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AQA A2 Economics Unit 3 - 12th June 2012 PM

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I hate reading through everyones different answers :P but it went well. So glad poverty came up and the oligopoly. Actually I thought the exam was tomorrow and almost missed it :eek: I was about an hour away from realising. Phew.
Reply 541
Questions were not too bad this time around compared to the one in Jan this year
Reply 542
For the causes of poverty question, I wrote about how a lack of education leads to fewer skills and qualifications, and therefore a lower MRP, drew the MRP diagram, then explained how that could lead to unemployment.

I didn't know what to put for the other one but ended up talking about how an unequal distribution of wealth could be a cause of poverty, would that be okay? I read earlier that someone put lack of education and unemployment as two separate points, so would my first point count as two anyway?
Original post by joshadams
I used similar points and think they're all valid as long as well explained. I also used the introduction of a state-subsidised firm to increase competition and encourage efficiency? not sure that's correct though.


Yeah, other people have picked up on that point on the previous page I think. As you said, as long as it well explained you'll be fine :smile: good luck for august mate.
Reply 544
For causes of poverty I put old age and single parenthood, do you think that would be okay?
Reply 545
The funny thing is that from people posting what points they made, together we've probably created a more detailed mark scheme than the examiners will have! The official ones are bare bones
Reply 546
Original post by M.Abdullahi
Yeah, other people have picked up on that point on the previous page I think. As you said, as long as it well explained you'll be fine :smile: good luck for august mate.


Ah right I'm more hopeful than before then considering I lost quarter of the time from being late, thinking it was tomorrow :colondollar:. Good luck to you too and for Unit 4
Reply 547
Original post by Wulf chan
I hate reading through everyones different answers :P but it went well. So glad poverty came up and the oligopoly. Actually I thought the exam was tomorrow and almost missed it :eek: I was about an hour away from realising. Phew.


Did exactly the same questions and was very glad for the poverty/income distribution one. I did think it was tomorrow aswell though and ended up missing some of it haha.
Reply 548
Poverty
5:Gave a point from the change in wages, but got 18.6%. Did we HAVE to do it from the min wage?

10 marker : Talked about fiscal drag and unemployment.

25: I talked about progressive taxes and benefits and evaluated. Then about relaxing health and safety and the increasing minimum wage. Concluded by saying that UK's way of redistrubution after income was better than supply side as it helps those at the bottom of society more which is more important.
How much did people relate to the EU etc? All I said was how euro crisis is increasing the inequality of income in european countries, like unemployment increasing etc.

Didn't mention training though, would my other supply side policies be ok? I wouldn't be penalized for missing it out would I? Also how much have people been quoting from the data, as coming out I realised I only did once.

Oligopoly
15: Did a kinked demand curve. Uncertainity cos of those firms pricing, difficulty if too high. Interdependency when an action has a large effect on another firm, especially when priced to low but unlikely to happen as then everyone has less revenue etc.

25: Defined Oligopoly,
Tax profits - but then less for r and d (dynamic efficiency)
Regulate and monitor through commissions and OFT - Reliability? expensive and can only advise.
Break them up - Lack of economies of scale
Price controls - less r and d


I didn't mention colluding though, and did say 'against what the public would want' etc. However I didn't mention anything about increasing competitiveness that much.. :/ Gunna be touch and go for the A I want...
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 549
I thought the questions on this paper were better than January, I did the poverty one with unemployment and rising fuel and food prices as the two causes and kind of favoured the supply side policies saying about a benifits culture can resuce economic efficiency and explained some macro effects!
I did the one about large firms too, thought it was a good question, explained EoS and diminishing returns but it didn't seem like enough so went into diseconomies, what else did people write?
Then said about large firms aren't statically efficient but is dynamic efficiency and innovation more important?

Hope I did better than Januarys B!! :biggrin:
I was on 265 UMS coming into this exam, does that mean I need 55 for an A overall ?
Reply 551
Original post by mjg94
I was on 265 UMS coming into this exam, does that mean I need 55 for an A overall ?


yep, think so :smile:
Forgot we could talk about this straight after lol!

