A country exports £84 billion of goods and imports £126 billion. Express exports to imports as a ratio in its simplest form, and state the fraction of import spending covered by export earnings.

Dividing both figures by 42 gives a ratio of 2:3, so exports cover two thirds of import spending.

Unemployment falls from 8% of the labour force to 6%. State the fall in percentage points and calculate the percentage fall in the unemployment rate.

It is a fall of 2 percentage points, which is a 2 ÷ 8 = 25% fall in the rate itself.

Seven workers earn weekly wages of £300, £340, £360, £380, £420, £460 and £1,100. Calculate the mean and the median, and state which better represents a typical worker.

The wages total £3,360, so the mean is £3,360 ÷ 7 = £480 and the median is the fourth value in order, £380; the single high wage skews the mean upwards, so the median is the better guide to a typical worker.

OCR A-Level Economics H460

Introduction to Microeconomics

Topic overview Economic and free goods, scarcity and positive and normative statements Economic agents and the factors of production Factor rewards, rationality and the objectives of economic agents Incentives and the functions of the price mechanism Market, planned and mixed economies and allocative and productive efficiency Opportunity cost, trade-offs and the production possibility curve Shifts of the production possibility curve and uses of opportunity cost

Microeconomics: The Role of Markets

Topic overview Specialisation, the division of labour and barter Money as a medium of exchange and the gains from specialisation Individual and market demand and joint, competitive and composite demand Movements along and shifts of the demand curve Individual and market supply and joint and competitive supply Movements along and shifts of the supply curve Consumer surplus and producer surplus How changes in price affect consumer and producer surplus Ceteris paribus and market equilibrium and disequilibrium Changes in demand and supply and their effects on related markets Price and income elasticity of demand and total revenue Cross elasticity, price elasticity of supply and the uses of elasticity Marginal utility, marginal cost and decisions at the margin Market failure and marginal social cost and benefit Positive and negative production and consumption externalities Information failure, asymmetric information and merit and demerit goods Merit and demerit good diagrams and correcting information failure Public, private and quasi-public goods The free rider problem and the provision of public goods Indirect taxes and subsidies to correct market failure State provision, price controls, buffer stocks and legislation Regulation, tradable pollution permits and government failure

Microeconomics: Business Objectives

Topic overview Profit maximisation and alternative business objectives Corporate social responsibility and the principal-agent problem Fixed, variable, average and marginal costs Diminishing returns and economies and diseconomies of scale Total, average and marginal revenue Profit, loss and normal and supernormal profit

Microeconomics: Market Structures

Topic overview Perfect competition in the short and long run and allocative efficiency Productive efficiency and perfect competition as a benchmark Monopoly characteristics, equilibrium and static efficiency Dynamic efficiency, price discrimination and natural monopoly Characteristics of monopolistic competition and its short run equilibrium Long run equilibrium and efficiency in monopolistic competition Characteristics of oligopoly, concentration ratios and the kinked demand curve Non-price competition, collusion and the pros and cons of oligopoly Characteristics of contestable markets, sunk costs and hit-and-run entry Efficiency, barriers and the limits of contestable markets

Microeconomics: The Labour Market

Topic overview Derived demand for labour and wage elasticity of demand Labour productivity, unit labour costs and marginal revenue product Supply of labour and wage elasticity of supply Short and long run labour supply, transfer earnings and economic rent Wage differentials, labour mobility and monopsony Trade unions, bilateral monopoly and the effects of monopsony Wage determination in a competitive labour market and labour market flexibility

Macroeconomics: Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

Topic overview The circular flow of income, injections and leakages Methods of measuring national income Components of aggregate demand and their determinants The slope of the aggregate demand curve and what shifts it Consumption, income and the role of expectations Short run and long run aggregate supply curves Shifts in short run and long run aggregate supply Macroeconomic equilibrium and the effects of demand and supply shifts The national income multiplier and marginal propensities The accelerator, the economic cycle and output gaps

Macroeconomics: Economic Policy Objectives

Topic overview Economic growth, real and nominal GDP and GDP per capita Short and long run growth, the economic cycle and the effects of growth Economic structure, deindustrialisation and sustainable development Limitations of GDP and the Human Development Index Employment, unemployment rates and the objective of full employment Measures, types and costs of unemployment and the effects of full employment Inflation, deflation, real values and the CPI and RPI Calculating inflation with index numbers and its causes and consequences Balance of payments accounts and current account calculations Causes and consequences of current account imbalances Key trends in UK macroeconomic performance Comparing UK performance internationally and the limits of economic data Income and wealth, redistribution and absolute and relative poverty Lorenz curves, the Gini coefficient and the causes of poverty The natural rate of unemployment and Keynesian and neo-classical aggregate supply Short and long run Phillips Curves and their usefulness

Macroeconomics: Implementing Policy

Topic overview The government budget, types of tax and the budget balance National debt, cyclical and structural deficits and crowding out The Laffer curve, average and marginal tax rates and limits of fiscal policy Interest rates, the money supply and inflation targets Quantitative easing, the exchange rate and limits of monetary policy Privatisation, deregulation and subsidies as supply side policies Competition policy, infrastructure, education and tax and benefit reform Labour market flexibility, immigration control and limits of supply side policy Conflicts between macroeconomic policy objectives

