Edexcel Economics Unit 4 Global Economy Discussion Thread (10.June.2014)

For question 3(a) I found it quite difficult to get started, but I did manage to give 3 points and 2 evaluation points. Could someone see if my reasoning is correct? My factors were very briefly:

Factor 1: Many countries have experienced export led growth. This has created a dairect income and profit for exporters. These people can then use this income to reinvest in their companies which will create more jobs. Hence reducing unemployment and absolute poverty which promotes development. Also said spending would increase multiplier etc.

Factor 2: As peoples income rises they will begin to save more. Thus solving the savings gap problem. Link to harrod domar etc.

Factor 3: The government would receive higher tax revenue from firms and employees they can then use it in many different ways to promote development. For example, spend it on the poor to improve income distribution.

Evaluation 1: However other factors may be more significant, such as health improvements and then link this to high impact of Aids and how it would decrease unit labour costs and competitiveness. In turn increasing growth and development. i.e growth itself is dependent on this factor.

Evaluation 2: Education may be more significant as this can attract FDI and then a discussion of the benefits of FDI

Conclusion: A mixture of factors affects development, however Economic growth does seem to be the most significant one of these.

Omg hi 😫 I think everyone drew a different diagram for that question, really curious as to what the actual answer was LOL, my data was much sloppier than section A, hopefully boundaries are similar if not lower than last year *fingers crossed*

I do that too and I think its a very effective technique like when I was evaluating the harrod domar model or the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis I made 3 separate points on them but it counts as 1 big evaluation point since I'm still evaluating the same thing. When I say 5 evaluation I meant I did an evaluation for each limiting factor, then a conclusive evaluation on what I thought was the most significant factor. But on markschemes it says 4 factors and 3 evaluation was enough for level 5 so I was just wondering whether the other 2 eval would mean anything

Posted from TSR Mobile

Textbook definition: "A country's international competitiveness refers to its ability to sell its goods and services in domestic and international markets at a price and quality that is attractive in those markets".

Are you an economics teacher? If so it would be really great if you could give me a rough estimate on grade boundaries for this.

Good evening students.

Unit 4 was considerably harder than Unit 3, due to a combination of question ambiguity and question complexity.

I would hasten to add that your Edexcel board had experienced examiner recruitment problems last year for unit 4; has the situation changed appreciably? Anyone's guess.

If what happened with Unit 4 last year repeats this year, I would urge you all to get a remark asap. Under no conditions should you allow a poorly constructed unit 4 in conjunction with the possibility of less experienced examiners threaten your future!

aminkaram

The easiest essay question to score highly on was number 1, followed by number 3. There was no significant difference between the demands of these essays from previous "standard" years. On the essay section, 35/50 would be very possible for an A grade student.

However, the data response section was very tricky in places, in particular under the stresses of an examination environment. I would guess that around 30/50 would be a reasonable approximation of where an A grade student should be.

So, overall, I would hazard an approximation of around 65/100 raw marks would correlate to an A grade, to reflect the difficulty of this paper. However, whether you actually get rewarded what you deserve may well be out of your control and contingent upon the quality of the examiners that Edexcel has managed to recruit this year. If they have failed to recruit examiners who are able to reward decent points of explanation and evaluation (and who instead mark robotically and with a lack of confidence from the mark scheme), then many students may be extremely disappointed with their outcomes. I hope that the board has resolved last year's recruitment difficulties.

But £35 man...

Technically it does affect MNC's because the managers of them arent going to want to move to countries with high income taxation

I just had a guess at a definition. I put how attractive a country's exports are abroad


Posted from TSR Mobile

That is just for starters. I think they should do remarks for free this year if they have not got enough experienced economic examiners.

aminkaram

The easiest essay question to score highly on was number 1, followed by number 3. There was no significant difference between the demands of these essays from previous "standard" years. On the essay section, 35/50 would be very possible for an A grade student.

However, the data response section was very tricky in places, in particular under the stresses of an examination environment. I would guess that around 30/50 would be a reasonable approximation of where an A grade student should be.

So, overall, I would hazard an approximation of around 65/100 raw marks would correlate to an A grade, to reflect the difficulty of this paper. However, whether you actually get rewarded what you deserve may well be out of your control and contingent upon the quality of the examiners that Edexcel has managed to recruit this year. If they have failed to recruit experienced examiners who are able to reward decent points of explanation and evaluation which are not on the mark scheme (and who instead mark robotically and with a lack of confidence from the mark scheme), then many students may be extremely disappointed with their outcomes. I hope that the board has resolved last year's recruitment difficulties.

About that question 3. For part b Would it have been a valid approach to state other factors rather than the savings gap such as Primary product dependency and then evaluate those? I didn't do it like that and it made life so much harder for me.

I did, the same question as you and your answer sounds spot on.

I got really confused between economic growth and development and ended up writing that they were the same thing but I'm not sure about the points.

I said, increased business set-ups from increased economic growth mean more employment and greater incomes so higher consumer choice and increased standard of living and rambled on. Urgh.

I would say that you would've had to do 1 point on savings gap and evaluate, then 3 other factors which you evaluate