LEARNING ECONOMICS TO HELP PASS WASSCE 2022/2023

In this article we will talk about how learning and understanding economics will help students pass their WASSCE 2022/2023.

Economics “econs” as we say it in Ghana is not managing money but managing the resources you have to produce your maximum output to satisfy your consumers this is a simple definition to explain economics to a lean man.

We have unlimited wants and limited resources in economics resources are land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship four factor of production because the above resources are limited it brings about the following economic problem Scarcity, Opportunity Cost, Trade Off and Production Possibility Frontier (PPF).

In economics the unlimited wants of consumers and limited resources of producers leads to Scarcity which consumer will have to make a scale of preference leading to an opportunity cost then the decision will cost a trade off.

WASSCE 2022/2023 students, let’s look at some technical definitions you can write in your examination,

Economics refer to a social science that studies the choices individuals, businesses, government and the entire society makes as they cope with scarcity, and the incentives that influences those choices and the arrangements that coordinates them.

There are two (2) types of economics: Micro-economics and Macro-economics. Let define them
Micro-economics: This is the study of choices that individuals and businesses make and the way their choices interacts and also are influenced by the government policies e.g. taxes. Please note that it deals with individuals and businesses only.

Macro-economics: This is the study of the aggregate unit of the economy as well as the global economy of the choices that individuals, businesses and government made that is both local and foreign.

We will elaboration the Micro-economics for our Wassce 2022/2023 students:

Micro-economics:
Economic Questions for Producing Goods and Services:

NB: Goods and services are the objects and actions that people value and produce to satisfy human wants.

Questions to note in Economics

What to produce?

Business would have to determine the goods and services that should be produced and in what quantities they are to be produced

How to produce?

Business would have to determine the method for the production. That’s to use more capital intensive or human beings

Whom to produce for?

The business would have to determine the target of individuals to produce for e.g. ladies or gent or young or old

NOTES FOR WASSCE 2022/2023 CANDIDATES:

The fundamental problem in economics is SCARCITY.

Scarcity is when the resources are not able to meet human needs in others words when the wants exceeds the means

Means (resources) – they are limited

Human wants (needs) – Are unlimited

Human wants (needs) are more than Means (resources) or Humans are have unlimited wants or needs and the resources are limited as stated earlier.

Due to this scarcity, individuals would have to make choices. A good choice can be made to satisfy an individual by make a scale of preference

That leads us to a new term scale of preference: it is a list of human wants in order of importance. Example of Scale of Preference as a SHS student

School or Tuition fess
Books or Stationery
Hostel or Boarding fees
Shoes or Bags

We are can see that the list from 1 to 4 of almost every student has been arranged in order of importance.

Opportunity Cost: This is the cost that is forgone when choosing one thing over the others. (Is the benefits forgone to attain another). From the scale of preference above if a student has money and he uses it for his school fees and books is his opportunity cost because he used his money to pay his school fees and books.

Trade Off: This is given up of one thing for the other. It helps in determining opportunity cost.

From the scale of preference above opportunity cost for the student making that decision using his money for fees and books that act is trade off giving up his hostel and shoes or bags.

Production Possibility Frontier (PPF)

This is the boundary which shows the available resources for producing goods and services. It is also maximum combination of goods and services that can be produced with the factors of production and technology available. It’s also a module that explains whether the company can attain or unattained its output and whether its uses it resources efficiently or inefficiently and the opportunity cost of producing goods and services demanded by consumers.

Let start with an example ITEM Y and ITEM Z as the goods and services a company produces

We are comparing the two items possible production if we put all our resources that are the four factors we can produce 20 pieces of ITEM Y and 10 pieces of ITEM Z. Then our consumes say they want more of ITEM Z than ITEM Y so therefore we have to reduce the number of pieces for ITEM Y to 10 pieces to produce more of ITEM Z to 20 pieces. The cost to produce additional ITEM Z at the expense of ITEM Y is Opportunity Cost and the reduction of ITEM Y to increase ITEM Z is called Trade Off.