Canada · Ontario Curriculum Expectations
Grade 10 Economics
This course investigates how individuals and societies manage scarcity through decision making and resource allocation. Students analyze market forces, government policy, and global interconnectedness to understand the trade-offs inherent in modern economic life.
The Power of Choice: Scarcity and Incentives
An introduction to the fundamental economic problem of unlimited wants versus limited resources and how incentives shape human behavior.
Exploring why every choice involves a trade-off and how to calculate the value of the next best alternative.
Comparing how command, market, and mixed economies answer the three basic economic questions.
Analyzing how rational actors make decisions at the margin and respond to positive and negative incentives.
Markets in Action: Supply and Demand
A deep dive into the mechanics of price determination and the interaction between buyers and sellers in a competitive landscape.
Examining the relationship between price and quantity demanded or supplied and the factors that shift these curves.
Investigating how markets reach balance and the impact of government interventions like price ceilings and floors.
Measuring how responsive consumers and producers are to changes in price and income.
The Firm and Market Structures
Analyzing how businesses operate, calculate profits, and compete across different types of market environments.
Comparing sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations, alongside the role of labor unions.
Contrasting markets with many small sellers against those dominated by a single firm.
Studying markets with differentiated products and the strategic behavior of a few large firms.
Measuring the Economy: Macroeconomic Indicators
Evaluating the health of a national economy through data on production, employment, and price stability.
Understanding how the total value of goods and services produced reflects national economic health.
Analyzing different types of unemployment and their social and economic consequences.
Exploring the causes of inflation and how it erodes the value of money over time.
Policy and the Public Sector
Examining how governments use fiscal and monetary policy to stabilize the economy and address market failures.
Analyzing government spending and taxation as tools for managing aggregate demand.
Investigating how the central bank adjusts interest rates and the money supply to control inflation.
Understanding why markets sometimes fail to provide efficient outcomes and how the government intervenes.
Personal Finance and Global Markets
Connecting economic principles to personal financial planning and the complexities of international trade.
Applying economic concepts to saving, investing, credit, and risk management.
Explaining why nations trade and how specialization increases global production.
Analyzing how the value of currencies is determined and its impact on trade balances.