearn how a legal wage floor affects pay, employment and different groups of workers, and why its effects depend on the labour market and the level at which it is set.
3.1.6.7 - Labour market discriminationLearn how discrimination and unequal bargaining conditions can affect pay and access to jobs, how to assess real evidence, and why a benefit to one employer can impose wider economic costs.
3.1.7.1 - Income, wealth and inequalityLearn how income and wealth are distributed, use averages, quantiles and Lorenz curves to interpret inequality, and distinguish measurable differences from judgements about fairness.
3.1.7.2–3.1.7.3 - Poverty and redistributionLearn to distinguish absolute and relative poverty under 3.1.7.2, then compare the mechanisms, economic consequences and moral priorities of redistribution policies under 3.1.7.3.

Market failure and government intervention

3.1.8.1 - Prices and resource allocationLearn how prices ration scarce output, signal changing conditions and create incentives, then judge what market allocation achieves and what may change when payment enters a previously non-market activity.
3.1.8.2, 3.1.8.6 - Market failure and market imperfectionsLearn to identify resource misallocation, distinguish missing markets from imperfect existing markets, and explain how information, market power, immobile factors and unequal purchasing power can prevent a desirable allocation.
3.1.8.3 - Public goods and common resourcesLearn how rivalry and excludability distinguish public and private goods, why free riding can prevent provision, and why open access to a rival natural resource can cause overuse rather than a missing supply.
3.1.8.4 - Externalities in productionLearn how production affects people outside a transaction, use marginal private and social curves to identify over- or under-production, and interpret the welfare consequences and the role of property rights.
3.1.8.4 - Externalities in consumptionLearn how consumption can harm or benefit people outside a purchase, use marginal private and social benefits to explain excessive or insufficient consumption, and judge how enforceable rights can affect those incentives.
3.1.8.5 - Merit and demerit goodsLearn why merit and demerit classifications involve values, how incomplete information can distort consumption, and how that differs from external effects on other people when judging under- or over-provision.
3.1.8.7 - Competition policyLearn how competition policy tackles harmful firm behaviour and mergers, and why protecting consumers requires weighing present rivalry against future efficiency.
3.1.8.8 - Public ownership and privatisationLearn how public and private ownership change incentives, finance and accountability, and how to judge their effects on prices, service and economic efficiency.
3.1.8.8 - Regulation and deregulationLearn how rules can constrain market failure, how deregulation can strengthen rivalry, and why information, incentives and regulatory capture affect the result.
3.1.8.9 - Indirect taxes and subsidiesLearn how taxes and subsidies change market incentives, how elasticities divide their effects, and when these interventions improve rather than reduce economic welfare.
3.1.8.9 - Other market interventionsLearn how price controls, state provision, rules, property rights and pollution permits change resource allocation, and how to choose a method that fits the market failure.
3.1.8.10 - Government failureLearn why intervention can misallocate resources, how information and incentives create unintended consequences, and how to compare realistic policies with the market outcome.

Macroeconomics

Circular flow and AD/AS

3.2.2.1 - The circular flow of incomeLearn how production generates income and expenditure, how to compare national income over time, and why planned injections and withdrawals determine whether output is expanding, contracting or in equilibrium.
3.2.2.2 - Aggregate demand and aggregate supplyUse AD/AS diagrams to explain equilibrium, changes in the price level and real output, demand-deficient unemployment and underlying growth. Distinguish movements along curves from shifts and identify how domestic and global shocks enter the model.
3.2.2.3 - The components of aggregate demandExplain what determines consumption, investment, government purchases and net exports. Distinguish saving from investment and use the accelerator to explain how changes in demand can amplify fluctuations in business investment.
3.2.2.4 - Aggregate demand and the multiplierExplain how an initial spending change passes between firms and households, calculate the multiplier from the marginal propensity to consume, and distinguish a simple fixed-price model from an open economy with leakages and capacity constraints.
3.2.2.5 - Short-run aggregate supplyExplain why the price level causes movements along SRAS while changes in wages, raw materials, business taxes and productivity shift it. Use unit costs and an AD/AS diagram to trace the effects on output and the price level.
3.2.2.6 - Long-run aggregate supplyExplain what determines sustainable productive capacity, including enterprise, incentives and institutions. Compare vertical LRAS with the Keynesian AS curve and use each model to reason about demand, spare capacity and price pressure.

