Pearson Edexcel · International GCSE
Economics · Économie
Papers, samples and curriculum documents for this course. · Dossiers, échantillons et documents de programme pour ce cours.
Qualification code · Code de qualification: 4EC1
Recent past papers · Anciens sujets récents
14 paper and mark-scheme pairs · paires sujet-barème de correction
Browse papers and mark schemes · Consulter les dossiers et les barèmes de correction →Course units and learning goals · Unités de cours et objectifs d'apprentissage
These lessons teach selected course objectives. Check the remaining coverage gaps; the material is not a complete preparation programme. · Ces leçons abordent des objectifs de cours sélectionnés. Vérifiez les lacunes restantes en couverture ; ce matériel ne constitue pas un programme d'entraînement complet.
1.1.1–1.1.2 · Scarcity and economic choices
- Explain scarcity, opportunity cost and the factors of production
- Interpret feasible output, idle resources and opportunity cost using a PPC
- Interpret feasible and infeasible output combinations
- Calculate opportunity cost and distinguish reallocation from growth
- Explain consumer departures from benefit maximization
- Distinguish profit, revenue, sales and customer-care objectives
- scarcity
- Wants exceed the resources available to meet them.
- opportunity cost
- The benefit of the next-best alternative forgone.
- productive capacity
- The maximum output possible with current resources and technology.
- production possibility frontier
- Maximum feasible combinations of two outputs with available resources.
- revenue maximization
- Choosing the greatest total sales revenue among available options.
- profit maximization
- Choosing the greatest excess of total revenue over total cost.
1.1.3–1.1.4 · Markets and elasticity
- Distinguish shifts from movements along demand and supply
- Calculate price elasticity and explain revenue consequences
- Calculate and interpret supply elasticity
- Explain stocks, capacity, factors and time as supply constraints
- Calculate YED and identify normal, luxury and inferior goods
- Apply income responsiveness to business decisions
- Distinguish willingness and ability from desire alone
- Explain own-price movements and all specified demand determinants
- Distinguish supply from stock and actual sales
- Explain supply shifts caused by costs, technology, taxes, subsidies and natural factors
- Find equilibrium and calculate excess demand or supply
- Explain price adjustment and shifted equilibrium in context
- Interpret all PED magnitudes and their determinants
- Use total revenue to evaluate a price change
- elasticity
- Responsiveness of one variable to a change in another.
- equilibrium · équilibre
- A situation where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied.
- price elasticity of supply
- Percentage quantity-supplied change divided by percentage price change.
- spare capacity
- Productive resources available to increase output without first expanding capacity.
- income elasticity of demand
- Percentage quantity-demanded change divided by percentage income change.
- inferior good
- A good whose demand falls as income rises, other relevant factors unchanged.
- quantity demanded
- The amount buyers choose at a particular price.
- complement
- A good used together with another good.
- supply
- Quantities sellers are willing and able to offer at different prices over a period.
- indirect tax
- A tax on spending or a transaction, rather than directly on income.
- excess demand
- Quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied at a particular price.
- excess supply
- Quantity supplied exceeds quantity demanded at a particular price.
- price elasticity of demand
- Percentage quantity-demanded change divided by percentage own-price change.
- total revenue
- Price multiplied by quantity sold.
1.1.5–1.1.6; 1.2.6(a–b) · Externalities and intervention
- Explain external costs and benefits
- Evaluate tax, subsidy, regulation and public provision
- Distinguish sector ownership from public-good characteristics
- Explain mixed allocation and evaluate privatization
- Distinguish external production costs from external consumption benefits
- Calculate social cost and benefit without double counting
- Compare taxes, subsidies, fines, regulation and pollution permits
- Evaluate targeting, enforcement and flexibility in policy choice
- externality · externalité
- A cost or benefit affecting a third party.
- subsidy
- A payment that supports production or consumption.
- non-rivalry
- One person’s use does not reduce the amount available to others.
- free rider
- A person benefiting from a good without contributing to its funding.
- social cost
- Private cost plus external cost.
- external benefit
- A benefit received by a third party outside the transaction.
- pollution permit
- Permission for a specified amount of emissions under a controlled system.
- regulation
- A rule setting requirements or limits on behaviour.
