A-Level Complete
Micro-Economics Notes
(AQA)
1
, Contents Page:
Economics Introduction – p.4
Positive and Normative Statements – p.5
Opportunity Costs – p.6
Behavioural Economics – p.8
Demand – p.10
Price Elasticity of Demand – p.12
Income Elasticity of Demand -p.14
Cross Price Elasticity of Demand – p.16
The Law of Supply -p.17
Price Elasticity of Supply – p.19
Market Diagrams – p.20
Consumer surplus and producer surplus – p.21
The Price Mechanism – p.22
Productivity – p.24
Economies and Diseconomies of Scale – p.27
Creative Destruction – p.28
Cost/Revenue Curves – p.29
The Shut Down Price – p.32
Market Structures – p.33
The Objectives of Firms – p.34
Perfect Competition – p.37
Monopolistic Competition – p.38
Oligopolistic Competition – p.39
Collusive Oligopolies – p.41
Monopolies – p.43
Price Discrimination – p.45
Competition Policy – p.48
Contestable Markets – p.50
Efficiency On Cost/Revenue Curves – p.51
The Demand of labour – p.53
2
,Labour Markets – p.54
The Supply of Labour – p.56
Trade Unions – p.58
National Minimum Wage – p.60
Discrimination in the Labour Market – p.62
Labour Market Failure – p.63
Solutions to Labour Market Failure – p.66
The Distribution of Income and Wealth – p.67
Poverty – p.69
Market Failure – p.71
Externalities – p.73
Merit and De-merit Goods – p.76
Government Intervention – p.77
Government Intervention – Maximum/Minimum Pricing – p.79
Privatisation and Nationalisation – p.80
Government Failure – p.81
3
, Economics Introduction
What is Economics?
- Economics is a social science.
- The study of how groups or nations allocate their limited (scarce) resources to satisfy
their unlimited wants and needs.
- Economics studies how individuals make decisions within an economy.
Wants Needs
A mansion Food
A holiday Water
Clothes Shelter
Jewellery Medicine
Satisfying people’s wants and needs means improving economic welfare. Welfare basically
refers to human happiness – anything that makes a person happier improves their economic
welfare.
Four things are needed for an economic system (an economy) to function:
1. Land (natural resources)
2. Labour (manual workers)
3. Capital (the means of production. Example: machinery)
4. Enterprise/Entrepreneurship/Intelligence (the ones who answer the economic
questions on what to produce, how to produce it and how to employ the factors of
production)
These four things are called economic resources or the factors of production. They are
resources that are the building blocks of the economy; they are what people use to produce
goods and services.
Who decides how to allocate resources?
The three economic agents:
- The government (decide what is/isn’t allowed to be produced)
- The producers (Can decide what to produce)
- Consumers (Can decide what to buy – if something is in high demand, more will be
produced)
4
Micro-Economics Notes
(AQA)
1
, Contents Page:
Economics Introduction – p.4
Positive and Normative Statements – p.5
Opportunity Costs – p.6
Behavioural Economics – p.8
Demand – p.10
Price Elasticity of Demand – p.12
Income Elasticity of Demand -p.14
Cross Price Elasticity of Demand – p.16
The Law of Supply -p.17
Price Elasticity of Supply – p.19
Market Diagrams – p.20
Consumer surplus and producer surplus – p.21
The Price Mechanism – p.22
Productivity – p.24
Economies and Diseconomies of Scale – p.27
Creative Destruction – p.28
Cost/Revenue Curves – p.29
The Shut Down Price – p.32
Market Structures – p.33
The Objectives of Firms – p.34
Perfect Competition – p.37
Monopolistic Competition – p.38
Oligopolistic Competition – p.39
Collusive Oligopolies – p.41
Monopolies – p.43
Price Discrimination – p.45
Competition Policy – p.48
Contestable Markets – p.50
Efficiency On Cost/Revenue Curves – p.51
The Demand of labour – p.53
2
,Labour Markets – p.54
The Supply of Labour – p.56
Trade Unions – p.58
National Minimum Wage – p.60
Discrimination in the Labour Market – p.62
Labour Market Failure – p.63
Solutions to Labour Market Failure – p.66
The Distribution of Income and Wealth – p.67
Poverty – p.69
Market Failure – p.71
Externalities – p.73
Merit and De-merit Goods – p.76
Government Intervention – p.77
Government Intervention – Maximum/Minimum Pricing – p.79
Privatisation and Nationalisation – p.80
Government Failure – p.81
3
, Economics Introduction
What is Economics?
- Economics is a social science.
- The study of how groups or nations allocate their limited (scarce) resources to satisfy
their unlimited wants and needs.
- Economics studies how individuals make decisions within an economy.
Wants Needs
A mansion Food
A holiday Water
Clothes Shelter
Jewellery Medicine
Satisfying people’s wants and needs means improving economic welfare. Welfare basically
refers to human happiness – anything that makes a person happier improves their economic
welfare.
Four things are needed for an economic system (an economy) to function:
1. Land (natural resources)
2. Labour (manual workers)
3. Capital (the means of production. Example: machinery)
4. Enterprise/Entrepreneurship/Intelligence (the ones who answer the economic
questions on what to produce, how to produce it and how to employ the factors of
production)
These four things are called economic resources or the factors of production. They are
resources that are the building blocks of the economy; they are what people use to produce
goods and services.
Who decides how to allocate resources?
The three economic agents:
- The government (decide what is/isn’t allowed to be produced)
- The producers (Can decide what to produce)
- Consumers (Can decide what to buy – if something is in high demand, more will be
produced)
4
