Key term
WJEC A-Level Economics 1520QS
Scarcity and Choice
Topic overviewScarcity, choice and opportunity costProduction possibility frontiers (PPFs): Production possibility frontier diagrams to depict choiceProduction possibility frontiers (PPFs): Factors which may shift the PPF inwards or outwardsSpecialisation, division of labour and exchange: Advantages and disadvantages of specialisationSpecialisation, division of labour and exchange: Productivity
Demand and Supply in Product Markets
Topic overviewFactors influencing demand and supply in product markets: Product marketFactors influencing demand and supply: Main influences on demand and supply in product marketsThe determination of equilibrium price: Equilibrium price and output, and disequilibriumThe determination of equilibrium price: How the market adjusts to a new equilibriumThe determination of equilibrium price: Consumer and producer surplus on the diagramConsumer and producer surplusPrice, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of demandPrice, income and cross price elasticities: Income and cross price elasticity of demandPrice, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of supply, uses of elasticity and tax incidence
Demand and Supply in Labour Markets
Topic overviewWage determination: Demand for labour as a derived demandWage determination: Equilibrium wage rate and shifts in labour demand and supplyWage determination: Elasticity of demand for labour and Elasticity of supply of labourWage determination: Causes of wage differentials, Effects of wage differentials, and wages in WalesLabour market issues: Factors which affect flexibility in labour marketsLabour market issues: Effects of the statutory national minimum wage on labour marketsLabour market issues: Impact of migration on labour markets
Resource Allocation
Market Failure
Topic overviewUnderstanding market failure: Market failureUnderstanding market failure: Public goods, Merit and demerit goodsUnderstanding market failure: ExternalitiesUnderstanding market failure: Externalities of consumption and monopoly powerUnderstanding market failure: Information asymmetries and gaps, Income inequalityUnderstanding market failure: Volatile prices and externality diagramsWhy and how governments intervene in markets: Reasons for government intervention in marketsWhy and how governments intervene in markets: Maximum prices, road pricing, pollution permits and other interventionsWhy and how governments intervene in markets: Evaluating government interventionThe effects of government intervention: Government intervention can create distortions in marketsThe effects of government intervention: Reasons for government failure
Macroeconomic Theory (AS)
Topic overviewThe circular flow of income model: Flows in the circular flow modelThe circular flow of income model: Injections into and withdrawals from the circular flowThe circular flow of income model: Model to explain the concept of national income equilibriumThe units of aggregate demand (AD): Units of aggregate demand: consumptionThe units of aggregate demand (AD): Factors affecting consumption and investment, and the AD curveThe AD function: Why an AD function will slope downward from left to rightThe AD function: Changes in the unitsThe aggregate supply (AS) function: Shape of the Keynesian long run aggregate supply curveThe aggregate supply (AS) function: Factors which might result in a shift in LRASAD/AS analysis
Government Policy Objectives
Topic overviewEconomic growth: Actual and potential growth, output gaps and the business cycleEconomic growth: Benefits of economic growth for households, government and firmsEconomic growth: Illustrating growth on PPF and AD/AS diagramsUnemployment (AS): Measurement and typesUnemployment (AS): CostsUnemployment (AS): Causes
Policy Instruments (AS)
Topic overviewFiscal policy: FrameworkFiscal policy: Direct and indirect taxes and demand side fiscal policyFiscal policy: Automatic stabilisers, time lags and the Laffer curveMonetary policy: Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee, Inflation targetMonetary policy: Bank Rate and the transmission mechanismExchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rates in a free marketExchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rate policySupply side policies: Aims of supply side policiesSupply side policies: Market-based supply side policies and Limitations of supply side policies
International Trade (AS)
Costs, Revenues and Profits
Topic overviewCosts, revenues and profits: Law of diminishing returnsCosts, revenues and profits: Product, total and average costsCosts, revenues and profits: Total, average and marginal values for revenue and costsCosts, revenues and profits: Internal and external economies and diseconomies of scaleCosts, revenues and profits: Concept of profit maximisationThe growth of firms: How and why firms might growThe growth of firms: Types of integration/ mergersEfficiency
Market Structures
Topic overviewBackground to market structuresBusiness objectivesPerfect competition: Perfect competition and its underpinning assumptionsPerfect competition: Efficiency of perfectly competitive marketsMonopolistic competitionMonopoly: Monopoly and its underpinning assumptionsMonopoly: Comparing monopoly with perfect competitionMonopoly: Potential costs and benefits of monopolyOligopoly: Main features of oligopolistic markets and the concept of interdependenceOligopoly: Potential costs and benefits of oligopolyCompetition policy: Why governments are concerned about monopoly powerCompetition policy: Benefits and limits of competitionPrivatisation: Way in which privatisation may increase competitionPrivatisation: Effects of privatisation on competition
Macroeconomic Theory (A2)
Macroeconomic Objectives (A2)
Topic overviewEconomic growth: Actual vs potential economic growth and Causes of growthEconomic growth: Benefits and costs of growthUnemployment (A2): Measurement and typesUnemployment (A2): Costs, measurement and the Phillips curveUnemployment (A2): CausesInflation and deflation: Measurement and calculationInflation and deflation: CausesInflation and deflation: CostsInflation and deflation: DeflationThe balance of payments: Current account imbalances: causesThe balance of payments: Current account imbalances: impactsThe balance of payments: Solutions to current account deficits
Policy Instruments (A2)
