Economics

To help you transition seamlessly into the rigours of the IB Diploma or Career-related Programme, this subject page houses your essential preparatory resources. Beyond the required Summer Task, designed to prime your analytical and subject-specific skills, you will find curated Recommended Reading and Recommended Viewing lists. These selections are handpicked by your future teachers to broaden your perspective, ignite your curiosity, and provide the cultural and academic context necessary for high-level inquiry. Engaging with these materials now will not only ease the step up from Grade 10 but will also give you a distinct advantage as you begin your two-year journey. 

This research task is designed to move you away from the general "Global Contexts" of the MYP and toward the analytical rigour of the IB Diploma. In the IB, you are no longer just describing what is happening; you are evaluating why it’s happening and the trade-offs involved.

Task: The "Externalities & Intervention" Case Study

The Goal: Investigate a specific market where the government has stepped in to change consumer behavior (e.g., sugar taxes, plastic bag bans, carbon credits, or tobacco regulation).

Step 1: Selection (Pick Your "Market")

Select one of the following real-world interventions to research:

1. The UK Sugar Tax: (The Soft Drinks Industry Levy).

2. Electric Vehicle (EV) Subsidies: (In Norway or China).

3. The "Minimum Unit Pricing" on Alcohol: (In Scotland).

4. Congestion Charging: (In London or Singapore).

Step 2: The Research Phase

Find 2–3 credible news articles or reports (BBC, The Economist, Reuters, or The Guardian) and answer the following:

• The "Why": What was the "market failure"? (e.g., was it health costs to the taxpayer, or environmental damage?)

• The "How": Did the government use a tax (to increase price), a subsidy (to decrease price), or a regulation (a legal ban)?

• The Stakeholders: Who won and who lost? Think about consumers, producers (the companies), and the government.

Step 3: The IB "Synthesis"

To truly prepare for Grade 11, try to link your findings to three of the 9 IB Key Concepts:

Intervention

Why was a law or tax better than letting the "free market" decide?

Equity

Does this intervention unfairly hurt lower-income people (e.g., does a sugar tax take a higher % of a poor person's income)?

Change

How has the industry reacted? Did companies change their recipes or technology to avoid the tax?

Final Output

Create a One-Pager (Digital or Physical) that includes:

• A brief summary of the policy.

• A "Pros vs. Cons" table for the intervention.

• The "IB Prediction": Write three sentences predicting what would happen to the Price and Quantity of the product based on your research.

Why this helps:

The IB Economics Internal Assessment (IA) requires you to take a news article and analyze it using a diagram and economic theory. By doing this task over the summer, you are essentially practicing the exact skill that makes up 20–30% of your final IB grade.

The "Big Picture"

These books provide a foundational overview of economic thought without being as dry as a textbook.

• "The Undercover Economist" by Tim Harford: A fantastic starting point that explains how everyday life (from the price of coffee to traffic jams) is governed by economic principles like scarcity and incentives.

• "Economics Rules: Why Economics Works, When It Fails, and How to Tell the Difference" by Dani Rodrik: This is excellent for prospective IB students because it discusses the use and misuse of economic models—a core skill for the internal assessment and Paper 3.

• "Talking to My Daughter About the Economy" by Yanis Varoufakis: A very accessible history of capitalism and how money works, written in a conversational tone.

Challenging the Status Quo

The IB encourages "Evaluation," which means looking at the pros and cons of different theories. These books offer alternative perspectives.

• "Doughnut Economics" by Kate Raworth: This has become a staple for IB students. It challenges the idea that "growth is always good" and proposes a model that balances human needs with planetary boundaries.

• "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" by Ha-Joon Chang: This book debunks common economic myths and is perfect for developing the "principled and open-minded" attributes of the IB Learner Profile.

Behavioral Economics

Behavioral Economics is a significant part of the DP course.

• "Nudge" by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein: This book explores how small changes in how choices are presented can influence human behavior.

• "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely: A fun, experiment-based look at why humans don't always act "rationally," which is a key assumption in classical economic theory.

Globalization and Development

For students interested in the "Global Economy" unit of the IB course.

• "Poor Economics" by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo: Written by Nobel Prize winners, this book uses "randomized control trials" to understand the real lives of the poor and how to create effective development policy.

• "Factfulness" by Hans Rosling: While technically about data, it provides a crucial reality check on the state of global development and income levels, helping you avoid outdated stereotypes in your essays.

These videos provide real-world context for the theories you will soon study in Micro and Macroeconomics.