AS Economics AQA unit -1 (2014 May)

I only wrote about that too so don't worry! The question specifically asked something along the lines of 'Evaluate the view that the government SHOULD or SHOULDN'T intervene...' it didn't state anything like evaluate the best way of intervention or policies that the government should use etc. so we should be fine


Imagine a question asking 'Evaluate the view that humans need food and drink in order to survive', you would talk about the pro's and cons of them, but you wouldn't necessarily need to say what types of food and drink they need because the question doesn't ask that

I've been panicking all day, I feel quite relieved knowing there's someone on same boat as me..!!! thank u for replying

Incorrect. You are meant to analyse and evaluate a few policies available to the government with intervention. Your evaluation should've been used to critique specific interventions. Your conclusion should be an over-all review of the proposed question.

No point worrying about it now. All the best with unit 2. It's generally regarded as a bit simpler.

the mobile phones question last year was similar. The one which said "evaluate the case for and against government intervention in the way mobile phones are manufactured and used". You could get 25 just arguing the for and against without mentioning policies. In fact, if you forgot the for and against and only included policies then you got capped at 16. There is no cap for just the for and against though as that is the essence of the question

Incorrect. You are meant to analyse and evaluate a few policies available to the government with intervention. Your evaluation should've been used to critique specific interventions. Your conclusion should be an over-all review of the proposed question.

No point worrying about it now. All the best with unit 2. It's generally regarded as a bit simpler.

Can't be unitary, otherwise the incidence of tax is 50%, when it asked for 100% IOT

So which context did you guys pick and what did you write for the essay question(really want know about those that picked context 1!)? If you picked context 1, what did you write for the essay question?

I'm now starting to kinda worry seeing as I didn't talk about any specific type of gov't intervention in the 25 marker

So which context did you guys pick and what did you write for the essay question(really want know about those that picked context 1!)? If you picked context 1, what did you write for the essay question?

I'm now starting to kinda worry seeing as I didn't talk about any specific type of gov't intervention in the 25 marker

could've talked about bufferstock, minimum price and subsidies to encourage production I just zoned out in the exam Let's hope for the best in unit 2

Well yes you could have talked about such schemes, but you would likely have been wasting your time by doing so. The question was if I remember "for" and "against" government intevention. If you wrote an essay about specific government policies then you would not have answered the question!

This is essentially what I did:

- Biofuels " as a merit good " with evidence from extract (i,e. the bit about Brazilian farmers)
- government failure, as being a merit good attempts to intervene would lead to a less efficient allocation of resources e.t.c.

- Biofuels " as a demerit good " with evidence from extract (i.e. Oxfam's opinions on the matter)
- market failure, necessary for government intevention to correct failure e.t.c.

And various evaluation points about opportunity cost (e.g. food vs fuel) scattered around the place.

Yeah, kind of messed up here. Went with Context 2, think I did alright on the multiple choice, I reckon about 19/25, for private goods I missed out the fact they had property rights, but basically mentioned they were supplied under the market mechanism and explained that they had rivalry and excludability, don't know how many out of /5 that will get.


Question 2 compared all 3, giving all 3s highest point then all 3s lowest point.


Question 3 defined supply/demand talked about an inward shift in supply as well as briefly mentioning an inward shift of demand, kind of somehow managed to screw the graph up to some extent though (don't know how).


Question 4 - this was where I really messed up without properly completing a graph due to shortage of time. Managed to talk about the newspapers / internets news being a merit good. Spoke about how subsidies would increase supply, would increase the consumption of newspapers thus moving it to a more socially optimal level.

Then added that this was an expensive form of intervention. Also only briefly mentioned that the supplier might not pass on the subsidy, meaning consumption would not increase, producer surplus would be greater than consumer surplus.

Lastly pointed out that most news is accessed from the TV anyway (in the case of the US) according to Extract A. So the effect of a subsidy may not actually make much difference towards how much people educate themselves upon news.

Then had to do a really short conclusion basically saying I think there shouldn't be a subsidy as its expensive and most people already get their news from the TV (according to Extract A)

So yeah my question 4 was pretty poor with a missing graph, if I could get just over 10 like 12 or so on it I'd be happy as my last few paragraphs were very short.

the mobile phones question last year was similar. The one which said "evaluate the case for and against government intervention in the way mobile phones are manufactured and used". You could get 25 just arguing the for and against without mentioning policies. In fact, if you forgot the for and against and only included policies then you got capped at 16. There is no cap for just the for and against though as that is the essence of the question

Lol...? To get 25, you,need best evaluation, best,analysis and best Application whereby you need to state the intervention methods - analyse them, then obv say For & Against... Thats why its called a question whereby you are suppose to answer it... Dont you think otherwise people would be gettin 25 all the time? We looked ay examplar scripts in,school and top essays only got 22 & 23 so gettin 25 is kinda rare.

maybe not 25 but to get level 5 didn't need to talk about specific policies. The question is not to 'evaluate different policies' the question is 'evaluate for and against government intervention'. These are the 2 different types of question and many get caught out by taking a policies approach.

maybe not 25 but to get level 5 didn't need to talk about specific policies. The question is not to 'evaluate different policies' the question is 'evaluate for and against government intervention'. These are the 2 different types of question and many get caught out by taking a policies approach.

Are you me? Seriously that's basically how I answered everything, did you also point out the fact that the first extract was from the US but that it would still be relevant in the UK market? Had a feeling they were trying to catch people out with that one.