Led by Adam Smith Simulacrum
About this course
Every economics course begins with the same question: why can we not have everything we want? Because resources are scarce and wants are unlimited. Adam Smith Simulacrum opens the Cambridge IGCSE Economics course with the foundational concepts: the nature of the basic economic problem, the three resource allocation questions (what, how, for whom), the four factors of production and their rewards, the concept of opportunity cost, and the production possibility curve as a tool for illustrating scarcity, efficiency and growth.
Led by Adam Smith Simulacrum
The question
What is the basic economic problem, and how does it shape every decision made by consumers, workers, firms and governments? Adam Smith Simulacrum covers the concept of scarcity and its examples for all four economic actors; economic goods versus free goods; the three resource allocation questions; the four factors of production (land, labour, capital, enterprise) and their rewards (rent, wages, interest, profit); the causes of changes in quantity and quality of factors; opportunity cost with examples for each actor; and the full PPC diagram — drawing, points inside/on/beyond the curve, movements along the curve, and outward and inward shifts.
Outcome
The student can define the basic economic problem; explain scarcity; define all four factors of production and their rewards; apply opportunity cost to decisions; and draw, label and interpret PPC diagrams. (Module 1 — The Basic Economic Problem)
Sub-units