AS Level Paper 1, June 2023

Q1(a) Calculate the percentage rise in Ofgem's cap on a typical household's annual energy bill, which moved from £1 277 up to £1 971.

Q1(b) On a demand and supply diagram for household energy, mark where the old and the revised price ceilings sit.

Q1(c) State what is meant by an equilibrium price (short definition).

Q2(a) Drawing on the data, set out one influence on gas's price elasticity of supply, given US output fell in 2021 while prices climbed.

Q2(b) Given a price elasticity of supply of +0.14 and price elasticity of demand of −0.10 for natural gas, identify which statement can be inferred.

Q3(a) Give the meaning of specialisation (short definition).

Q3(b) Pick out, from four given statements, the one that counts as positive rather than normative economics.

Q3(c) Set out one benefit a country gains by concentrating output on goods it then trades.

Q4(a) Give one reason a business acts rationally by putting prices up during excess demand, as in the 2021 UK crisps and petrol shortages.

Q4(b) With Esso, Tesco and Sainsbury's petrol all at £1.48 a litre, choose the cross elasticity value fitting close substitutes (−2.1 / −0.1 / +0.1 / +2.1).

Q5(a) Using the furlough-scheme material supplied, explain what a mixed economy means.

Q5(b) Take the economy to be at point W; annotate the production possibility frontier to show what producing extra consumer goods sacrifices.

Q5(c) Choose the likely benefit of a command economy (little unemployment / prices as signals / shortages from price controls / profit-driven efficiency).

Q6(a) Using Figure 1 and Extract A on television and streaming, set out how price elasticity of demand links to total revenue.

Q6(b) Drawing on Extract B, identify and explain two positive externalities arising when people consume public service broadcasting.

Q6(c) Using Extract B, weigh up the claim that television content qualifies as a public good.

Q6(d) Define substitutes and complementary goods, illustrating each with examples taken from the source material.

Q6(e) Discuss why streaming television has been getting dearer, supporting the answer with a demand and supply diagram.

Q6(f) Evaluate ways the state might intervene to cut the environmental harm that watching television content generates.

Q6(g) Evaluate the drawbacks of leaving the provision of television content entirely to the free market.