No question offered a nice structure in my opinion, but I think I answered well.

Did the poverty response and then the 2nd question on Oligopoly.

GG Economics, it's been emotional.
Reply 553
Original post by fzzz
How did you do that question :confused:


For context one calculation for the life of me couldn't remember the formula for working out percentages (haven't done maths since GCSE lool) but found that as the UK emissions quantity 500 simply doubled it to 1000 (so thats 2 x 500) then done 30 x 2 = 60 (30x500 equates to 29500) and then done 100/60 which equalled 1.666 then rounded it up...took a good 2/3 minutes so definetly overcomplicated but effective nonetheless...
Reply 554
Original post by scottb3scott
I did the question on environmental market failure and oligopoly.

I made points on:
-Quota- restricts supply to a socially optimum level but decreases supply so there is government failure.
- Tax- Decreases supply to a socially optimum level, but if demand is inelastic there will be government failure.
- Pollution permits- pollution permits only charge inefficient firms whereas a tax doesn't matter how efficient a firm is its the same regardless of how much they pollute. Government failure might occur if they are overgenerous with allowable pollution.

So overall pollution permits are the best option as they provide the best incentive for efficiency. They're the least likely too cause government failure. In the long term government will be able to issue a better amount of allowable pollution once they understand what is an acceptable level.


I thought the question wanted us to explicitly address the affects that policies aimed at reducing pollution and climate change have on UK businesses as opposed to the forms of intervention? I did mention a couple of these but only so as to explain the effect they have on businesses...:curious:
Reply 555
Original post by Adzs
I thought the question wanted us to explicitly address the affects that policies aimed at reducing pollution and climate change have on UK businesses as opposed to the forms of intervention? I did mention a couple of these but only so as to explain the effect they have on businesses...:curious:


You're right. I discussed both on mine, just to make sure. I think the main focus was to discuss the impact on firms though.
Original post by Adzs
I thought the question wanted us to explicitly address the affects that policies aimed at reducing pollution and climate change have on UK businesses as opposed to the forms of intervention? I did mention a couple of these but only so as to explain the effect they have on businesses...:curious:


yeh i said that taxes will decrease the firms revenues

i also said that permits will make firms more efficient???
Reply 557
Original post by helllomoto
I did environmental policies + small/big firms. I feel so left out. :frown:


I did the small/big firms one! Felt like I repeated myself a bit but otherwise alright. Structured the 25 markers around - in terms of structure large firms can be more efficient, but in terms of behaviour small firms tend to be more (monopoly vs perfect competition really), & the different types of efficiency. What about you?
Original post by Jorgeyy
Forgot we could talk about this straight after lol!

No question offered a nice structure in my opinion, but I think I answered well.

Did the poverty response and then the 2nd question on Oligopoly.

GG Economics, it's been emotional.


what did you do for the oligopoly question?
Reply 559
Original post by ceed01
I thought the questions on this paper were better than January, I did the poverty one with unemployment and rising fuel and food prices as the two causes and kind of favoured the supply side policies saying about a benifits culture can resuce economic efficiency and explained some macro effects!
I did the one about large firms too, thought it was a good question, explained EoS and diminishing returns but it didn't seem like enough so went into diseconomies, what else did people write?
Then said about large firms aren't statically efficient but is dynamic efficiency and innovation more important?

Hope I did better than Januarys B!! :biggrin:


I hope I did better than January's B too:smile: (i got 74 btw) although I think that is increasingly unlikely as, after finishing the poverty question, i did nearly a page on the CBA first part (essay 3) and then I stopped and went onto essay 2 the oligopoly one, I always crumble under exam pressure:frown:. Hence I only got down two points in the final question and a quick one line conclusion written down while the invigilator was waiting to collect my script. And tbh now I wish I did the diminishing returns one in the first place.

Yep, I took a more 'supply side' side view with the poverty Q as well. For the analysing two causes i did unemployment and low skills leading to low wages but im not sure if this falls under two distinct points. In short, I hate micro. Ive enjoyed ECON1,2 and 4, just hated this one.

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