HSC Economics Question Thread

[parthie]

I had an economics essay and I got the mark back and wasn't too happy with it even tho I did a lot of study and preparation and worked really hard on it. Essays have always been my weak point in economics. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about how to improve my essay writing in economics. Because I am really struggling and considering dropping the subject if I can't improve

[tissue]

Did your school do topic 3 first? Or are you just ahead cos I don't think that is in the first two chapters?

yeah our school did topic 3 first, kinda weird 

[QC]

I had an economics essay and I got the mark back and wasn't too happy with it even tho I did a lot of study and preparation and worked really hard on it. Essays have always been my weak point in economics. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about how to improve my essay writing in economics. Because I am really struggling and considering dropping the subject if I can't improve

From my experience (I think I'm pretty good at short answers/MC where it is about knowledge but not amazing at essay, got 17/20 in case study) you need to do 3 things: Answer the question, show connection to theory and use relevant statistics and make reference to trends rather than just dropping stats. Also, if worse comes to worst and you only get 2 16s or something in HSC, you can still quite easily get a 90 raw (tends to align ~95 exam) since MC and SA can be prepared for very accurately, if you study hard. Also, if you want to do well make sure you get essays reviewed BEFORE you write them as that can be the difference between a B6 and a B5, there are excellent resources here and I'm sure in your school/even your friends. I'm not going to lie, economics is not going to be one of those subjects that you can just walk in and sit the exam after reading your notes. You have to have elaborate knowledge of many things that are occurring in the world of economics around you. I recommend even making a book of notes and every week or so reading the finance section of a newspaper/watch the news and write notes on what is happening in the world.
Answering the question
This is usually what draws people down in essays in pretty much all subjects, if you want a B6 you HAVE to answer the q. Even if you have a 20/20 essay, if it is focused on the wrong thing, you will lose the criterion for being concise.
e.g Discuss the advantages of free trade and the role of international organisations and free trade agreements in promoting trade in the global economy.
From Isaac's compilation of q. Firstly, you have to look at the verb. Discuss which means provide reasons for and against. So when you plan, first you to have an intro and conclusion then think about what points for and against the adv free trade and the effect of international organisations in PROMOTING TRADE in the global economy will have. E.g Free trade allows goods and services to be bought for a cheaper price as foreign countries can produce goods more cheaply due to comparative adv. Although this is the case, it can also cause dumping which can ruin domestic competition in a nations markets. You must ALSO talk about the effect of free trade agreements (make sure to use examples like the EU, NAFTA and bilaterals like ANZCERTA). Although they provide a lot more trade for nations inside the agreement such as in the EU in which labour and goods and services are moved very freely, it also means that many nations are forced to apply tariffs against nations not in the agreement which are majorly developing nations and LDCs, and therefore lock them out of the global economy and trade. You must also do this for organisations such as WTO, IMF etc. Ie, The WTO has allowed for major increases in international trade growth as they have removed a lot of protectionist policies in the Uruguay round (if possible mention some). However, they have poor enforcement on their standards and have allowed countries to use dumping as an excuse for protectionist policies. Then you must have a conclusion.  Make sure you don't ramble on unnecessary stuff and have a structure detailed in the intro i.e pros/cons of free trade then agreements then organisations.
show connection to theory
This is usually required in the criterion "uses appropriate economic terms" or smth. The key here is to take something that has occurred in real life and explain how it works using what you have learnt in the course. e.g use things like graphs of demand and supply, use terms like comparative advantage, CAD, ToT, use equations like C+I+G=Y etc. The example above is relatively easy here as free trade can easily be related to effects on economic growth etc.
 use relevant statistics and make reference to trends rather than just dropping stats
Statistics are like the quotes of economics. If you don't have evidence then what does it matter what you say. Like quotes in economics, you can't just drop the quote and move on. You must do two things: reference a trend and explain the impact of the statistic. Firstly, quotes are no good on its own. What is the point in saying Australia's GDP is $1.34 trillion in 2015. Saying this has literally no meaning at all. Is this high or low? What is it compared to the rest of the world? In order to use the stat it could be better to compare it to 1980 then 2000. In 1980 it was close to $200 b and it 2000 it was close to $400 b. Although this doesn't take into account economic occurrences such as the GFC, it plants a much better way of explaining what is happening. To add to this, you can't just say a quote like "Australia's GDP was $1.34 t in 2015 compared to 200b in 1980". Instead, you have to talk about the effects of this and why this happened. You could relate it to increased globalisation and the removal of protectionist policies or changes in exports from Japan to the industrious and higher population China who have purchased "UGE" quantities of our exports. You should also reference the impact of increased GDP, are the people benefitting, is the government using wealth efficiently to improve economic development?
Hope this helps you improve, one mark isn't going to end you especially if you take it the right way and endeavour to improve

