Economics 2018 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• answer the question being asked rather than writing everything they know about the topic
• understand and address the key word in the question – for example, outline, explain, justify
• use statistics and examples to support their responses
• use relevant economic terms and concepts to answer the question
• draw theoretical graphs to emphasise relationships between variables
• write legibly and coherently
• keep sentences and paragraphs concise.

Question 21

In better responses, students were able to:

• clearly define ‘unemployment’ and ‘underemployment’ (b)
• demonstrate a clear understanding that underemployed workers are not counted in the unemployment statistics (b)
• use a contemporary example of how low unemployment and high level of underemployment can co-exist (b)
• demonstrate a clear understanding of the effects of low wage growth on disposable income, aggregate demand, labour force participation, business profits, unemployment and inflation (c)
• demonstrate the impact of low wage growth on the overall Australian economy, including the impact on individuals, businesses and governments (c)
• use data as supporting evidence of the impact low wage growth has had on the Australian economy (c).

Areas for students to improve include:

• clearly defining ‘unemployment’ and ‘underemployment’ (b)
• explicitly stating that underemployed workers are not included in the unemployment statistics, therefore allowing unemployment and underemployment to co-exist (b)
• developing clear links as to why low wage growth affects economic factors such as economic growth, inflation and unemployment (c)
• using data effectively to demonstrate how low wage growth affects the Australian economy, including individuals, businesses and governments (c).

Question 22

In better responses, students were able to:

• make clear links between microeconomic policies, their limitations and impact on the economy during low economic growth and the reasons why it would be difficult for the government to manage
• identify the rationale for microeconomic reform (c)
• clearly link the impact of a labour market reform to full employment AND price stability (d)
• identify specific types of labour market reforms and note the different impacts they have on different economic objectives (d).

Areas for students to improve include:

• making clear links between microeconomic policies and their impacts on the economy (c and d)
• addressing the key terms used in the question: why and how (c and d)
• understanding the impacts of labour market reforms (d)
• understanding the meaning of full employment (d).

Question 23

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate ONE specific cost and ONE specific benefit of globalisation and provide clear reasons to support their response (a)
• provide accurate examples of costs and benefits of globalisation to support their response, and the reasons why (a)
• refer to transnational corporations, relate back to economic growth and then link with environmental trade-off. Many students were able to link transnational corporations to increased production, and then to specific environmental trade-off, rather than to a general ‘environmental degradation’ (a)
• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of either all or some contributors/drivers of globalisation, specific to the syllabus, such as trade flows, financial flows, investment and transnational corporations, technology and communication and division of labour and migration (b)
• provide specific examples of multi-lateral and bilateral agreements relevant to Australia (b)
• clearly understand the question and relate it to Australia throughout the response (b).

Areas for students to improve include:

• explaining and identifying one cost and one benefit of globalisation (a)
• providing relevant examples of costs and benefits of globalisation to support their response (a)
• relating the question to Australia (b)
• providing statistics or evidence to support their response (b).

Question 24

In better responses, students were able to:

• identify information in the table that is relevant to a depreciation of an exchange rate (d)
• interpret the data in the table as either a ‘result’ or a ‘cause’ of the depreciation (d)
• support their arguments with reference to an increase in supply or a decrease in demand for the currency of the hypothetical economy (d).

Areas for students to improve include:

• applying economic knowledge to interpret changes in the hypothetical economy (d)
• providing arguments based on the changes evident in the table for the hypothetical economy, rather than offering reasons based on conditions in the Australian economy (d).

Question 25

In better responses, students were able to:

• present clear links to each part of the question with explicit discussion of a number of economic concepts
• refer to key trends such as the slowdown and collapse of the textiles, clothing and footwear (TCF) industry and the passenger motor vehicle industry to support their arguments
• provide succinct definitions and well explained concepts such as comparative advantage, international competitiveness and structural unemployment
• clearly articulate a detailed understanding of the question, providing relevant data and graphs that were appropriately referenced.

Areas for students to improve include:

• presenting clear and relevant arguments on the implications of free trade on all three economic objectives of full employment, income distribution and external stability
• developing clear links between free trade and the three economic objectives
• referring to the stimulus with a clear understanding of the question and the concepts required, and providing relevant examples, data and graphs to support their arguments.

Question 26

In better responses, students were able to:

• provide well substantiated judgements of the contribution of macroeconomic policy decisions to economic growth
• synthesise their own knowledge from the information provided to support their arguments
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of periods since 1991 where macroeconomic policy contributed to economic growth – for example, the 1990s recession, the Asian Financial Crisis, the Commodities Boom Mark I and Mark II, the European Debt Crisis and the more recent stances on macroeconomic policy
• demonstrate a balanced response with respect to both monetary and fiscal policies, while also acknowledging the role of microeconomic reform in supporting macroeconomic policy by increasing the capacity for growth.

Areas for students to improve include:

• directly answering the question asked
• integrating economic theory with contemporary economic information to make balanced and effective judgements of the contribution of macroeconomic policy decisions to economic growth
• integrating the information provided to support their arguments and judgements of economic policies.

Question 27

In better responses, students were able to:

• integrate relevant economic terms and concepts into a well-balanced critique of the policies established to achieve environmental sustainability. Relevant economic terms include those used in various sources of market failure, such as ‘externalities’ and ‘free riders', which were linked to practices that threaten environmental sustainability such as the depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution and the loss of biodiversity
• provide an effective evaluation of recent government environmental policy initiatives such as the Gillard Government’s Carbon Tax and the Abbot Government’s Direct Action program – both of which were designed to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions
• distinguish between the regulatory approaches (for example, the state government clean air and clean water legislation) and market-based approaches to environmental management (for example, emissions trading schemes and taxation measures)
• apply some form of criteria to evaluate the success of environmental management policies
• provide relevant examples of environmental management policies such as the achievement of the Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets, or a more sustainable level of water usage within the Murray Darling Basin region, or even a reduced level of environmental threat through the cleaning up of rubbish and plastic waste in public spaces.

Areas for students to improve include:

• avoiding the inclusion of unsubstantiated evaluations of the effectiveness of environmental policies – for example, the carbon tax as a ‘complete failure’ or the interpretation of environmental sustainability as simply ‘reducing the level of rubbish found in parklands’
• addressing the various policies used by successive Australian governments to achieve environmental sustainability instead of just referring to more generalised environmental protection strategies such as pollution reduction or policies of countries other than Australia
• linking government environmental policies to actual requirements and components of environmental sustainability such as the health and wellbeing of future generations of humans and other species and the natural environment.

Question 28

In better responses, students were able to:

• integrate a range of data/statistics relevant to the question
• make a judgement, supported by relevant data – for example, percentage of GDP, interest rate differentials, or values of the current account components
• expand on each factor clearly by elaborating upon its definition the relationships between terms, and providing integrated, relevant contemporary examples
• use explicit current account terminology
• split their response, dealing with the factors that influence the size and the composition separately, rather than dealing with them simultaneously.

Areas for students to improve include:

• forming clearer interpretation of the question and planning their extended response to help them present an organised, well-structured response
• linking each paragraph back to the question
• using relevant economic terminology and phrases
• demonstrating clearer relationships between economic terminologies
• demonstrating broader contemporary knowledge of the domestic and global economy.