← Economics syllabus

SAEconomics

Topic 1: The Economic Problem

3 dot points across 3 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do different economic systems decide what, how and for whom to produce?

Compare market, planned and mixed economic systems and how each answers the three basic economic questions.
How market, planned and mixed economies each answer what, how and for whom to produce, and why most modern economies are mixed.
6 min answer →

Why must every society make choices about how to use its resources?

Explain scarcity as the basic economic problem and analyse how choice and opportunity cost follow from it.
Why unlimited wants meeting limited resources forces every society to choose, and how opportunity cost measures the real cost of those choices.
6 min answer →

How can a model show the trade-offs an economy faces with limited resources?

Construct and interpret a production possibility frontier to illustrate scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, efficiency and growth.
How the PPF models scarcity, opportunity cost, efficiency and economic growth, and why it usually bows outward from the origin.
7 min answer →