Lebanese Baccalaureate - Economics & Sociology (SE) cheat sheet
Lebanese Baccalaureate - Economics & Sociology (SE) · Keep the key ideas within reach.
Microeconomics: Consumer and Producer Behaviour, Demand and Supply, Market Equilibrium, Elasticity
Law of demand: price and quantity demanded move in opposite directions, ceteris paribus; the demand curve slopes downward.
Law of supply: price and quantity supplied move in the same direction; the supply curve slopes upward.
Market equilibrium occurs where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied; a price above equilibrium creates surplus, below creates shortage.
Price elasticity of demand = (% change in quantity demanded) / (% change in price); |E|>1 elastic, |E|<1 inelastic, |E|=1 unit elastic.
Income elasticity >0 for normal goods, <0 for inferior goods; cross-price elasticity positive for substitutes, negative for complements.
Consumer equilibrium under utility analysis: MUx/Px = MUy/Py; marginal utility per unit of spending equalised across goods.
Law of diminishing marginal utility: as consumption of a good rises, marginal utility from each extra unit falls.
Producer equilibrium: profit is maximised where marginal revenue equals marginal cost (MR = MC).
Market Structures, Competition, Price Formation and Business Organisation
Perfect competition: many small firms, homogeneous product, free entry and exit, price taker, zero long-run economic profit.
Monopoly: single seller, high barriers to entry, price maker, downward-sloping demand, restricted output and higher price than competition.
Oligopoly: few interdependent firms; strategic behaviour, collusion and price rigidity (kinked demand curve) are characteristic.
Monopolistic competition: many firms, differentiated products, some price-setting power, entry erodes excess profit in the long run.
Concentration ratio and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (sum of squared market shares) measure market concentration.
Business organisations: sole proprietorship (unlimited liability), partnership, limited company (limited liability, separate legal personality).
Firm size and integration: horizontal merger combines competitors, vertical integration links successive stages of production.
Price formation in competitive markets is set by the interaction of supply and demand; in administered markets by cost-plus or regulated pricing.
Macroeconomics: National Accounts, GDP, Growth, Consumption, Investment and the Multiplier
GDP = C + I + G + (X − M); expenditure approach to national accounts.
GDP measures output within a country's borders; GNP = GDP + net factor income from abroad.
Nominal GDP uses current prices; real GDP is deflated to constant prices, and GDP deflator = (nominal/real) × 100.
Avoid double counting: count only final goods or sum value added at each stage of production.
Multiplier k = 1 / (1 − MPC) = 1 / MPS; an initial spending injection raises income by k times the injection.
Consumption function: C = a + bY, where a is autonomous consumption and b is the marginal propensity to consume.
Economic growth rate = [(real GDP in year t − real GDP in year t−1) / real GDP in year t−1] × 100.
GDP per capita = GDP / population; a rough indicator of average living standards, ignoring distribution.
Money, Banking, Inflation, Monetary Policy and the Financial System
Functions of money: medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, standard of deferred payment.
Money supply aggregates: M1 (currency plus demand deposits) is narrower than M2 (M1 plus savings and time deposits).
Commercial banks create money through credit; the money multiplier ≈ 1 / reserve ratio.
Quantity theory of money: MV = PT (or MV = PY); inflation linked to excessive money growth relative to output.
Demand-pull inflation arises from excess aggregate demand; cost-push inflation from rising input costs; imported inflation from higher import prices.
Central bank instruments: policy interest rate, reserve requirements, open-market operations, discount window.
Expansionary monetary policy lowers rates to raise investment and demand; contractionary policy raises rates to curb inflation.
Real interest rate ≈ nominal interest rate − inflation rate (Fisher relation).
Public Finance, Taxation, Budget Policy and the Role of the State in the Economy
Public revenue sources: taxes, fees, public enterprise income, borrowing; public expenditure covers goods, transfers and debt service.
Budget balance = government revenue − government expenditure; deficit when negative, surplus when positive.
Direct taxes fall on income and wealth; indirect taxes fall on spending (e.g. VAT) and are often regressive.
Tax principles: equity (ability to pay), efficiency, certainty, convenience, and neutrality.
Progressive tax: average rate rises with income; proportional: constant; regressive: average rate falls as income rises.
Laffer curve: tax revenue rises with rate up to a maximum then falls as rates become prohibitive.
