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Price Determination in a Competitive Market

  • 10 subtopics
  • 33 things to know
  • Papers 1 and 3

What Price Determination in a Competitive Market covers

Price determination is examined on Papers 1 and 3, and is the core microeconomic model. It covers what moves demand and supply, the elasticities that measure how far they move, and how the two settle at an equilibrium price.

Where it is assessed

Papers 1 and 3

Markets and market failure, then the synoptic paper.

Check the AQA specification ↗

The 10 subtopics

Each one has its own page. AQA AS Economics students sit this topic in the first year.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What is the difference between a movement along the demand curve and a shift of it?

Process

How do changes in income and wealth shift the demand curve?

Evaluation

How does a change in the price of one good affect demand for the good used alongside it?

Process

What are complements, and how does a change in their price shift demand?

Process

How does a change in consumer income affect the demand curve for a normal good?

Process

How might emotional factors influence the demand for a good?

Numbers

How is price elasticity of demand calculated, and why is it normally negative?

Numbers

How does elasticity affect total revenue, and what makes demand more elastic?

Numbers

How is income elasticity of demand calculated, and what value does a normal good take?

Numbers

How is cross elasticity of demand calculated, and what does its sign show?

Numbers

How is total revenue calculated, and what determines cross elasticity between two goods?

Numbers

How do you interpret the sign and size of a PED value, and how does consumer expenditure relate to firms' revenue?

Numbers

How do you interpret the sign of a calculated YED or XED value?

Process

How do production costs and substitutes in production affect supply?

Process

How do the number of firms, taxes and regulations affect market supply?

Numbers

What shape is the supply curve, why do higher prices raise profits, and for which goods do weather conditions matter most?

Process

What happens to the market supply curve when new firms enter the market?

Numbers

How is price elasticity of supply calculated, and when is supply elastic?

Evaluation

How would you interpret a price elasticity of supply of 0.4?

Numbers

How would you interpret a calculated PES of 2.5, and why is supply less responsive when production takes a long time?

Numbers

How does the mobility of factors of production affect price elasticity of supply?

Numbers

What are excess demand and excess supply, and how do buyers behave in a shortage?

Numbers

How does a rising price remove excess demand from a market?

Numbers

How does a falling price remove excess supply?

Numbers

What happens to equilibrium price and quantity when the supply curve shifts to the left?

Evaluation

If both demand and supply increase simultaneously, what can be said about the effect on equilibrium quantity and price?

Numbers

How does a change in one good's price shift demand for its substitutes and complements?

Process

What is joint supply, and how do you analyse a change in a related market?

Numbers

What is the final step when analysing the impact of a change in one market on a related market?

Numbers

State the formula for calculating price elasticity of demand.

Numbers

State the formula for calculating income elasticity of demand.

Numbers

State the formula for calculating cross elasticity of demand.

Numbers

State the formula for total revenue.

Take Price Determination in a Competitive Market further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Extension of demand vs Increase in demand

    Extension of demand: greater quantity bought following a price fall. Increase in demand: greater willingness to buy at every price.

  • Substitute good vs Complementary good

    Substitute good: an alternative consumed instead of another product. Complementary good: a product consumed jointly with another product.

  • Price ceiling vs Price floor

    Price ceiling: a legal maximum imposed on a price. Price floor: a legal minimum imposed on a price.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is the definition of demand in economics?

    Model answer

    Demand is the quantity of a good or service that consumers are willing and able to purchase at a given price in a given time period.

  2. 2

    How is a demand curve constructed in terms of its axes?

    Model answer

    A demand curve shows the relationship between the price of a good (on the vertical axis) and the quantity demanded (on the horizontal axis).

  3. 3

    What is the typical shape of a demand curve and what does this indicate?

    Model answer

    The demand curve typically slopes downward from left to right, indicating an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded.

  4. 4

    What causes a movement along the demand curve?

    Model answer

    A movement along the demand curve occurs when there is a change in the price of the good itself, causing a change in quantity demanded.

  5. 5

    What causes a shift of the demand curve?

    Model answer

    A shift of the demand curve occurs when a non-price factor changes, causing the entire curve to move left or right.

  6. 6

    Explain the relationship between price and quantity demanded, ceteris paribus.

    Model answer

    As price rises, quantity demanded falls, and vice versa, ceteris paribus. This is the inverse relationship shown by the demand curve.

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Economic Methodology and the Economic Problem
Price Determination in a Competitive Market
Production, Costs and Revenue
Perfect Competition, Imperfectly Competitive Markets and Monopoly

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Monopsony means a market dominated by one buyer.
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Price Determination in a Competitive Market revision questions

Is Price Determination in a Competitive Market examined at AS in AQA Economics?
Yes. It sits in Papers 1 and 3, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
What does Price Determination in a Competitive Market cover in AQA AS-Level Economics?
10 subtopics: demand, the demand curve, income and wealth, substitutes, complements and consumer preferences, price elasticity of demand and total revenue, the determinants of price elasticity of demand, income and cross elasticity of demand, the determinants of supply, price elasticity of supply, equilibrium, disequilibrium and how a market clears, shifts in demand and supply, and the price mechanism and the interrelationship between markets. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Price Determination in a Competitive Market organised?
By the AQA 7136 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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