Australia · ACARA Content Descriptions
Year 11 Economics & Business
This course explores how individuals and societies manage scarcity and make choices in a globalized world. Students analyze market forces, government intervention, and the complexities of managing a national economy through various policy lenses.
The Economic Problem and Scarcity
An introduction to the fundamental problem of scarcity and how different systems allocate resources.
Investigating how limited resources necessitate choice and the trade-offs involved in every decision.
Using visual models to demonstrate efficiency, growth, and the cost of shifting production.
Comparing how market, planned, and mixed economies answer the three basic economic questions.
The Price Mechanism
Analyzing how supply and demand interact to determine prices and allocate resources in a market.
Examining the relationship between price and quantity from both consumer and producer perspectives.
Identifying the point where supply meets demand and the consequences of surpluses and shortages.
Measuring how responsive consumers and producers are to changes in price and income.
Market Failures and Government Intervention
Exploring why markets sometimes fail to achieve efficient outcomes and how governments respond.
Analyzing the spillover effects of production and consumption on third parties.
Distinguishing between goods that the market under-provides and those it cannot provide at all.
Evaluating the impact of government-imposed price limits on market outcomes.
Macroeconomic Objectives
Focusing on the broad goals of an economy, including growth, employment, and price stability.
Measuring the total value of goods and services and its limitations as a measure of wellbeing.
Investigating the causes and effects of rising prices on purchasing power and investment.
Analyzing the types of unemployment and the social and economic costs of joblessness.
Managing the Economy
An analysis of the tools used by authorities to influence economic activity and achieve objectives.
The use of government spending and taxation to influence the level of aggregate demand.
The role of the central bank in managing interest rates and the money supply.
Strategies aimed at increasing the productive capacity and efficiency of the economy.
Personal Finance and Global Markets
Connecting individual financial literacy with the broader trends of international trade and finance.
Understanding the relationship between risk and return in various asset classes.
Examining why nations trade and the impact of protectionism on global wealth.
Analyzing how the value of a currency is determined and its effect on trade balances.