Macroeconomics: The Global Context

Topic overview Patterns of international trade and global supply chains Advantages and disadvantages of international trade Exchange rate calculations and how exchange rates are determined Exchange rate changes, the Marshall-Lerner condition and exchange rate systems Globalisation, international competitiveness and comparative advantage Terms of trade and the impact of globalisation and emerging economies Protectionism and the effects of a tariff Quotas, trade creation, economic integration and the World Trade Organisation

Macroeconomics: The Financial Sector

Topic overview Functions of money, credit creation and narrow and broad money The quantity theory of money and interest rates in the money market Roles of the financial sector, saving and investment The Harrod-Domar model and microfinance Financial regulation and the functions of a central bank Monetary policy effectiveness, limits of regulation and the IMF

Quantitative Skills for Economics

Topic overview Ratios, percentages, averages, graphs, index numbers and real values Cost, revenue, profit and elasticity calculations

Themes in Economics: Synoptic Application

Topic overview Choosing models and judging data and assumptions in an unseen theme Efficiency, equity, sustainability and ethics in economic judgements

Quantitative Skills for Economics

2 subtopics
10 things to know
Components 01, 02 and 03

What Quantitative Skills for Economics covers

Quantitative Skills for Economics is applied across every paper. 26 recall questions across 2 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Components 01, 02 and 03

Quantitative skills, applied in every paper rather than examined alone.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 2 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Numbers

A market is worth £250 million a year and the three largest firms sell £60 million, £45 million and £20 million. Calculate the three-firm concentration ratio.

Numbers

A price index falls from 132 to 130 over a year, with the base year set at 100. What does this tell you about prices during the year, and relative to the base year?

Numbers

How are marginal cost and marginal revenue defined, and why is marginal revenue below price for a firm facing a downward-sloping demand curve?

Numbers

A price index rises from 125.0 to 130.0 over a year. Calculate the rate of inflation.

Numbers

The price of a good rises from £8.00 to £8.80 and weekly sales fall from 40,000 to 37,000 units. Calculate the price elasticity of demand.

Numbers

A firm sells 4,000 units at £15 each and its total costs are £48,000. Calculate total revenue, profit and average cost.

Numbers

Real GDP rises from £2,400 billion to £2,472 billion in a year. Calculate the rate of economic growth.

Numbers

Nominal GDP is £2,600 billion and the GDP deflator is 130, with the base year at 100. Calculate real GDP at base-year prices.

Key term

Real GDP falls by 4% in one year and then rises by 5% the next. What is the overall percentage change across the two years?

Numbers

Weekly sales fall from 40,000 to 37,000 as price rises from £8.00 to £8.80. Calculate total revenue before and after; does that fit PED −0.75?

Take Quantitative Skills for Economics further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

Percentage change vs Percentage point change
Percentage change: a change expressed as a proportion of the original value. Percentage point change: the simple arithmetic difference between two figures that are themselves percentages.
The mean vs The median
The mean: the total of all values divided by how many there are. The median: the middle value once all the values are placed in order.
Marginal cost vs Average cost
Marginal cost: the addition to total cost from one more unit of output. Average cost: total cost divided by the number of units produced.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
A market is worth £250 million a year and the three largest firms sell £60 million, £45 million and £20 million. Calculate the three-firm concentration ratio.
Model answer
Their combined sales are £125 million, so the three-firm concentration ratio is £125m ÷ £250m = 50% of the market.
2
A country exports £84 billion of goods and imports £126 billion. Express exports to imports as a ratio in its simplest form, and state the fraction of import spending covered by export earnings.
Model answer
Dividing both figures by 42 gives a ratio of 2:3, so exports cover two thirds of import spending.
3
Real GDP rises from £2,400 billion to £2,472 billion in a year. Calculate the rate of economic growth.
Model answer
The increase is £72 billion, so growth is £72bn ÷ £2,400bn = 3.0%.
4
Real GDP falls by 4% in one year and then rises by 5% the next. What is the overall percentage change across the two years?
Model answer
Applying the changes in turn gives 0.96 × 1.05 = 1.008, so output is 0.8% higher than it was two years earlier.
5
Unemployment falls from 8% of the labour force to 6%. State the fall in percentage points and calculate the percentage fall in the unemployment rate.
Model answer
It is a fall of 2 percentage points, which is a 2 ÷ 8 = 25% fall in the rate itself.
6
Seven workers earn weekly wages of £300, £340, £360, £380, £420, £460 and £1,100. Calculate the mean and the median, and state which better represents a typical worker.
Model answer
The wages total £3,360, so the mean is £3,360 ÷ 7 = £480 and the median is the fourth value in order, £380; the single high wage skews the mean upwards, so the median is the better guide to a typical worker.

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Introduction to Microeconomics

Microeconomics: The Role of Markets

Microeconomics: Business Objectives

Microeconomics: Market Structures

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An of demand.

extensionincreaseelasticity

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AAt 0% nothing is levied at all.

BAt 100% there is no reward left for the taxed activity.

CThe activity ceases and there is nothing to tax.

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Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Economic growth means an increase in real output over a period.

TrueFalse

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Quantitative Skills for Economics revision questions

What does Quantitative Skills for Economics cover in OCR A-Level Economics?: 2 subtopics: ratios, percentages, averages, graphs, index numbers and real values and cost, revenue, profit and elasticity calculations. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Quantitative Skills for Economics organised?: By the OCR H460 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Quantitative Skills for Economics, on a schedule.

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