Very, very condensed revision notes for the IGCSE Economics Syllabus
Warning 1– these are only outline notes – you must revise so much more than these.
These could be your starting point for revising a topic and your end point for revising a topic. And possibly the last sheets you revise on the morning of the exam?
Warning 2- no diagrams here – you must revise the appropriate diagrams to go with each section.
1) Basic eco problem
Limited eco resources (or factors of prod.): define land, labour, capital and enterprise.(Free gifts of nature, all human input, man-made aids to production The entrepreneur combines the other factors of production and takes risks) Unlimited wants. Opp cost (value of next best alternative given up)
Define the division of labour (breaking down prod. process into a large number of specialist tasks) Know the advts (practice makes perfect, can concentrate on what you are best at, save on capital goods etc) and disadvts (boredom, standardised products, interdependence etc) Mobility of the factors of production (geographical and occupational)Linked to specialisation in modern economies is the need for..
Money (anything generally acceptable as payment for goods and services) Functions of money (medium of exchange, store of value, measure of value, ) Features of money (limited in supply, divisible, portable, durable, identical)Without money we'd have to use barter (the direct exchange of one good for another) which is inefficient (unless there is a double coincidence of wants)
Resource allocation is a v. important concept. (how scarce resources are distributed between competing users) Economic systems (market, planned, mixed, traditional) A mixed eco is one where there is private and public ownership of the means of production and where there is use of both the price mechanism and planning) Remember in a market or mixed eco the price mechanism is important in allocating resources (consumers want skate boards, demand for skate boards...