Economics

Course summary

Economics is an exciting and relevant discipline which equips students with many transferable skills through the completion of interesting and varied tasks both in and out of the classroom. Economics enables students to develop an analytical approach to problem-solving which helps in understanding a wide range of issues. Economics is the discipline that opens our eyes to the workings of the world in which we live and in which our students will eventually work. Its main focus is how consumers, businesses and the government make decisions about how to allocate resources. In Microeconomics, you will use models such as demand and supply to explain how markets work and why they might fail, analysing possible government policies which attempt to correct such market failures. Other key models relate to wage determination and causes of inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth as well as the traditional Theory of the Firm. Economic theory generally assumes that economic agents act rationally but this is not necessarily always the case; the alternative view is covered by a new and exciting branch of Economics; 'Behavioural Economics', which our students will also get a chance to study. In Macroeconomics, students look at the developments in the UK's economic performance over the past fifteen years and compare this with other European and Global economies. Furthermore, they will learn how to analyse and evaluate macroeconomic policies aimed at solving macroeconomic problems such as inflation, unemployment and recession- issues you will hear mentioned daily in the news! Both Microeconomics and Macroeconomics require an interest in current affairs and there is no pre-requisite to studying A-level economics however, students will need to be competent at Mathematics.