Teacher of economics and business across five international schools for last twelve years having spent the 16 years prior employed as a Bank Manager with Lloyds Banking Group (UK)
Examiner with CIE - economics (6 years)
Teacher of economics and business across five international schools for last twelve years having spent the 16 years prior employed as a Bank Manager with Lloyds Banking Group (UK)
Examiner with CIE - economics (6 years)
The forms, functions and characteristics of money.
The role and importance of central banks and commercial banks for government, producers and consumers.
Questions and suggested solutions
4.1.1 The meaning of production: • Managing resources effectively to produce goods and services
• Difference between production and productivity
• Benefits of increasing efficiency and how to increase it, e.g. increasing productivity by automation and technology, improved labour skills
• Why businesses hold inventories
• The concept of lean production: how to achieve it, e.g. just-in-time inventory control and Kaizen; benefits of lean production
4.1.2 The main methods of production: • Features, benefits and limitations of job, batch and flow production
• Recommend and justify an appropriate production method for a given situation
4.1.3 How technology has changed production methods, e.g. using computers in design and manufacturing
Sample questions and answers
4.1 the role of government
4.2 macroeconomic aims of government
4.3 fiscal policy
4.4 monetary policy
4.5 supply-side policy
4.6 economic growth
4.7 employment and unemployment
4.8 inflation and deflation
5.1 living standards
5.2 poverty
5.3 population
5.4 differences in economic development
6.1 international specialisation
6.2 globalisation, free trade and protectionism
6.3 current account of the balance of payments
6.4 foreign exchange rate
5.2.1 The importance of cash and of cash-flow forecasting:
• Why cash is important to a business
• What a cash-flow forecast is, how a simple one is constructed and the importance of it
• Amend or complete a simple cash-flow forecast
• How to interpret a simple cash-flow forecast
• How a short-term cash-flow problem might be overcome, e.g. increasing loans, delaying payments, asking debtors to pay more quickly
5.2.2 Working capital:
• The concept and importance of working capital
*questions and suggested answers"
2.3.3 Why reducing the size of the workforce might be necessary:
• Difference between dismissal and redundancy with examples
• Understand situations in which downsizing the workforce might be necessary, e.g. automation or reduced demand for products
• Recommend and justify which employees to make redundant in given circumstances
2.3.4 Legal controls over employment issues and their impact on employers and employees:
• Legal controls over employment contracts, unfair dismissal, discrimination, health and safety, legal minimum wage
PPT covering Unit 7.5:
7.5 Types of cost, revenue and profit, short-run and long-run production
7.5.1 short-run production function:
• fixed and variable factors of production
• definition and calculation of total product, average product and marginal product
• law of diminishing returns (law of variable proportions)
7.5.2 short-run cost function:
• definition and calculation of fixed costs (FC) and variable costs (VC)
• definition and calculation of total, average and marginal costs (TC, AC, MC), including average total
cost (ATC), total and average fixed costs (TFC, AFC) and total and average variable costs (TVC, AVC)
• explanation of shape of short-run average cost and marginal cost curves
7.5.3 long-run production function:
• no fixed factors of production
• returns to scale
7.5.4 long-run cost function:
• explanation of shape of long-run average cost curve
• concept of minimum efficient scale
7.5.5 relationship between economies of scale and decreasing average costs
7.5.6 internal and external economies of scale
7.5.7 internal and external diseconomies of scale
7.5.8 definition and calculation of revenue: total, average and marginal revenue (TR, AR, MR)
7.5.9 definition of normal, subnormal and supernormal profit
7.5.10 calculation of supernormal and subnormal profit
video links to key topics
PPT covering:
Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs
Contents of a business plan and how business
plans assist entrepreneurs
Why and how governments support business
start-ups, e.g. grants, training schemes
PPT covering:
Methods of measuring business size, e.g. number of people employed, value of output, capital employed (profit is not a method of measuring business size)
Limitations of methods of measuring business size
Definitions of the factors of production and
their rewards
Mobility of the factors of production
Quantity and quality of the factors of
production
Questions and proposed solutions
PPT covering:
• Basis of business classification, using examples to
illustrate the classification
• Reasons for the changing importance of business
classification, e.g. in developed and developing
economies
PPT covering the following:
• Concepts of needs, wants, scarcity and
opportunity cost
• Importance of specialisation
• Purpose of business activity
• The concept of adding value and how added
value can be increased
Definition, drawing and interpretation of demand and supply schedules and curves used to establish equilibrium price and sales in a market.
Definition, drawing and interpretation of demand and supply schedules and curves used to identify disequilibrium prices and shortages (demand exceeding supply) and surpluses (supply exceeding demand).
Supply and demand review doc
Questions and suggested solutions
Definition, drawing and interpretation of appropriate diagrams.
A demand curve to be drawn and used to illustrate movements along a demand curve with appropriate terminology, for example extensions and contractions in demand.
The link between individual and market demand in terms of aggregation.
The causes of shifts in a demand curve with appropriate terminology, for example increase and decrease in demand
Supply and demand review doc
Questions and suggested solutions
Definition, drawing and interpretation of appropriate diagrams.
A supply curve to be drawn and used to illustrate movements along a supply curve with appropriate terminology, for example extensions and contractions in supply.
The link between individual and market supply in terms of aggregation.
The causes of shifts in a supply curve with appropriate terminology, for example increase and decrease in supply.
Supply and demand review doc
Questions and suggested solutions