1.2.1–1.2.3 · Production, costs and growth
- Calculate costs, revenue, profit and productivity
- Explain division of labour, economies and diseconomies of scale
- Classify production factors and primary, secondary and tertiary activities
- Interpret sector-share changes without confusing shares and levels
- Calculate productivity and explain land, labour and capital improvements
- Evaluate specialization for firms and workers
- Distinguish internal and external economies of scale
- Interpret LRAC and explain organizational diseconomies
- Explain each specified internal economy rather than merely naming it
- Distinguish shared industry advantages from a firm’s own expansion
- Use every specified business-cost formula with consistent units
- Distinguish total and average values and account for fixed costs
- productivity
- Output per unit of input.
- profit · bénéfice
- Total revenue minus total cost.
- capital
- Produced equipment and structures used to make goods or services.
- tertiary sector
- Economic activities providing services.
- human capital
- Skills, knowledge and capabilities contributing to productive work.
- division of labour
- Splitting production into tasks performed by specialist workers.
- economies of scale
- Falling long-run average cost as production scale increases.
- diseconomies of scale
- Rising long-run average cost as production scale increases.
- internal economy of scale
- A cost advantage arising from a firm’s own larger production scale.
- external economy of scale
- A cost advantage arising from growth or improved conditions in the industry or area.
- total variable cost
- The aggregate cost varying with the quantity produced in the period.
- average total cost
- Total cost divided by output.
1.2.4–1.2.6 · Competition and labour
- Compare competition and monopoly
- Explain wage determination and government influence on business
- Explain oligopoly features and firm interdependence
- Evaluate price competition, non-price competition and collusion
- Evaluate competition and compare large and small firms
- Explain growth, staying small, monopoly features and barriers
- Explain all specified labour-demand and labour-supply determinants
- Interpret wage/employment shifts and trade-union influence
- Diagram and evaluate a binding minimum wage and an increase
- Explain why competition rules protect consumers and review mergers
- Compare introduction and a further increase using the same labour schedules
- Evaluate responsiveness, enforcement and worker/employer outcomes
- monopoly
- A market dominated by a single supplier.
- labour demand
- The workers employers are willing and able to hire.
- oligopoly
- A market dominated by a small number of firms.
- collusion
- Coordination between firms that restricts competition.
- barrier to entry
- An obstacle making it difficult for new firms to enter a market.
- niche market
- A specialized part of a market serving particular customer needs.
- derived demand
- Demand for an input arising from demand for the output it helps produce.
- trade union
- An organization representing workers in employment negotiations.
- minimum wage
- A legal lower limit on the wage paid for covered work.
- non-binding
- A limit that does not constrain the market’s chosen outcome.
- wage bill
- Total wages paid, such as hourly wage multiplied by hours employed.
- labour mobility
- The ability to move between locations or occupations for work.
2.1.1–2.1.3 · Government objectives and policies
- Interpret inflation, unemployment and economic growth
- Evaluate fiscal and monetary policy and conflicts between objectives
- Calculate real GDP growth and per-person output
- Evaluate growth using distribution, capacity and environmental evidence
- Identify boom, downturn, recession and recovery in an output path
- Explain likely employment and inflation changes without assuming certainty
- Calculate inflation from a CPI change and distinguish its causes
- Trace inflation effects on households, firms and external competitiveness
- Calculate an ILO-based unemployment rate using the labour force
- Distinguish five causes and analyse output, fiscal and social consequences
- Calculate goods/services balances and a current-account balance
- Explain deficit causes, external financing and imported price risks
- Identify four environmental harms and choose a matched intervention
- Evaluate enforcement, funding and public-park provision
- Distinguish absolute poverty, relative poverty and inequality
- Evaluate progressive taxation, benefits and human-capital provision
- Calculate a budget deficit or surplus and classify taxes/spending
- Trace fiscal changes to employment, prices, equity and external demand
- Trace rate changes through borrowing, saving, investment and demand
- Explain central-bank asset purchases without assuming certain results
- Explain seven prescribed supply-side policy mechanisms
- Evaluate time lags, access, incentives and quality of implementation
- Explain all four specified macroeconomic trade-offs
- Build a conditional policy judgement using capacity and time
- inflation
- A sustained rise in the general price level.
- fiscal policy
- Use of public spending and taxation to influence the economy.
- real GDP
- Domestic output valued with the effect of price changes removed.
- GDP per person
- GDP divided by the population.
- recession
- A significant period of declining economic activity.
- recovery
- Renewed growth in activity after a downturn or low point.
- consumer price index
- An index of prices for a weighted basket of consumer purchases.
- deflation
- A sustained fall in the general price level.
- labour force
- Employed people plus unemployed people meeting the measurement criteria.