Topic overviewControl of the national (public sector) debt: CausesControl of the national (public sector) debt: ImplicationsThe operation of monetary policy: Interest rates and how quantitative easing worksThe operation of monetary policy: Effects and criticisms of quantitative easingThe operation of monetary policy: Quantitative tightening, Funding for Lending and the financial sectorMonetary stability: Asset bubbles and financial crisesFinancial stability
International Trade (A2)
Topic overviewAdvantages and disadvantages of free trade: Advantages of free tradeAdvantages and disadvantages of free trade: Disadvantages of free tradeProtectionism: Free trade compared with protectionist measuresProtectionism: Key methods of protectionismGlobalisation: What globalisation is and what drives it, Benefits of globalisationGlobalisation: Costs of globalisation and Evaluating the net impact of globalisationTrade and the UK: Absolute and comparative advantage, Terms of trade and the gains from tradeTrade and the UK: Disadvantages of international tradeTrade and the UK: Methods of protectionTrade and the UK: Arguments for and against protectionismTrade and the UK: World Trade Organisation and globalisationTrade and the UK: UK’s major export sectors and an integrated world economy
Non-UK Economies
Economic Development
Topic overviewMeasurement: What is meant by economic development and how it is measuredMeasurement: Human development index, More indirect indicators such as access to health and educationObstacles: Why LEDCs may face difficulties in competing with MEDCsObstacles: Relevant obstaclesSolutions: Liberalisation as a route to development, Aid and debt reliefSolutions: Foreign direct investment and trade strategies
Scarcity and Choice
- 5 subtopics
- 15 things to know
- AS Units 1 and 2
What Scarcity and Choice covers
Scarcity and Choice is AS content, examined in both AS Unit 1 and AS Unit 2, which each cover the full AS content. 73 recall questions across 5 subtopics.
Where it is assessed
AS Units 1 and 2
Introduction to Economic Principles and Economics in Action, both covering the full AS content.
Check the WJEC specification ↗The 5 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Scarcity, choice and opportunity costRecall questions on scarcity in economics, opportunity cost, economic good and free good.Open →
- Production possibility frontiers (PPFs): Production possibility frontier diagrams to depict choiceRecall questions on Production possibility frontier diagrams to depict choice, The PPF is usually drawn concave to the origin because of imperfect factor substitution and why a straight line PPF is an indication of perfect factor substitutability of resources.Open →
- Production possibility frontiers (PPFs): Factors which may shift the PPF inwards or outwardsRecall questions on Factors which may shift the PPF inwards or outwards, Relate long-term economic growth and changes in productivity to outward or skewed shifts in an economy's PPFs.Open →
- Specialisation, division of labour and exchange: Advantages and disadvantages of specialisationRecall questions on The advantages and disadvantages of specialisation.Open →
- Specialisation, division of labour and exchange: ProductivityRecall questions on Productivity.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Evaluation
What are the advantages of specialisation?
Key term
What benefits does specialisation bring to individual workers?
Key term
Define scarcity in economics.
Key term
What does a production possibility frontier show?
Key term
What do points located on the PPF represent?
Key term
What happens to the PPF if a country experiences significant emigration of workers?
Key term
What macroeconomic concept does the PPF's productive potential correspond to?
Key term
Define specialisation in economics.
Key term
Why does avoiding task-switching increase productivity under specialisation?
Key term
Why does choice arise in economics?
Key term
What do points inside the PPF indicate about an economy?
Key term
How does the PPF illustrate the fundamental economic problem of scarcity?
Process
How does specialisation save time in the production process?
Key term
How does investment in capital equipment increase productivity?
Take Scarcity and Choice further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
A movement along the PPF vs A shift of the PPF
A movement along the PPF: a reallocation of resources between goods, at an opportunity cost. A shift of the PPF: a change in productive capacity.
Short-run growth vs Long-run growth
Short-run growth: putting unemployed resources to use. Long-run growth: the frontier itself shifting outward.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Define scarcity in economics.
Model answer
Scarcity is the fundamental economic problem where unlimited human wants exceed the limited resources available to satisfy them.
- 2
Why does choice arise in economics?
Model answer
Choice arises because scarcity forces economic agents to decide between alternative uses of limited resources.
- 3
What is opportunity cost?
Model answer
Opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative foregone when a choice is made.
- 4
To which economic agents do scarcity, choice and opportunity cost apply?
Model answer
They apply to all economic agents: individuals, firms, governments and society as a whole.
- 5
Why must firms make choices about resource allocation?
Model answer
Because scarcity means firms have limited resources and must decide between alternative uses, each involving an opportunity cost.
- 6
How does scarcity affect individuals, and what choices must they make?
Model answer
Individuals face limited income and time, requiring choices about consumption and work, each with an opportunity cost.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Scarcity and Choice revision questions
- What does Scarcity and Choice cover in WJEC A-Level Economics?
- 5 subtopics: scarcity, choice and opportunity cost, production possibility frontiers (ppfs): production possibility frontier diagrams to depict choice, production possibility frontiers (ppfs): factors which may shift the ppf inwards or outwards, specialisation, division of labour and exchange: advantages and disadvantages of specialisation and specialisation, division of labour and exchange: productivity. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Scarcity and Choice organised?
- By the WJEC 1520QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Scarcity and Choice, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.