JC 2 Economics

Students will analyze the fundamental economic problem of scarcity and its implications for individual and societal choices, introducing the concept of opportunity cost.

Students will explore the basic factors that influence consumer demand for goods and services, understanding how these factors can change what people want to buy.

Students will investigate the basic factors that influence how much producers are willing and able to sell, understanding how these factors affect the availability of goods and services.

Students will analyze how the interaction of demand and supply determines equilibrium price and quantity, and how the price mechanism allocates resources.

Students will explore basic reasons why governments might get involved in setting prices for certain goods or services, and discuss simple examples of such interventions.

Students will learn about basic taxes and subsidies, understanding how the government uses these tools to influence what people buy and sell, and to fund public services.

Students will explore how economic activities can have unintended positive or negative effects on people who are not directly involved in the transaction, using simple, relatable examples.

Students will learn about goods and services that are available to everyone and difficult to exclude anyone from using, like streetlights or national defense, and discuss who pays for them.

Students will explore goods that the government encourages (merit goods like education) or discourages (demerit goods like cigarettes) for the benefit of society, and discuss why.

Students will learn about the basic ways governments intervene in the economy to achieve certain goals, such as providing public services or regulating industries, using simple examples.

Students will explore the basic process of how businesses turn resources (inputs) into goods and services (outputs), and understand that making things costs money.

Students will understand that a main goal for most businesses is to make a profit by selling their products, and how they think about how much to sell and at what price.

Students will explore markets where there are many businesses selling similar products, leading to competition and often lower prices for consumers.

Students will learn about situations where one company is the only seller of a product or service, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a market.

Students will explore markets where many businesses sell similar but slightly different products, using branding and advertising to attract customers.

Students will learn about markets dominated by a few large companies, and how their decisions often depend on what their competitors do.

Students will explore why it can be difficult for new businesses to enter certain markets, and what factors create these 'barriers to entry'.

Students will learn about how governments sometimes sell state-owned businesses to private companies (privatization) or set rules for businesses (regulation), and why they do this.

Students will explore why governments have laws to ensure fair competition among businesses and prevent companies from becoming too powerful or colluding.

Students will learn a simple model of how money moves between households and businesses in an economy, showing how spending by one group becomes income for another.

Students will get a basic understanding of how the total spending in a country (demand) and the total amount produced (supply) interact to affect the economy.

Students will learn about Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a main way to measure how much a country produces and earns, and discuss what it tells us about the economy.

Students will explore the idea of economic growth that also considers the environment and future generations, ensuring resources are available for a long time.

Students will learn about inflation as a general increase in prices over time, and discuss why it happens and how it affects people's spending power.

Students will learn about unemployment as people who want to work but cannot find jobs, and discuss different reasons why people might be unemployed.

Students will explore the idea that some people earn much more than others (income inequality) and what it means to live in poverty, discussing simple reasons and effects.

Students will learn how the government uses its spending and taxes (fiscal policy) to influence the overall economy, like creating jobs or slowing down rising prices.

Students will learn about the central bank's role in managing the country's money supply and interest rates, and how this affects borrowing, saving, and spending.

Students will explore how governments can implement policies to improve the skills of workers and make it easier for businesses to hire, boosting the economy's ability to produce.

Students will learn how government investments in education (schools, training) and infrastructure (roads, internet) can help a country's economy grow stronger in the long run.

Students will understand that governments often face choices where achieving one economic goal (like more jobs) might make another goal harder (like keeping prices stable).

Students will explore the basic reasons why countries trade with each other, understanding that countries can benefit by focusing on producing what they are best at.

Students will discuss why some people want to protect local businesses from foreign competition using tools like taxes on imports (tariffs) and limits on foreign goods (quotas).

Students will learn about specific ways governments can limit international trade, such as tariffs (taxes on imports) and quotas (limits on quantities), and their basic effects.

Students will explore how countries form groups to make trade easier among themselves, like free trade areas, and discuss the benefits and challenges of such agreements.

Students will get a basic understanding of how a country keeps track of all the money flowing in and out from trade, investments, and other transactions with the rest of the world.

Students will learn about exchange rates – how much one country's money is worth compared to another's – and the basic factors that make these values go up or down.

Students will explore the basic effects of a country's currency becoming stronger or weaker on its exports, imports, and the prices of goods.

Students will apply the concept of opportunity cost to their own daily decisions, understanding that every choice means giving up something else.

Students will analyze the importance of saving and investment for future financial well-being and strategies for managing personal debt.

Students will understand the role of insurance in managing financial risks and the principles behind different types of insurance.

Students will learn about a market economy where individuals and businesses make most economic decisions, driven by supply and demand, and discuss its basic features.

Students will explore a planned economy where the government makes most economic decisions, controlling what is produced and how, and discuss its basic features.

Students will learn about a mixed economy, which combines elements of both market and planned economies, and discuss why most countries operate this way.

Students will explore the basic characteristics of Singapore's economy, focusing on how it has grown and adapted despite limited natural resources.

Students will learn about the basic ways the Singapore government manages its economy, including how it handles money, taxes, and spending to keep the country stable and growing.

Students will discuss some of the current and future challenges facing Singapore's economy, such as an aging population and global competition, and how the country plans to address them.