Economics

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Theory of production

   15%

   Concept and types of production · Short run and long run product and cost concepts, and the laws of returns · Economies and diseconomies of scale · Cost and revenue concepts and profit determination · Factors of production and their rewards · Division of labour · Location and localisation of industry · Forms of business organisation · Privatisation, commercialisation, nationalisation and deregulation · Mergers and acquisitions · Production function: total, average and marginal product · Economic rent, quasi rent and transfer earnings

2. The price system

   10%

   Demand and supply and their determinants · Equilibrium price and quantity, and consumer's and producer's surplus · Changes in demand and supply, and exceptions to the laws · Applications of demand and supply analysis: price control and minimum wage · Elasticity of demand and supply · Price elasticity of demand and the incidence of tax

3. International trade and finance

   10%

   Internal and international trade, and the reasons for trade · Theories of absolute and comparative cost advantage · Advantages and disadvantages of international trade · Terms of trade, balance of trade and balance of payments · Trade barriers and the case for and against protection · Foreign exchange: rates, markets and systems · Devaluation, revaluation, depreciation and appreciation · Globalisation: drivers, advantages and disadvantages

4. Market structure and pricing

   10%

   Types of market structure and their features · Price and output determination in the short and long run · Price discrimination and product differentiation · Sources and control of monopoly power

5. National income

   10%

   National income accounting concepts and their computation · Methods of computing national income · The circular flow of income · Problems, uses and limitations of national income estimates · Factors influencing the size of national income · The multiplier and the accelerator · Equilibrium national income · Full employment income, inflationary and deflationary gaps

6. Money and financial institutions

   10%

   Nature, functions, characteristics and types of money · Demand for and supply of money and the quantity theory · Narrow and broad definitions of money, and the concept of liquidity · Financial institutions in a developing economy · Types of payment system · Money and capital markets and their instruments · Monetary policy: meaning, instruments and targets

7. Fundamentals of public finance

   10%

   Sources and types of government revenue · Types of government expenditure · Growth of government expenditure in the West African sub-region · Elements, principles and classification of taxation · Uses of taxation · Types and role of national budgets in an economy · Meaning, types and sources of public debt · Theories of public debt · Instruments and targets of fiscal policy

8. International and regional organisations

   5%

   International and regional economic organisations · Levels of economic integration

9. Theory of consumer behaviour

   5%

   Cardinal utility theory and its assumptions · Total and marginal utility and the derivation of the demand curve · Ordinal utility theory, indifference curves and the budget line · The Engel curve

10. Inflation and unemployment

    5%

    Inflation: types, causes, effects and control · Unemployment and the Phillips curve

11. The nature and scope of economics

    5%

    Definition and scope of economics · Basic economic concepts · Microeconomics and macroeconomics distinguished · Basic economic problems: scarcity, choice and opportunity cost · The fundamental economic questions · Economic systems: capitalist, socialist and mixed · Methodology of economics, economic theory and economic models

12. Economic growth and development

    5%

    Economic growth and its determinants · Economic development and its features · The sustainable development goals · Common characteristics of developing countries · Development planning in the West African sub-region · Population and population census · Emerging areas in economics

Where candidates lose this paper

The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.

There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.

The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.

You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.

Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.

The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.

Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.

You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.

The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.