Growth, unemployment and inflation

3.2.3.1 - Economic growth and the economic cycleLearn how actual output differs from productive capacity, how an economy moves through an irregular cycle, and why the source and sustainability of growth matter for households, firms and the environment.
3.2.3.2 - Employment and unemploymentLearn what the UK unemployment measures count, how different causes of joblessness require different responses, and why unemployment affects productive capacity as well as current incomes.
3.2.3.3 - Inflation, deflation and disinflationLearn how price levels and inflation rates differ, how demand, costs, money and expectations influence prices, and why inflation and deflation have different consequences for households and the economy.
3.2.3.4 - Macroeconomic policy conflictsLearn why macroeconomic objectives can conflict, how short-run and long-run Phillips curves differ, and which conditions allow policies to improve employment, output and price stability together.

Financial markets and monetary policy

3.2.4.1 - Money, financial markets and assetsLearn how money makes exchange possible, how financial markets connect saving with finance, and why the price of a fixed-coupon bond moves inversely to its yield.
3.2.4.2 - Commercial and investment banksLearn what banks do, how their balance sheets record lending and deposits, and why creating credit brings both opportunities and constraints.
3.2.4.3 - Central banks and interest-rate policyLearn how the Bank of England's monetary policy decisions influence spending and inflation, why exchange rates form part of the transmission mechanism, and why policy depends on forecasts and trade-offs.
3.2.4.3 - Money, credit and monetary instrumentsLearn how policy influences money and credit, how quantitative easing and funding schemes work through different channels, and why guidance about future policy can affect decisions today.
3.2.4.4 - Financial regulation and stabilityLearn why banks can face payment crises or losses, how UK regulators seek resilience, and how individual financial decisions can create risks for the wider economy.

Fiscal and supply-side policies

3.2.5.1 - Public expenditure and taxationLearn why governments spend and tax, how different taxes distribute the burden, and why the composition of a budget matters as well as its size.
3.2.5.1 - Fiscal policy and economic activityLearn how tax and spending decisions influence demand, productive capacity and individual markets, and why their effectiveness depends on economic conditions.
3.2.5.1 - Budgets, deficits and national debtLearn how annual budget balances affect accumulated debt, how to interpret fiscal ratios, and how to judge borrowing and budget repair in context.
3.2.5.2 - Supply-side policies and improvementsLearn how policies and private decisions can improve productive capacity, how different approaches address different constraints, and how to judge their effects on growth, jobs, prices and trade.

Trade, exchange rates and development

3.2.6.1 - GlobalisationLearn why economies become more closely connected, how multinational corporations organise production across borders, and why globalisation can create gains alongside uneven costs.
3.2.6.2 - Comparative advantage and tradeUse opportunity costs to explain specialisation and gains from trade, distinguish those gains from absolute productivity, and judge how trade benefits, costs and changing UK patterns fit the model.
3.2.6.2 - Protectionism and trading arrangementsExplain how trade restrictions change incentives, prices and welfare, use a tariff diagram accurately, and distinguish a customs union, the Single European Market and the World Trade Organisation.
3.2.6.3 - The balance of paymentsDistinguish the balance-of-payments accounts, explain why current-account imbalances arise and how investment finances them, and judge the domestic and international effects of corrective policies.
3.2.6.4 - Exchange rate systemsLearn how currency markets determine exchange rates, how authorities influence them, and why the effects of a currency change depend on firms, consumers and the exchange rate system.
3.2.6.5 - Measuring development and its barriersDistinguish increased output from improved lives, compare evidence of development, and explain how productive resources and institutions can support or obstruct progress.
3.2.6.5 - Strategies for growth and developmentCompare market-based and interventionist approaches, analyse aid and trade, and use evidence about binding constraints to judge which policies can turn growth into broader development.