F581/ F582 Economics June 2013

I've got F582 this summer! Revising by just reading my notes that I have made from the textbook and then looking at past papers and the exam technique etc.

I'm finding F582 a lot harder in comparison to F581. I'm just making posters with all the determinants and components of AD. And making posters for all the causes/consequences/benefits for each of the economic policies.

yeah F582 is a killer mainly because there's just an absolute ton to revise , and grade boundaries tend to be higher for this one. Oh yeah , the posters thing is a good idea - i've sort of compiled an A4 sheet with all the definitions on it but that's all i've done for 'practical revision'

One good thing to do - near the back of the textbook where it talks about macroeconomic policy instruments ( Fiscal ,monetary , supply-side ) theres sections there dedicated to the effectiveness of each policy - i'd revise those in massive detail as there's like a 90% chance the essay will be on them - or it will be on something like " Discuss whether Economic Growth/inflation/ increase/decrease in the BoP is always detrimental to an economy " - i'm dead certain they won't mention unemployment in that regard , simply because there is little to nothing in terms of advantages of unemployment

Hope that helps

There are some advantages though that can be stated. E.g. a greater pool of workers, a rise in entrepreneurship if the unemployed person decides to set up a business, thereby stimulating capital investment and aggregate demand.

There is more of an incentive for certain individuals to take up more low-paid jobs to cover the labour force. Generally lower inflation is likely to occur, so this could stimulate an increase in aggregate demand eventually.

But obviously all of these and more depend on the individuals in question, if you have a bunch of benefit scroungers, then that's not really going to benefit the economy at all in the short term and long term

oh yeah , there are those of course + unemployment might incentivise an unemployed person to search for employment more actively , if you know what i mean.

I personally think ( if an essay does come up involving unemployment ) it'll be " discuss the effectiveness of fiscal/monetary policy " in reducing unemployment , or something along those lines - simply cos it's a lot meatier essay and you can throw in alternatives such as supply-side policies aswell.

actually thinking of that ^^ , in that style of essay - if you did intro , para explaining it's effectiveness with diagram , then para explaining limitations on it's effectiveness and mentioned an alternative ( but didn't expand on it - so it was literally one line ) and then conclusion , would that be enough to access the 18/18 ? or do you need to mention an alternative and then expand on that ?

I agree with you on that, sounds like a very likely question tbh. An alternative? there aren't much, well supply side policies could be an alternative obviously to encourage economic growth and improve the general workforce to reduce unemployment. For the F581 exam where I got 18/18 on the 18marker I basically did, subsidy effective one side, subsidy not effective, subsidy should be used elsewhere, and the evaluative points like elasticity always get you marks, I'm not sure where this can be applied in f582 but anything that analyses/evaluates guarantees level 4 and top marks. One thing to note on the f581 exam I discussed an alternative and it was seen but given no marks (maximum price fixing, which to be frank makes no sense)

yeah i think supply-side policies is really the only alternative for that particular essay , as monetary is designed to do the same thing in the end as fiscal.

For F581 - what sort of evaluative points can you talk about for subsidy/taxation/regulations etc ? when i did these 18 markers i never mentioned elasticity or anything like that - i mentioned about the market failure correction ( why it would work ) then mentioned an alternative and compared the effectiveness of the two - but if you say those alternatives are not getting the marks , then my teacher's marking is off - so what sort of evaluative points can you make , is the VERY long-winded question i am asking

I would really like it if a question like that came up as an 18 marker. But, you never know if unemployment on it own might come up because they have used questions like discuss whether inflation always harms an economy / discuss the extent to which economic growth may always benefit an economy.

I guess if it was just a question on whether unemployment is always harmful we could discuss the different types of unemployment, frictional, structural and cyclical and then say that some of them arent that harmful and then write some possible benefits of unemployment.

Heres all the 18 markers that have been on this exam

I would really like it if a question like that came up as an 18 marker. But, you never know if unemployment on it own might come up because they have used questions like discuss whether inflation always harms an economy / discuss the extent to which economic growth may always benefit an economy.

I guess if it was just a question on whether unemployment is always harmful we could discuss the different types of unemployment, frictional, structural and cyclical and then say that some of them arent that harmful and then write some possible benefits of unemployment.

Heres all the 18 markers that have been on this exam

For Jan 2013 i guess you could also say that it depends on AD. if AD is under full capacity, then a decrease in AS wont harm the economy as much.

For some questions like "Discuss the extent to which a reduction in the rate of interest can be effective in increasing consumer expenditure and investment" In a practise essay i started writing about monetary policy because the rate of interest is a part of it, but my teacher crossed out what i'd written as he said that monetary policy wasnt referred in the question.

Looking at the past questions, i think fiscal/monetary are likely to come up, as well as unemployment. Not too sure about economic growth or inflation as they've came up quite a lot in the past few years

For Jan 2013 i guess you could also say that it depends on AD. if AD is under full capacity, then a decrease in AS wont harm the economy as much.

For some questions like "Discuss the extent to which a reduction in the rate of interest can be effective in increasing consumer expenditure and investment" In a practise essay i started writing about monetary policy because the rate of interest is a part of it, but my teacher crossed out what i'd written as he said that monetary policy wasnt referred in the question.

Looking at the past questions, i think fiscal/monetary are likely to come up, as well as unemployment. Not too sure about economic growth or inflation as they've came up quite a lot in the past few years

Posting on behalf of a friend:

Does anyone have the F581/F582 papers from January 2013 / or knows the exact 18-marker essay questions which came up?

Heres my exam script for F581

well done which questions did you get the extra marks on?

Ok its crazy how much marks change after remarks, would be better if examiners just marked it correctly the first time lol

What are u hoping to get on f582 ?