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🇵🇰 Cambridge AS and A Level · subject
Cambridge AS and A Level Economics (9708) Syllabus
Every chapter and topic of Economics (9708) examined in Cambridge AS and A Level — 8 chapters, 32 topics, plus 50 flashcards written against it.
Economics (9708) syllabus — full chapter and topic list
Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Economics (9708) in Cambridge AS and A Level, not a summary of it.
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Basic Economic Ideas and Resource Allocation
4 topics- Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost
- Economic systems
- Production possibility curves
- Specialisation and the division of labour
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The Price System and the Microeconomy
4 topics- Demand and supply
- Price elasticity, income elasticity and cross elasticity
- Market equilibrium and the price mechanism
- Consumer and producer surplus
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Government Microeconomic Intervention
3 topics- Maximum and minimum prices
- Indirect taxes and subsidies
- Market failure
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The Macroeconomy
5 topics- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
- Inflation and deflation
- Balance of payments
- Exchange rates
- Economic growth and the business cycle
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Government Macroeconomic Intervention
4 topics- Macroeconomic policy objectives
- Fiscal policy
- Monetary policy
- Supply-side policy
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The Microeconomy (A Level)
4 topics- Utility and indifference curves
- Costs and revenue
- Market structures
- The labour market
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Government Microeconomic Intervention (A Level)
3 topics- Policies to correct market failure
- Equity and redistribution of income and wealth
- Labour market forces and government intervention
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The Macroeconomy (A Level)
5 topics- The circular flow of income
- Money and banking
- Economic growth and development
- Macroeconomic policies in a global context
- International trade and globalisation
Economics (9708) flashcards for Cambridge AS and A Level
22 of 50 cards from the Economics (9708) deck — real questions with worked answers.
Define scarcity in economics.
Scarcity is the condition where there are unlimited human wants but limited (finite) resources available to satisfy them, forcing choices to be made.
What is opportunity cost?
Opportunity cost is the cost of the next best (foregone) alternative when a choice is made.
What are the four factors of production and their rewards?
Land (reward: rent), Labour (reward: wages), Capital (reward: interest), and Enterprise (reward: profit).
Distinguish between free goods and economic goods.
A free good has no opportunity cost and unlimited supply (e.g. air), whereas an economic good is scarce and has an opportunity cost in its production or consumption.
What three fundamental economic questions must every economy answer?
What to produce, how to produce it, and for whom to produce (how output is distributed).
Compare the three main economic systems.
Market economy: resources allocated by the price mechanism, privately owned. Planned (command) economy: the state owns resources and allocates them centrally. Mixed economy: combines private and public sectors.
What is a production possibility curve (PPC)?
A PPC shows the maximum combinations of two goods an economy can produce when all resources are fully and efficiently employed, given the state of technology.
What does a point inside a PPC indicate?
It indicates that resources are unemployed or used inefficiently, so production is below the economy's potential.
What does a point outside the PPC represent, and how can the curve shift to reach it?
It is currently unattainable; it can be reached through economic growth, shown by an outward shift of the PPC (e.g. more resources or better technology).
Why is a PPC typically concave (bowed outward) to the origin?
Because resources are not equally suited to producing both goods, so opportunity cost increases as more of one good is produced (the law of increasing opportunity cost).
How does a PPC illustrate opportunity cost?
Moving along the curve to produce more of one good requires giving up some of the other good; the amount given up is the opportunity cost.
What is specialisation?
Specialisation is the concentration by a worker, firm, region or country on a narrow range of tasks or products in which they are most efficient.
What is the division of labour?
The division of labour is breaking down a production process into separate tasks, with each worker specialising in one task.
State three advantages of the division of labour.
Increased productivity/output, workers become more skilled at their task, and time is saved (less switching between tasks); it also allows use of specialised machinery.
State two disadvantages of the division of labour.
Work can become boring/monotonous (lower motivation, lower quality), and there is greater risk of disruption if one worker or stage fails; workers may become deskilled in other areas.
State the law of demand.
As the price of a good rises, the quantity demanded falls, and as price falls, quantity demanded rises (ceteris paribus) — an inverse relationship.
List four non-price determinants of demand.
Income, price of related goods (substitutes and complements), tastes/preferences, population/number of buyers, and expectations of future prices.
Distinguish between a movement along and a shift of the demand curve.
A change in the good's own price causes a movement along the demand curve (a change in quantity demanded); a change in any other determinant shifts the whole curve (a change in demand).
State the law of supply.
As the price of a good rises, the quantity supplied rises, and as price falls, quantity supplied falls (ceteris paribus) — a direct relationship.
List four non-price determinants of supply.
Costs of production, technology, prices of other goods, number of suppliers, taxes/subsidies, and expectations/weather (for agriculture).
Give the formula for price elasticity of demand (PED).
PED = percentage change in quantity demanded ÷ percentage change in price.
How do you interpret the values of PED?
|PED| > 1 = elastic; |PED| < 1 = inelastic; |PED| = 1 = unit elastic; PED = 0 = perfectly inelastic; PED = ∞ = perfectly elastic. (PED is normally negative.)
Planning Economics (9708) for Cambridge AS and A Level
Economics (9708) is about 16% of the Cambridge AS and A Level syllabus by topic count — 32 of 201 topics, spread over 8 chapters. At roughly 45 minutes per topic plus 12 minutes per sub-topic, a first pass runs to about 25 hours.
The heaviest chapters are The Macroeconomy (5 topics), The Macroeconomy (A Level) (5 topics), Basic Economic Ideas and Resource Allocation (4 topics) . Front-load those while your energy is high; the short chapters are better revision filler later.
Work top-down: read the chapter, then tick topics off individually rather than marking the whole chapter done. Sub-topics are where silent gaps hide.
Economics (9708) (Cambridge AS and A Level) FAQ
What is in the Cambridge AS and A Level Economics (9708) syllabus?
Economics (9708) is split into 8 chapters — Basic Economic Ideas and Resource Allocation, The Price System and the Microeconomy, Government Microeconomic Intervention, The Macroeconomy, Government Macroeconomic Intervention and The Microeconomy (A Level), and 2 more, containing 32 topics and 0 sub-topics in total.
How is Economics (9708) structured in the Cambridge AS and A Level syllabus?
8 chapters. Economics (9708) accounts for about 16% of the topics in the whole Cambridge AS and A Level syllabus (32 of 201).
How long should I spend on Economics (9708) for Cambridge AS and A Level?
Budget around 25 hours for a first pass through Economics (9708) — about 45 minutes per topic plus 12 minutes per sub-topic across its 32 topics. Add revision cycles on top.
Are there flashcards for Cambridge AS and A Level Economics (9708)?
Yes — a 50-card Economics (9708) deck. Sample cards are printed on this page, and the full deck is free in the Examius app with spaced repetition scheduling.