Sample questions from Themes in Economics: Synoptic Application

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

1. Choosing models and judging data and assumptions in an unseen theme

   Explain how a microeconomic market failure can be linked to a macroeconomic policy objective in a single argument.

   Show the answer

   If workplace training is under-provided because firms cannot capture all its benefits, the resulting shortfall in skills holds down labour productivity, which limits long-run aggregate supply and therefore the economy's potential growth; the intervention that corrects the market failure is simultaneously a supply-side policy.

2. Choosing models and judging data and assumptions in an unseen theme

   Name three assumptions common to economic models that real behaviour frequently breaks.

   Show the answer

   Perfect information, rational maximising behaviour by consumers and firms, and ceteris paribus — the assumption that everything other than the variable under study stays constant.

3. Efficiency, equity, sustainability and ethics in economic judgements

   Why do moral and ethical questions about economic activity take a different form at global level than at national level?

   Show the answer

   Costs and benefits cross borders, so production in one country can impose environmental or labour costs on people in another, and no single government is accountable to everyone affected or able to compensate them.

4. Efficiency, equity, sustainability and ethics in economic judgements

   Why is the answer "it depends" only a partial evaluation?

   Show the answer

   Because evaluation requires you to name what it depends on, such as the size of the relevant elasticity, the time period considered or the current state of the economy, and then say which way that factor points in this case.

The 2 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

1. Step 1 · Closed book

   Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.

2. Step 2 · Open book

   Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.

3. Step 3 · Closed book again

   Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.

Nearby topics

All 12 topics · Guide overview