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Sample objectives

What this unit covers

• Money and banking: Understand the different types, purposes, and features of money.
• Money and banking: Explain the significance and functions of central banks and commercial banks for governments, businesses, and consumers.
• Households: Understand the factors that affect how households spend, save, and borrow money, including aspects like income, interest rates, and consumer confidence, as well as variations among different households and changes over time.
• Workers: Identify the factors that influence a person's choice of job, including both salary and non-salary aspects.
• Workers: Explain how wages are determined, considering the roles of demand and supply, bargaining power, and government regulations such as minimum wage.
• Trade unions: Explain what a trade union is.
• Trade unions: Describe the functions of trade unions within the economy, including their roles in collective bargaining for wages, working hours, and conditions, as well as their efforts to protect jobs and influence government policies.
• Firms: Categorize firms based on their sectors (primary, secondary, tertiary) and whether they are in the private or public sector, along with their relative sizes. Note that in-depth knowledge of various firm structures is not necessary.
• Firms: Discuss the pros and cons of small firms, the difficulties they encounter, and the reasons for their existence in the market.
• Firms and production: Understand the factors that affect the demand for production inputs, including how product demand, the cost of various production inputs, their availability, and their efficiency influence this demand.
• Firms and production: Explore the concepts of labour-intensive and capital-intensive production methods, including the reasons for choosing each type and their respective benefits and drawbacks.
• Firms’ costs, revenue and objectives: Understand the different types of production costs, including total cost (TC), average total cost (ATC), fixed cost (FC), variable cost (VC), average fixed cost (AFC), and average variable cost (AVC). Note that marginal cost is not included.
• Firms’ costs, revenue and objectives: Be able to calculate various production costs such as total cost (TC), average total cost (ATC), fixed cost (FC), variable cost (VC), average fixed cost (AFC), and average variable cost (AVC). This includes defining, drawing, and interpreting diagrams that illustrate how changes in output impact production costs.
• Market structure: Understand how a large number of firms in competitive markets influences price, quality, choice, and profit. Note that detailed theories of perfect and imperfect competition and diagrams are not necessary.
• Market structure: Recognize the features, benefits, and drawbacks of monopoly markets. Note that diagrams are not necessary.