AQA Economics Jan 31st 2012 Unit 4 Exam

someone PLEASE teach me how to evaluate!

Well when putting your side of the argument across, i.e. one theory, always look for another thoery that contradicts that and talk about that too. For instance you may say a government budget deficit crowds out private sector investment, on the other hand though Keynesian economists believe it encourages private sector investment.
So always look for something that goes against or offers a slightly different view to the plain basic theory, allowing you to judge how likely the outcome of what you are saying is going to be.

Also the best way of judging the validatity of an argument is to compare it to your real world knowlege. For instance is you are talking about an increase in the growth of the Australian economy, you may argue that the UK will subsequently see an increase in exports, which will thus increase AD. But you may argue that just because Australia is growing it doesn't mean they will import more UK goods. Also given the current UK situation, chronically low business and consumer confidence and cuts taking effect etc, an increase in exports is unlikely to cause a rise in AD, as these points previously mentioned will apply stronger downward pressure on AD. You may also go on to say how the UK has just had negative 0.2% growth, so AD rising an subsequently growth just seems unrealistic.

Hope that helps!

Yes this is evaluation but its relatively low level. If you want the top marks, link it too real world event and perhaps the cause or the occurrence.
E.g "the government could borrow more money from capital markets, although it would have to offer a higher rate of interest to incentives the markets to purchase government bonds. Free Market economists suggest this may cause the financial crowding out effect, and thus put upward pressure on domestic interest rates. this could most definitely hamper an economic recovery. However in reality, this hasn't occurred, as Mr Osbourne outlined on his Autumn statement he will be borrowing significantly more money than expected, but UK bond yields remain unnaturally low. In turn showing , that the UK is in a good position to borrow large amounts of money without suffering the pressure of servicing the interest repayments"

....."the government could also raise taxes......how?...the implications?....what happened in Jan 10?"


It's not brilliant, just a quick example I thought of, but it's on these kind of lines. Hope it's helped.

Yes this is evaluation but its relatively low level. If you want the top marks, link it too real world event and perhaps the cause or the occurrence.
E.g "the government could borrow more money from capital markets, although it would have to offer a higher rate of interest to incentives the markets to purchase government bonds. Free Market economists suggest this may cause the financial crowding out effect, and thus put upward pressure on domestic interest rates. this could most definitely hamper an economic recovery. However in reality, this hasn't occurred, as Mr Osbourne outlined on his Autumn statement he will be borrowing significantly more money than expected, but UK bond yields remain unnaturally low. In turn showing , that the UK is in a good position to borrow large amounts of money without suffering the pressure of servicing the interest repayments"

....."the government could also raise taxes......how?...the implications?....what happened in Jan 10?"


It's not brilliant, just a quick example I thought of, but it's on these kind of lines. Hope it's helped.

why would this put upward pressure on the roi? :s

why would this put upward pressure on the roi? :s

Okay, banks make money in 2 main ways. Lend money to the government, and or lend money to consumers/firms. So if the rate of interest received by the bank from government bonds is high, due to an increasing PSNCR, then banks would rather lend to the government as it's more profitable than domestic lending. So in today's fragile economy, this is bad as it's hampers investment ect. The BOE wants banks to lend to consumers more, so for this to happen the rate of interest would have to increase above that of UK bond yields, so banks see lending to consumers more profitable than lending to the UK gov.- I think! I'm doing the exam myself, so I am still learning, but I thinks the above is right.

Has anyone made a list of current events and/or a list of all the diagrams we can include in answers?

This is my idea of how to structure the 25 marker on data response - does anyone have any criticisms. improvements please
I'm aiming for 100UMS - for a relatively easy summer (econ3)

I tried to split it up into 5 parts - each hopefully gaining 5 marks ( i know it doesn't really work like that.... )

1)Define key terms in the question, reword the question into a sentence and state the point’s you’ll discuss (5)
2)First point should be inferred from the data, you should quote the data, explain the economic theory around it, why it might or might not be significant, Include a diagram if you can (5)
3) Second point – explain theory then say why it might or might not be significant. Include a diagram if you can (5)
4) Third point – same as second (5)
5)Come to a conclusion, weigh up each argument, what is most significant? Why? What does it depends on? (5)

sounds about right. Try to link to uk economy whenever you can

im betting on greece will come up about the euro

This is my idea of how to structure the 25 marker on data response - does anyone have any criticisms. improvements please
I'm aiming for 100UMS - for a relatively easy summer (econ3)

I tried to split it up into 5 parts - each hopefully gaining 5 marks ( i know it doesn't really work like that.... )

1)Define key terms in the question, reword the question into a sentence and state the point’s you’ll discuss (5)
2)First point should be inferred from the data, you should quote the data, explain the economic theory around it, why it might or might not be significant, Include a diagram if you can (5)
3) Second point – explain theory then say why it might or might not be significant. Include a diagram if you can (5)
4) Third point – same as second (5)
5)Come to a conclusion, weigh up each argument, what is most significant? Why? What does it depends on? (5)