HSC Economics Question Thread

[stels]

I'm super confused, can someone show me the working for this?

[isaacdelatorre]

Theoretically, does a decrease in the demand of AUD happen when China bans Australian coal? Does this cause depreciation?

Hey Chelsean,

If China banned Australian coal, it would definitely mean a decrease in the demand for our exports and thus a decrease in the demand for the AUD and cause a depreciation!

That's the most simplistic view of it, I'm sure the government will introduce measures to soften the blow of course.

Hope this helps!

[isaacdelatorre]

I'm super confused, can someone show me the working for this?

Hey stels,

So this question is really tricky at a first glance - there's too many tables and words and it's all just a little bit too confusing.

So if we break down the question, it's asking us what the increase in production is when they cooperate and trade.

Firstly, we have to look at what the total production is if they don't cooperate.
This means that each person will have to spend their time producing both goods - the question specifies that they will spend 4 hours on each good.
So since the table shows how much of one good they can make in 8 hours, you can find that if each person spends 4 hours on each good:

Max has 10 beers and 5 cheese and Morgan has 50 beers and 2.5 cheese.
In total, there is 60 beers and 7.5 cheese.

Then we need to find which activity each has a comparative advantage in, we do this by finding the opportunity cost.
For Max, the opportunity cost of 1 beer is 2 Cheese (since it takes 2.5 hours to make 1 beer and 1.25 hours to make one cheese, to give up one beer and to make cheese for 2 hours, produces 2), similarly the opportunity cost of 1 cheese is 0.5 beer.

For Morgan, the opportunity cost of 1 beer is 20 cheese and the opportunity cost of 1 cheese is 0.05 beer.

We can see that Max has a comparative advantage in cheese production and Morgan in beer production as they have a lower opportunity cost (they give up less comparatively to make that product)

When each specialises, we get 100 beers and 10 cheese.
from our original of 60 beers and 7.5 cheese, we have an increase of 40 beers and 2.5 cheese

Giving us the answer C

Hope this helps

[emilyyyyyyy]

hellooo

My eco teacher is really bad and I haven't learnt anything all year :/ How difficult do you guys think it'll be for me to get a band 6 if I'm studying off the textbook and trying to teach it to myself? Also, is it actually possible to teach the entire subject to myself this late into year 12?

thanks!!

[jamonwindeyer]

hellooo

My eco teacher is really bad and I haven't learnt anything all year :/ How difficult do you guys think it'll be for me to get a band 6 if I'm studying off the textbook and trying to teach it to myself? Also, is it actually possible to teach the entire subject to myself this late into year 12?

thanks!!

Hey there! You'll probably get some answers from some fellow Eco students, but just wanted to mention the Economics Q+A being run by our Eco lecturer Isaac on Monday!! You could ask him there! Details are on our Instagram page, check the most recent post

[violet123]

When writing essays, in some topics, is it still necessary to use trends from the GFC to compare to recent trends even though it was almost 10 years ago?

[violet123]

What are all the economic statistics and trends that I should memorise when I am preparing for trials and HSC?
Also which other year's stats should I also memorise to show the medium or long term effect?

Thanks

[raymond774]

Hello, I'm having a bit of trouble trouble finding a fiscal and monetary policy that has affected External Stability.
Can someone please tell me an example of a government policy that has been put in place that has affect external stability?
 

[raymond774]

How has an example of fiscal or monetary policy affected Australia's external stability?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[emilyyyyyyy]

Hi all,

My essay question for my eco assessment is this: Evaluate the effectiveness of current labour market policies in achieving Australia’s economic objectives.

I was thinking of setting my essay out like this:
Intro
Wage determination (overview, examples, stats, evaluation by comparing to other countries)
Education and Training (overview, examples, stats, evaluation by comparing to other countries)
Labour market programs (overview, examples, stats, evaluation by comparing to other countries)
Conclusion

Do you think this would be a good way to set my essay out? Or are these not really 'policies' as such?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated

[emilyyyyyyy]

I also have another question: if fiscal policy is contractionary, should monetary policy then be expansionary or contractionary to work well together?

I'm just really confused as to whether fiscal policy stance and monetary policy stance should be opposite to each other or the same, so as to achieve the government's economic objectives?

Thanks!

[henrychapman]

When writing essays, in some topics, is it still necessary to use trends from the GFC to compare to recent trends even though it was almost 10 years ago?

Hey there,
A lot of people in my year also asked the same thing.
I say yes as it is the best example of the change from strong economic growth (MIB I) to a rapid depreciation (GFC). There was significant macro policy change and implementation and also a rapid depreciation of AUD. When explaining how, for instance  expansionary fiscal/ expansionary monetary policy works I think it’s still the best example. No doubt be sure to include current trends, however the Australian economic landscape is rather benign and has been (in relative terms) since the end of MIB II (2013). So yes, I think GFC is still relevant.

[wlam]

Can someone answer this question:

What is the relationship between productivity and technical efficiency?

[meerae]

What are all the economic statistics and trends that I should memorise when I am preparing for trials and HSC?
Also which other year's stats should I also memorise to show the medium or long term effect?

Thanks

Hey!
I suggest knowing stats from the GFC, the resources boom and current in order to show trends from major economic events. I think if you work with these stats + any other time when major economics-related things happened (like in '08 where we almost reached full employment) will allow you to showcase medium/long effects of govt. policy and whatnot.

Hope this helps!
meerae

Hello, I'm having a bit of trouble trouble finding a fiscal and monetary policy that has affected External Stability.
Can someone please tell me an example of a government policy that has been put in place that has affect external stability?
 

Hey!
Both fiscal and monetary policy affect external stability, and they're both examples of govt. policy used to influence external stability.
Basically, external stability is the aim of govt. policy (fiscal/monetary) that seeks to ensure Australia can fund foreign liabilities in the medium-to-long term (so we want to make the external accounts of the bop sustainable) to avoid currency volatility.

In terms of fiscal policy: a contractionary stance, so, reducing expenditure and increasing taxation would result in a surplus in the budget; thus foreign liabilities can be paid off with the increase in taxation.
In terms of monetary policy: having a more tightened policy, that is, raising interest rates would result in an increase of lending from foreign investors, as they would get more return on their investments. This would in turn increase foreign liabilities, instead of contributing to external stability.

I'm a little bit unsure on external stability as a whole, but I hope this helps!
meerae

[emilyygeorgexx]

Can someone answer this question:

What is the relationship between productivity and technical efficiency?

Hey!

Well basically, technical efficiency is the ability of the economy to achieve the maximum amount of output with a certain level of inputs, given they are all efficient. To really achieve this technical efficiency economies attempt to minimise production costs by maybe adopting leading edge technology or new machinery to reduce costs and produced in increase volumes. As they no longer need manual labour to complete tasks due to the use of technology, this means the economy can produce to their full productive capacity which will usually be more than what they could have with physical labour hence, increasing productivity. Examples of this include the rapid growth in productivity in the finance and insurance industry from 1997 to 2015 following the increased use of online banking, decreasing staff in bank branches and shifting their operations overseas.

Hope this helps!