MATSEC AM Economics study plan

Construct production possibility frontiers and use them to calculate opportunity cost, distinguishing a movement along the curve from a shift of the curve.

Derive equilibrium price and quantity from linear demand and supply equations, then recompute the new equilibrium after a specific tax, an ad valorem tax and a subsidy.

Calculate price, income and cross elasticities of demand and price elasticity of supply from given data, classify the good, and link each result to a pricing or tax decision.

Analyse consumer surplus, producer surplus and deadweight loss for a binding price ceiling, a minimum price and an indirect tax, using a fully labelled diagram each time.

Derive a downward-sloping demand curve twice: once from a marginal utility schedule and once from indifference-curve and budget-line tangency, stating the equimarginal condition.

Decompose a price fall into income and substitution effects for a normal good, an inferior good and a Giffen good, drawing each case.

Explain market failure through negative and positive externalities, merit and demerit goods and public goods, and evaluate one corrective instrument for each.

Apply cost-benefit reasoning to a Maltese infrastructure project, naming the external costs and benefits that a private investor would ignore.

Compute total, average and marginal costs from a short-run production schedule, plot the curves and explain why average total cost is U-shaped.

Distinguish the law of diminishing returns from diseconomies of scale, and identify the point of diminishing marginal returns in a numerical table.

Derive a competitive firm's short-run supply curve from its marginal cost curve and locate the shut-down price relative to average variable cost.

Evaluate internal and external economies of scale for a small Maltese manufacturer facing a limited domestic market.

Compare perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopoly on assumptions, the MR equals MC profit condition and long-run outcomes.

Evaluate monopoly welfare loss, price discrimination and the regulation of a natural monopoly, using diagrams to support the judgement.

Use payoff matrices to find Nash equilibria and explain why cartels are unstable without credible commitment.

Judge allocative, productive and dynamic efficiency across market structures, illustrating each with a Maltese sector you can name accurately.

Define and calculate GDP by the output, income and expenditure approaches, then distinguish real from nominal GDP and GDP from GNI.

Calculate the multiplier from marginal propensities to consume, save, tax and import, and apply it to a change in investment or government spending.

Model short-run equilibrium with aggregate demand and aggregate supply, and trace the output and price effects of a supply shock.

Explain the circular flow with injections and leakages and identify the main determinants of consumption and investment.

Distinguish demand-pull from cost-push inflation, compute a weighted price index and state the limitations of the index as a cost-of-living measure.

Classify unemployment by type, compute the unemployment rate and explain the natural rate and hysteresis.

Analyse the short-run and long-run Phillips curves and the expectations-augmented trade-off between inflation and unemployment.

Evaluate fiscal and monetary policy transmission for Malta, noting that the ECB sets interest rates for the euro area since Malta adopted the euro in 2008 and that the Stability and Growth Pact limits fiscal discretion.

Apply absolute and comparative advantage to numerical examples, compute opportunity-cost ratios and identify the gains from specialisation and trade.

Analyse tariffs, quotas and export subsidies with diagrams, identifying effects on consumers, producers, government revenue and welfare.

Interpret the current account, capital and financial accounts of the balance of payments and explain what a persistent current-account deficit implies for a small open economy.

Explain exchange-rate determination and evaluate how euro membership removes exchange-rate risk for Malta while removing an independent interest-rate tool.

Outline Malta's dependence on tourism, financial and gaming services and EU single-market trade, and assess one policy response to that concentration risk.

Complete two full timed papers, one microeconomic and one macroeconomic and international, without notes and within the official time allocation.

Reproduce the fifteen most examined diagrams from memory in under one minute each, fully labelled and with the correct axis names.

Practise the definition, diagram, analysis, evaluation, judgement sequence on six cross-domain essay questions covering all four domains.

Re-drill the three weakest topics recorded in the error log and rewrite two previously failed answers to full-mark standard.