[parthie]

From my experience (I think I'm pretty good at short answers/MC where it is about knowledge but not amazing at essay, got 17/20 in case study) you need to do 3 things: Answer the question, show connection to theory and use relevant statistics and make reference to trends rather than just dropping stats. Also, if worse comes to worst and you only get 2 16s or something in HSC, you can still quite easily get a 90 raw (tends to align ~95 exam) since MC and SA can be prepared for very accurately, if you study hard. Also, if you want to do well make sure you get essays reviewed BEFORE you write them as that can be the difference between a B6 and a B5, there are excellent resources here and I'm sure in your school/even your friends. I'm not going to lie, economics is not going to be one of those subjects that you can just walk in and sit the exam after reading your notes. You have to have elaborate knowledge of many things that are occurring in the world of economics around you. I recommend even making a book of notes and every week or so reading the finance section of a newspaper/watch the news and write notes on what is happening in the world.
Answering the question
This is usually what draws people down in essays in pretty much all subjects, if you want a B6 you HAVE to answer the q. Even if you have a 20/20 essay, if it is focused on the wrong thing, you will lose the criterion for being concise.
e.g Discuss the advantages of free trade and the role of international organisations and free trade agreements in promoting trade in the global economy.
From Isaac's compilation of q. Firstly, you have to look at the verb. Discuss which means provide reasons for and against. So when you plan, first you to have an intro and conclusion then think about what points for and against the adv free trade and the effect of international organisations in PROMOTING TRADE in the global economy will have. E.g Free trade allows goods and services to be bought for a cheaper price as foreign countries can produce goods more cheaply due to comparative adv. Although this is the case, it can also cause dumping which can ruin domestic competition in a nations markets. You must ALSO talk about the effect of free trade agreements (make sure to use examples like the EU, NAFTA and bilaterals like ANZCERTA). Although they provide a lot more trade for nations inside the agreement such as in the EU in which labour and goods and services are moved very freely, it also means that many nations are forced to apply tariffs against nations not in the agreement which are majorly developing nations and LDCs, and therefore lock them out of the global economy and trade. You must also do this for organisations such as WTO, IMF etc. Ie, The WTO has allowed for major increases in international trade growth as they have removed a lot of protectionist policies in the Uruguay round (if possible mention some). However, they have poor enforcement on their standards and have allowed countries to use dumping as an excuse for protectionist policies. Then you must have a conclusion.  Make sure you don't ramble on unnecessary stuff and have a structure detailed in the intro i.e pros/cons of free trade then agreements then organisations.
show connection to theory
This is usually required in the criterion "uses appropriate economic terms" or smth. The key here is to take something that has occurred in real life and explain how it works using what you have learnt in the course. e.g use things like graphs of demand and supply, use terms like comparative advantage, CAD, ToT, use equations like C+I+G=Y etc. The example above is relatively easy here as free trade can easily be related to effects on economic growth etc.
 use relevant statistics and make reference to trends rather than just dropping stats
Statistics are like the quotes of economics. If you don't have evidence then what does it matter what you say. Like quotes in economics, you can't just drop the quote and move on. You must do two things: reference a trend and explain the impact of the statistic. Firstly, quotes are no good on its own. What is the point in saying Australia's GDP is $1.34 trillion in 2015. Saying this has literally no meaning at all. Is this high or low? What is it compared to the rest of the world? In order to use the stat it could be better to compare it to 1980 then 2000. In 1980 it was close to $200 b and it 2000 it was close to $400 b. Although this doesn't take into account economic occurrences such as the GFC, it plants a much better way of explaining what is happening. To add to this, you can't just say a quote like "Australia's GDP was $1.34 t in 2015 compared to 200b in 1980". Instead, you have to talk about the effects of this and why this happened. You could relate it to increased globalisation and the removal of protectionist policies or changes in exports from Japan to the industrious and higher population China who have purchased "UGE" quantities of our exports. You should also reference the impact of increased GDP, are the people benefitting, is the government using wealth efficiently to improve economic development?
Hope this helps you improve, one mark isn't going to end you especially if you take it the right way and endeavour to improve

Thankyou so much!! This really helped!!

