Economics

Please note that Economics is only available at KS5 (Years 12-13 A-Level)

Students are required to have gained at least a grade 8 at GCSE in a humanity (Geography, History or RS) and in Maths

Economics at DCGS follows the AQA (7136) specification which is 100% examined. It covers, the study of how societies allocate scarce resources between conflicting alternatives. This can range from something as specific as whether to renew a football season ticket or as complicated as a government job support scheme. The impact of Covid-19, an energy price shock and the coming wave of transformational AI means that many of the economic choices that individuals, firms and governments face are very challenging. These issues also mean that it is a very intriguing time to start studying the subject.

The areas of study divide into two broad categories. Microeconomics is the study of an individual part of the economy and macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. There are three exam papers: Paper 1 Markets and Market Failure (microeconomics), Paper 2 National and International Economy (macroeconomics) and Paper 3 Economic Principles and Issues (a mixture of micro and macroeconomics).

Topics covered include:

• The economic problem and economic methodology
• Individual economic decision making
• Price determination in a competitive market
• Production, costs and revenue
• Perfect competition imperfectly competitive markets and monopoly
• The labour market
• The distribution of income and wealth: poverty and inequality
• The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets
• The measurement of macroeconomic performance
• How the macroeconomy works
• Economic performance
• Financial markets and monetary policy
• Fiscal policy and supply side policies
• The international economy

A-Level Economics Specification

Co-curricular activities

• Economics Society