Fiscal policy: expansionary (higher spending, lower taxes) to fight recession; contractionary to curb inflation.
Public debt sustainability depends on the ratio of debt to GDP and on the interest rate versus growth rate.
International Trade, Balance of Payments, Exchange Rates and Economic Integration
Comparative advantage: a country gains from specialising where its opportunity cost of production is lower.
Balance of payments = current account + capital and financial account + net errors and omissions; accounts must sum to zero in principle.
Current account records trade in goods and services, income and transfers; a trade deficit means imports exceed exports.
Currency depreciation makes exports cheaper and imports dearer, improving the trade balance subject to the J-curve lag.
Exchange-rate regimes: fixed (pegged), floating, and managed float; appreciation raises the currency's external value.
Tariffs, quotas and subsidies are protectionist instruments; they raise domestic prices and reduce trade volume.
Economic integration stages: free trade area, customs union, common market, economic and monetary union.
Terms of trade = (export price index / import price index) × 100.
Development Economics, Unemployment, Poverty and Economic Policy in Lebanon
Unemployment rate = (unemployed / labour force) × 100; labour force = employed + unemployed.
Types of unemployment: frictional, structural, cyclical (demand-deficient) and seasonal.
Poverty measures: absolute poverty (basic needs threshold) versus relative poverty (income share of median); Gini coefficient measures inequality.
Human Development Index combines life expectancy, education and income per capita.
Lebanon's economy is service-dominated (banking, tourism, trade); it relies heavily on remittances and imports.
Lebanon's public debt-to-GDP ratio has historically been among the highest in the world, constraining fiscal policy.
Dollarisation and the peg to the US dollar shaped Lebanon's monetary policy before the 2019 crisis.
Development policy instruments: investment in human capital, infrastructure, institutional reform and diversification of exports.
Foundations of Sociology: Schools of Thought, Key Concepts and Methods of Social Inquiry
Comte coined 'sociology'; Durkheim emphasised social facts and studied suicide as a social phenomenon.
Marx: class conflict and modes of production drive social change; Weber: interpretive sociology, rationalisation and the Protestant ethic.
Functionalism (Durkheim, Parsons) sees society as an integrated system of interdependent parts contributing to stability.
Conflict theory (Marx, later Dahrendorf) stresses power, inequality and struggle over scarce resources.
Symbolic interactionism (Mead, Goffman) studies meaning created through everyday face-to-face interaction.
Methods: quantitative (survey, statistics) versus qualitative (interview, participant observation, case study); sampling and validity matter.
Key concepts: socialisation, norm, role, status, institution, social fact, anomie, bureaucracy.
Research ethics: informed consent, confidentiality, avoidance of harm and honest reporting.
Social Structures and Institutions: Family, Education, Work, Religion, Stratification and Mobility
Family functions: reproduction, socialisation, economic support, emotional security; forms include nuclear and extended.
Education transmits knowledge, socialises, certifies skills and reproduces or challenges social inequality.
Work structures include division of labour, occupational roles and the formal/informal sector distinction.
Religion provides meaning, integrates communities and legitimises norms; it can also generate conflict and change.
Social stratification ranks individuals by class, status and power; caste, estate and class are historical forms.
Social mobility: vertical (up/down the hierarchy) versus horizontal (between positions of equal rank); intergenerational versus intragenerational.
Social reproduction theory (Bourdieu: cultural capital) explains how advantage is transmitted across generations.
Institutions are stable patterns of norms and roles that structure behaviour and meet basic social needs.
Social Change, Globalisation, Migration, Demography and Contemporary Lebanese Society
Demographic transition: high birth and death rates give way to low rates as societies develop, passing through intermediate stages.
Demographic indicators: birth rate, death rate, natural increase, fertility rate, life expectancy, dependency ratio.
Migration types: internal/external, voluntary/forced, emigration/immigration; push and pull factors explain flows.
Globalisation: intensification of cross-border flows of goods, capital, people and information; it produces both convergence and inequality.
Social change drivers: technological innovation, economic development, ideological movements and demographic shifts.
Lebanon: high emigration of skilled labour, large refugee population and a young urbanised society shape social structure.
Lebanon's confessional political system distributes power among religious communities, affecting social institutions.
Diaspora remittances and migration networks are central to Lebanese household income and social life.