Economic methodology and the economic problem is examined on Papers 1 and 3, and is where the subject starts. It sets out what kind of discipline economics is, the scarcity that forces every choice, and the diagram used to show it.

• Economics as a social science, and positive and normative statements9
• The economic problem, factors of production and opportunity cost12
• Production possibility diagrams10

Individual economic decision making is examined on Papers 1 and 3. It sets the rational consumer of traditional theory against the evidence that people use shortcuts and act on more than self-interest, and asks what that means for policy.

• Consumer behaviour and utility24
• Imperfect information10
• Aspects of behavioural economic theory19
• Behavioural economics and economic policy17

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.

• Demand, the demand curve, income and wealth15
• Substitutes, complements and consumer preferences17
• Price elasticity of demand and total revenue13
• The determinants of price elasticity of demand10
• Income and cross elasticity of demand17
• The determinants of supply22
• Price elasticity of supply23
• Equilibrium, disequilibrium and how a market clears17
• Shifts in demand and supply, and the price mechanism11
• The interrelationship between markets15

Production, costs and revenue is examined on Papers 1 and 3. It builds the cost and revenue curves that every theory of the firm depends on, from specialisation and diminishing returns through to profit.

• Production, productivity and specialisation11
• Costs of production in the short and long run11
• Economies and diseconomies of scale19
• Revenue and profit9
• The law of diminishing returns and returns to scale16
• Technological change15

Perfect competition, imperfectly competitive markets and monopoly is examined on Papers 1 and 3, and is the largest topic in the microeconomics half. It works along the spectrum from perfect competition to monopoly, and judges each structure on efficiency and on what it does to consumers.

• The characteristics of the four market structures19
• Price takers, price makers and non-price competition13
• Competitive markets18
• The objectives of firms17
• Profit maximisation and the divorce of ownership from control15
• Profit maximisation and the shutdown condition12
• Price taking, entry and exit, and long-run equilibrium16
• Efficiency in perfect competition and its assumptions11
• Monopolistic competition in the short run10
• Monopolistic competition in the long run19
• The characteristics of oligopoly and barriers to entry21
• The kinked demand curve and price rigidity15
• Collusion, cartels and price leadership14
• Non-price competition in oligopoly8
• The advantages and disadvantages of oligopoly10
• Monopoly power and barriers to entry16
• The monopoly diagram and supernormal profit12
• The costs and benefits of monopoly14
• and 7 more subtopics in this topic

The labour market is examined on Papers 1 and 3. It applies demand and supply to labour, then examines what happens when the market is imperfect: monopsony employers, trade unions, a minimum wage and discrimination.

• The demand for labour and marginal productivity theory20
• The supply of labour24
• Wage determination in competitive labour markets23
• Wage determination in imperfectly competitive labour markets17
• Trade unions and wage determination16
• The National Minimum Wage22
• Discrimination in the labour market22

The distribution of income and wealth is examined on Papers 1 and 3. It measures inequality, sets out the arguments for and against reducing it, and works through the policies used to alleviate poverty.

• Income, wealth and the causes of their distribution11
• Equality, equity, the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient14
• The arguments about inequality22
• The problem of poverty20
• Progressive taxation and transfer payments8
• Means-tested benefits, universal benefits and the poverty trap12
• Wealth taxes and state provision12
• Evaluating redistribution21

The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention is examined on Papers 1 and 3. It explains how prices allocate resources, catalogues the ways that allocation goes wrong, and works through the tools a government uses to correct it and the ways that too can fail.

• How markets and prices allocate resources19
• The meaning of market failure18
• Public goods, private goods and quasi-public goods16
• Positive and negative externalities25
• Merit and demerit goods20
• Market imperfections24
• An inequitable distribution of income and wealth12
• Indirect taxes and subsidies15
• Price controls, state provision and regulation9
• Evaluating intervention and the mixed economy8
• Government failure11
• Competition policy13
• Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation15

The measurement of macroeconomic performance is examined on Papers 2 and 3, and opens the macroeconomics half. It sets out what governments are trying to achieve, and the indicators used to judge whether they are getting there.

• The objectives of government economic policy9
• Macroeconomic indicators and index numbers21
• Uses of national income data14

How the macroeconomy works is examined on Papers 2 and 3, and provides the model the rest of macroeconomics uses. It runs from the circular flow through the AD/AS diagram to the components of aggregate demand and the multiplier.

• The circular flow of income22
• The aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves16
• What shifts short-run and long-run aggregate supply10
• Macroeconomic equilibrium and economic shocks11
• Consumption and investment19
• Government spending and net exports16
• The accelerator, saving and investment11
• Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity20
• The determinants of aggregate supply23

Economic performance is examined on Papers 2 and 3. It takes the four policy objectives one at a time, explains what causes movement in each, and closes on the conflicts between them.

• Short-run and long-run economic growth15
• The economic cycle and output gaps13
• Demand-side and supply-side shocks10
• Measuring unemployment and the types of unemployment12
• The determinants of employment and policies to reduce unemployment18
• Inflation and deflation22
• The balance of payments on current account19
• Output gaps and the growth-inflation conflict14
• Reconciling policy objectives in the AD/AS model15

Financial markets and monetary policy is examined on Papers 2 and 3. It covers money and the markets that move it, what banks do and the risks they run, then the Bank of England's policy and how a change in bank rate reaches the real economy.

• The characteristics and functions of money10
• Financial markets and their role8
• Debt, equity and bond yields19
• Commercial banks, investment banks and the balance sheet14
• Liquidity, profitability, security and credit creation12
• The instruments and institutions of monetary policy10
• How bank rate changes affect the economy10
• What the MPC considers, and the exchange rate channel21
• The functions of a central bank13
• The bank rate and the MPC's decisions17
• Exchange rate movements and the macroeconomy14
• The monetary policy transmission mechanism18
• Quantitative easing and unconventional policy11
• The regulators and the risks banks face11
• Liquidity ratios, capital ratios and systemic risk16

Fiscal policy and supply-side policies is examined on Papers 2 and 3. It covers what governments spend and tax, the deficit and debt that follow, and the policies aimed at the productive capacity of the economy rather than at demand.

• Fiscal policy and aggregate demand13
• Types of tax11
• The budget balance and the national debt14
• The purposes of public expenditure and taxation14
• The principles of taxation11
• Budget deficits, surpluses and their effects12
• The national debt and fiscal rules10
• Supply-side policies and how they work19
• Market-based and interventionist supply-side policies22

The international economy is examined on Papers 2 and 3, and closes the course. It covers globalisation and the firms that drive it, the theory and politics of trade, the balance of payments and exchange rates, and what separates a developed economy from a developing one.

• The causes and characteristics of globalisation13
• The impact of globalisation on developed and developing economies15
• Multinational corporations9
• Comparative and absolute advantage9
• The effects of trade and changing trade patterns10
• Tariffs, quotas and the tariff diagram10
• Arguments for and against protectionism11
• Trading blocs and the World Trade Organisation9
• The components of the balance of payments14
• Causes of current account imbalances and investment flows15
• Correcting imbalances and their consequences19
• How exchange rates are determined in a floating system11
• Government intervention and fixed exchange rates15
• Floating rates and currency unions17
• Growth, development and less-developed economies10
• Measuring development: the HDI and other indicators10
• Investment and education as drivers of development8
• Corruption, governance and institutional barriers10
• and 4 more subtopics in this topic