- structural unemployment
- Unemployment caused by a mismatch of skills or location with available jobs.
- current account
- The external account covering goods, services, primary income and current transfers.
- trade deficit
- Imports of goods and services exceed their exports in value.
- visual pollution
- Damage to the appearance of an environment, including litter.
- legislation
- Laws establishing authority, duties or prohibitions.
- absolute poverty
- Insufficient resources to meet basic needs.
- relative poverty
- Resources substantially below a society’s usual living standard.
- budget deficit
- Public expenditure exceeds public revenue during a period.
- monetary policy
- Policy influencing monetary conditions such as interest rates and liquidity.
- interest rate
- Interest as a percentage of a sum borrowed or saved for a stated period.
- supply-side policy
- Policy intended to improve productive capacity or productivity.
- deregulation
- Removal or reduction of rules restricting economic activity.
- policy trade-off
- Improvement in one objective can impose a cost on another.
- cyclical unemployment
- Unemployment caused by weak demand during an economic downturn.
2.2.1–2.2.3 · Trade and exchange rates
- Explain globalisation and trade protection
- Analyse exchange-rate changes for importers, exporters and consumers
- Explain integration through trade, transport, communication and MNCs
- Evaluate effects on consumers, traditional industries, workers and the environment
- Distinguish an MNC, FDI and an ordinary import transaction
- Evaluate host-country jobs, skills, capital, tax and profit flows
- Compare free-trade gains with adjustment costs
- Explain seven prescribed protection arguments and their limitations
- Calculate import quantities and tariff receipts from a market schedule
- Compare restrictions with domestic production support
- Use the EU customs union to distinguish member and non-member effects
- Explain negotiation, monitoring and dispute-settlement roles of the WTO
- Calculate export composition and distinguish shares from values
- Explain how productive structure and development affect trade patterns
- Convert amounts using an explicit rate quotation
- Explain currency demand/supply through trade, interest and expectations
- Distinguish appreciation/depreciation from revaluation/devaluation
- Calculate import/export price effects and evaluate quantity responses
- Diagram a domestic production subsidy with an available world supply
- Calculate public cost and explain producer/consumer effects
- exchange rate
- The price of one currency expressed in another currency.
- tariff
- A tax levied on imports.
- globalization
- Increasing integration and interdependence between economies.
- interdependence
- Economic outcomes in one place depend partly on activity elsewhere.
- foreign direct investment
- Investment creating a lasting interest and influence in an enterprise abroad.
- profit repatriation
- Moving profits from overseas activity back to owners in another country.
- free trade
- International exchange with reduced trade restrictions.
- infant industry
- A new industry seeking time to develop competitiveness.
- import quota
- A limit on the quantity of a product imported.
- customs union
- A bloc with reduced internal tariffs and a common external tariff.
- World Trade Organization
- An institution supporting trade agreements, monitoring and dispute settlement.
- export composition
- The distribution of export value across categories.
- diversification
- Reducing concentration by developing a wider range of products or markets.
- currency speculation
- Buying or selling currency in anticipation of future price changes.
- devaluation
- An official downward change in a currency’s fixed or managed parity.
- revaluation
- An official upward change in a currency’s fixed or managed parity.
- production subsidy
- A payment supporting eligible domestic production.
- world price
- The price at which the product is available internationally under the stated model.
Preparing for this qualification · Préparation à cette qualification
- Two 90-minute, 80-mark papers: Paper 1 microeconomics/business economics; Paper 2 macroeconomics/global economy. Each is 50%. No coursework.
- This is the linear 4EC1 course, not the separate modular qualification. Use Issue 3 onscreen-examination guidance for the chosen delivery mode.
Teaching coverage still needed · Couverture pédagogique encore nécessaire
- All 108 lettered targets link to native teaching. Complete sub-bullet/diagram depth and qualification-rubric certification remain under review; unseen papers need supervised use and protected printable delivery, and all 14 recent paper pairs require leaf-level review.
- Reviewed runtime bank remains unavailable; no practice registry promotion.
Specifications and sample documents · Spécifications et documents d'échantillon
Course materials · Matériel pédagogique
Course preparation · Préparation du cours
Documents are available. Board-specific notes, assessments and interactive past-paper practice are not yet available for every course. · Les documents sont disponibles. Les notes spécifiques au conseil, les évaluations et la pratique interactive des anciens sujets ne sont pas encore disponibles pour tous les cours.
Lessons · Leçons →