[Iminschool]

2 marker here: 'Distinguish between the financial flows of debt and equity'
From what i understand, debt refers to the borrowing or lending of funds and equity involves ownership. Is it possible for anyone to expand on my current understanding?
Thanks

[RuiAce]

2 marker here: 'Distinguish between the financial flows of debt and equity'
From what i understand, debt refers to the borrowing or lending of funds and equity involves ownership. Is it possible for anyone to expand on my current understanding?
Thanks

This would be easy for me to answer from my knowledge from accounting but I doubt that's what you'd want, so I asked a friend to see if there was anything worth mentioning. (Given that I did not do economics in the HSC myself.)

You could contrast that:
Debt is subject to interest - when your financing is from a third party they'd want their funds back, so the longer you have the money on hand the more you have to pay in return
Gain/Loss in equity is only realised at the point of a transaction; you don't have it until the sale occurs.

Although, he didn't recall equity getting mentioned in HSC economics. For the sake of curiosity, mind pointing out which topic this is under?


Note: I'm well aware that I've probably only provided little information. Would much prefer a current/past HSC economics student to provide further insight.

[jamonwindeyer]

Not sure if HSC cover the AS/AD model (although I assume it does) but I have a few questions about long-run and short-run changes in equilibrium at the full employment level (first year university subject)
...
Any help would be fantastic!

Hey Aqualim! I didn't do HSC Economics, but I did do first year Economics - Your question looks similar to stuff I've done but not quite the same, and I've never heard of that model. Perhaps you could elaborate on its purpose/what it consists of? I (or HSC Economics students) might have learned it under a different name, fingers crossed

[Iminschool]

This would be easy for me to answer from my knowledge from accounting but I doubt that's what you'd want, so I asked a friend to see if there was anything worth mentioning. (Given that I did not do economics in the HSC myself.)

You could contrast that:
Debt is subject to interest - when your financing is from a third party they'd want their funds back, so the longer you have the money on hand the more you have to pay in return
Gain/Loss in equity is only realised at the point of a transaction; you don't have it until the sale occurs.

Although, he didn't recall equity getting mentioned in HSC economics. For the sake of curiosity, mind pointing out which topic this is under?


Note: I'm well aware that I've probably only provided little information. Would much prefer a current/past HSC economics student to provide further insight.

Module 2 (Australia's place in the global economy) - Balance of Payments
Great contrast btw, appreciated

[jamonwindeyer]

AD/AS Model is just changes in aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Basically I'm asking about the effects of the events I listed above on either the Keynesian aggregate demand equation, AD=C+I+G+(X-M), where C=Consumption Spending, I=Investment Spending, G=Government Spending, (X-M)=net exports, where X=exports and M=imports and the Aggregate supply equation i.e. changes in nominal wages (cost of production) + import prices (cost of raw materials) and productivity (investment in new technology).

I just had a quick look at the HSC Economics Stage 6 syllabus and it says this sort of stuff is covered under the "Economic Issues in the Australian Economy' aspect of the course. However I'm not quite sure if you covered it in terms of changes in the curve of a graph with regard to short-run and long-run perspectives.

Whilst I'm here, I have another two questions which hopefully someone can help with;

1) Suppose that government would like to maximize tax revenue. Explain why it may be a good idea for the government to lower tax rates for the goods that have very high price elasticities of demand (exceeding one).
2) Suppose that government would like to maximize tax revenue. Explain why it may be a good idea for the government to raise tax rates for the goods that have very low price elasticities of demand (less than one).

Thank you

Hmm, all sounds beyond what I learned in my course, and without knowing for sure I'd say it could be for HSC Economics too. HSC courses tend to be a bit 'wishy washy' in terms of how they approach the content - They don't analyse consequences in depth, but instead offer a more general qualitative approach

Hopefully I'm wrong and someone who did HSC Economics can help you - Although I'm clicking with bits of what you're saying it sounds a bit beyond me, sorry! 

