Year 13 Economics

What is Economics about?

Economics examines the choices people make about the use of limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants.

“A simple decision to buy a milkshake in an economist’s eye is seen as players in an intricate game of signals and negotiations. The game is for high stakes; some of the people who worked to get the milkshake in front of you made a lot of money, some of them made very little and some of them are after the money in your pocket right now.

Some of the producers involved used sustainable production techniques and others used the cheapest methods they could, some sell their products on global markets and others deliver it to your local dairy.”

Adapted from Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist (Little Brown, 2006)

Economics helps to explain and predict how goods and services will be produced and consumed. It will tell you who gets what, how, and why.

Economics explores issues of:

• sustainability (efficient use of scarce resources)
• enterprise (identifying profit-maximising levels of output)
• citizenship (economic decisions affecting New Zealand society)
• globalisation (the benefits of international trade).

Economists are interested in the factors that influence the wellbeing of people and aim to find solutions to improve people’s standard of living.

 Economics has an important role to play in the education of all students, particularly in our rapidly changing society. Understanding basic economic concepts and the way in which the New Zealand economy operates is important for young people if they are to function in and contribute to our society.