EconomicsToo

In the bustling world of academics where examinations, assignments, homework and extracurricular activities all clamour for your time and attention, it’s easy to underestimate the power of a seemingly simple act: showing up . A dig into the research has led me to believe that there is so much more to the relationship between attendance and academic achievement than the obvious and strong positive correlation we often talk about here in GIS. A full class! Where IGCSE and A-level subject results are concerned, it seems that attendance is way more than just a formality; it's a strategic investment with very tangible returns. Plenty of studies point towards this; a recent UK government blog post called " Why is school attendance so important and what are the risks of missing a day? " is very clear in its answer: attendance is paramount and the risks of missing a day are high! Every day at school is crucial and missed days can accumulate rapidly according to the article, whic...

Every year, as we go through the Options process (IGCSE and A Level), parents and students alike have hundreds of questions. And rightly so, the decision is important. But one question we hear multiple times every year is:  "What's the difference between business and economics?" ...and more often than not, this question includes accounting. This post hopes to shed some light on this and help explain the main differences.  At GIS, we like to use an analogy given to us a few years ago by another economics teacher (Mr Stewart...credit where credit is Stew!)…   First, let's talk about Business Studies . Business studies delves into the core areas related to businesses and their operations. The buying, selling, producing and marketing of goods and services.  Imagine a business, let's say it is a factory. Visualise lifting the roof off and peering inside; you see four main sections each with very different things going on... In one area, there is a team of people using ...

Year 9 students at Garden International School ( GIS KL ) are currently facing their first big decision point in their education: choosing their IGCSE subjects for the next academic year. To help guide them through this process, we have implemented a few key steps to ensure that each student makes informed and confident choices. Image source All Year 9s choose 3 subjects, with 2 more in reserve, in case their first choices do not fit into the timetable. To aid in this decision-making process, we offer Taster sessions for all IGCSE subjects over two weeks to give students a glimpse into what each subject entails and to help them determine which ones they would be most interested in and successful in...and those they might be better off not choosing! Furthermore, a specific Options Parent Discussion evening guides parents through to process from start to finish and an Options-focused Parent Teacher Conference (PTC)  allows parents and students to ask questions directly to subject t...

The contestable market theory is an economic theory that proposes that a market is competitive as long as it is easy for firms to enter and exit. According to this theory, even if there are only a few firms in a market, if it is easy for new firms to enter and existing firms to exit, the market will behave competitively. This is because the threat of new entrants and the possibility of existing firms exiting will provide an incentive for firms to keep prices low and quality high in order to remain competitive. Watch this video for an explanation of contestable markets for CIE A2 and all you need to know: Limit pricing is a common pricing strategy that involves setting prices at a level that is low enough to deter new firms from entering a market, but high enough to cover the costs of existing firms. Firms may use limit pricing in order to protect their market share and prevent new entrants from gaining a foothold in the market. Prices are set at ATC = AR when the market is perfectly co...

We all know that essay structure is important. It's been said that a good essay is like a sandwich... you need an introduction, main body and a conclusion. This is rather vague advice, and so here are some pointers that should help you to construct an excellent economics essay. This post is designed to support questions that require all the assessment objectives tested. These types of questions tend to feature command terms like 'discuss', 'to what extent' or 'evaluate'... Image source The 5 step process This process is not perfect but does provide a framework to help you construct your essay. Feel free to use whatever elements you believe will add to your performance... 1 - Annotate the question Simply underline the command terms, highlight the parts which you need to respond to and the key terms etc. This will ensure you understand the question, helps you to focus and reduces the likelihood that you'll go off topic. 2 - Plan  I would...