[RuiAce]

AD/AS Model is just changes in aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Basically I'm asking about the effects of the events I listed above on either the Keynesian aggregate demand equation, AD=C+I+G+(X-M), where C=Consumption Spending, I=Investment Spending, G=Government Spending, (X-M)=net exports, where X=exports and M=imports and the Aggregate supply equation i.e. changes in nominal wages (cost of production) + import prices (cost of raw materials) and productivity (investment in new technology).

I just had a quick look at the HSC Economics Stage 6 syllabus and it says this sort of stuff is covered under the "Economic Issues in the Australian Economy' aspect of the course. However I'm not quite sure if you covered it in terms of changes in the curve of a graph with regard to short-run and long-run perspectives.

Whilst I'm here, I have another two questions which hopefully someone can help with;

1) Suppose that government would like to maximize tax revenue. Explain why it may be a good idea for the government to lower tax rates for the goods that have very high price elasticities of demand (exceeding one).
2) Suppose that government would like to maximize tax revenue. Explain why it may be a good idea for the government to raise tax rates for the goods that have very low price elasticities of demand (less than one).

Thank you

Briefly brushing up on my basics

Price elasticity of demand is a measure of responsiveness of the market's demand to a change in price. It is defined as "the percentage change in quantity demanded resulting from a very small percentage change in price". (Dobrescu, 2015) The formula is

Where P = Price of goods at a specific point, and Q = Quantity demanded at that point.
(This implies that depending on where you are on the curve, in general the elasticity changes.)

By consequence if the price were increased whilst the demand was inelastic (not so responsive), the revenue for the producer would be increased. If the price were increased for an elastic demand (quite responsive), the revenue would be decreased.

Now what's the deal with a tax?

In this GeoGebra simulation, the supply curve is the fixed line y=x. The demand curve has a fixed y-intercept, however the gradient is variable (slider). The tax imposed is just $3, and the supply curve with the tax is shown.

By playing around with the slider, it is clear that elasticity causes the TAX revenue to decrease.

A tax forces the price to increase. The market is not Pareto efficient, and a deadweight loss is imposed. But of course, the increase in tax isn't appealing to the producer for this reason - instead, it is appealing to the government. The government is the one generating tax revenue out of it (to which the area of the rectangle reflects the tax revenue. This is because tax revenue = tax ($3) * quantity produced.)

The intuitive explanation is, perhaps, the fact that what would happen to the producer, is simply happening to the government now. The government chooses to target the market with least responsiveness. Once the market is considered elastic, the tax will cause consumers to buy so much less that the negative impact on the quantity demanded outweighs the positive impact on the price for the government.

If the market is inelastic, whilst it will inevitably be affected, the quantity demanded is not affected as significantly. Hence, the government will be able to exploit as much of this as possible.

(I did my best trying to explain bits and pieces. It might not puzzle up, but I hope you can take something out of it.)

[CiaraO]

Can somebody please explain the balance of payments? Thank you x

[isaacdelatorre]

Can somebody please explain the balance of payments? Thank you x

Hey CiaraO,

The Balance of Payments is a record of the financial transactions between Australia and the rest of the word over a given period.

It basically shows money that flows out of Australia i.e. debits (through purchase of imports, non reversible transactions such as sending dividend profits to overseas shareholders, loans taken out by people overseas) as well as money that flows in to Australia i.e. credits (o/s buying our exports, Australian's receiving loans from overseas banks etc.)

That is the general gist of the balance of payments, feel free to ask any further questions. I know this topic gets quite tricky and confusing, so we are all happy to help

[CiaraO]

Hey CiaraO,

The Balance of Payments is a record of the financial transactions between Australia and the rest of the word over a given period.

It basically shows money that flows out of Australia i.e. debits (through purchase of imports, non reversible transactions such as sending dividend profits to overseas shareholders, loans taken out by people overseas) as well as money that flows in to Australia i.e. credits (o/s buying our exports, Australian's receiving loans from overseas banks etc.)

That is the general gist of the balance of payments, feel free to ask any further questions. I know this topic gets quite tricky and confusing, so we are all happy to help

Thank you I'm a bit confused as to the differences between the current account, capital and financial account, primary income and secondary income. I'm not sure how to categorise different credits and debits - how do you identify what goes into which account? Thanks for your help x

[tissue]

Explain the causes of recent trends in the distribution of income and wealth in Australia

can anyone please help outline what i should be aiming to write for this essay question, i have no idea where to even start

[kneehaha]

Hey,
Could i please have some tips for an economics exam? HY are just around the corner