IB Economics HL study guide
IB Economics HL · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
IB Economics HL is the higher-level economics course within the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, normally taken over two years by students aged roughly 16–19. It suits candidates who want a rigorous, internationally minded treatment of economics rather than a purely national one: you learn to model markets, evaluate government policy, and apply theory to real economies and news events. The IB Economics HL study guide has 8 sections and about 2,786 words.
01Introduction to Economics: Scarcity, Choice, Opportunity Cost and the PPC
This opening domain supplies the toolkit for every later topic: scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, the production possibility curve (PPC), positive versus normative statements, factors of production and the price mechanism. Paper 1 short answers often ask for definitions and PPC reasoning; Paper 2 may embed these ideas in an article.
351 words, about 2 min02Microeconomics: Demand, Supply, Elasticity, Intervention and Market Failure
Demand and supply, elasticity, government intervention and market failure dominate microeconomics. You must shift curves correctly, calculate and interpret PED, PES, YED and XED, and evaluate taxes, subsidies, price controls and externality policies.
368 words, about 2 min03Theory of the Firm: Costs, Revenue, Profit and Market Structures
Theory of the firm tests cost and revenue curves, profit maximisation, market structures and HL extensions such as game theory, price discrimination and contestability. Expect calculations, diagram-based reasoning and evaluation of efficiency.
381 words, about 2 min04Macroeconomics: National Income, AD/AS, Policy, Inflation and Unemployment
National income, AD/AS, fiscal and monetary policy, inflation and unemployment. You must distinguish injections and leaks, nominal and real values, demand-pull and cost-push inflation, and evaluate policy using multipliers, time lags and supply-side effects.
359 words, about 2 min05Macroeconomics HL Extensions: Phillips Curve, Schools of Thought, Growth and Inequality
HL extensions connect short-run policy to long-run constraints: the Phillips curve, monetarist and Keynesian perspectives, growth models and inequality. The exam rewards diagrams with expectations, NAIRU and distributional analysis.
323 words, about 2 min06The Global Economy: Trade, Protectionism, Exchange Rates, BoP and Integration
The global economy covers trade, protectionism, exchange rates, the balance of payments and economic integration. You need comparative advantage calculations, tariff diagrams, exchange-rate transmission and evaluation of trading blocs.
353 words, about 2 min07Development Economics: Growth versus Development, Barriers, Strategies and SDGs
Development economics asks you to distinguish growth from development, identify barriers, and evaluate strategies, aid, debt relief and the SDGs. Strong answers use indicators, causal chains and context-specific evaluation.
314 words, about 2 min08Internal Assessment: Three Commentaries on Real-World Economic Phenomena
The Internal Assessment requires three commentaries on real-world economic phenomena, each linked to a different section of the syllabus. The exam tests article selection, diagram accuracy, terminology, application, analysis and evaluation within the word limit.
337 words, about 2 min