IB Diploma Programme Economics: Syllabus Guide

This guide covers all four units of the IB Diploma Programme Economics syllabus, first assessment 2022, for both Standard Level (SL) and Higher Level (HL) students. Where a sub-topic is HL-only, it is marked as such – nothing beyond SL content is presented as compulsory for SL students.

Total recommended teaching time is 150 hours at SL and 240 hours at HL, split across the four units below plus an internal assessment component (a portfolio of three commentaries, 20 hours at both SL and HL).

Unit 1 – Introduction to economics (10 hours, both SL and HL)

• 1.1 What is economics? – the nature of the subject, scarcity, choice and opportunity cost, the basic economic questions every society must answer.
• 1.2 How do economists approach the world? – positive and normative economics, the role of models and assumptions, rational and irrational decision-making.

Unit 2 – Microeconomics (35 hours SL / 70 hours HL)

• 2.1 Demand (includes HL-only sub-topics)
• 2.2 Supply (includes HL-only sub-topics)
• 2.3 Competitive market equilibrium
• 2.4 Critique of the maximizing behaviour of consumers and producers (HL only)
• 2.5 Elasticity of demand (includes HL-only sub-topics)
• 2.6 Elasticity of supply (includes HL-only sub-topics)
• 2.7 Role of government in microeconomics (includes an HL-only calculation)
• 2.8 Market failure – externalities and common pool or common access resources (includes an HL-only calculation)
• 2.9 Market failure – public goods
• 2.10 Market failure – asymmetric information (HL only)
• 2.11 Market failure – market power (HL only)
• 2.12 The market’s inability to achieve equity (HL only)

This is not the largest unit in the syllabus – at Standard Level, Unit 4 (the global economy, 45 hours) is larger, and at Higher Level, Unit 3 (macroeconomics, 75 hours) is larger. The HL-only sub-topics here (2.4, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12, plus extensions inside 2.1/2.2/2.5/2.6/2.7/2.8) account for most of the extra 35 hours HL students spend on this unit beyond SL.

Unit 3 – Macroeconomics (40 hours SL / 75 hours HL)

• 3.1 Measuring economic activity and illustrating its variations
• 3.2 Variations in economic activity – aggregate demand and aggregate supply
• 3.3 Macroeconomic objectives (includes an HL-only calculation)
• 3.4 Economics of inequality and poverty (includes an HL-only calculation)
• 3.5 Demand management (demand-side policies) – monetary policy (includes HL-only sub-topics)
• 3.6 Demand management – fiscal policy (includes HL-only sub-topics)
• 3.7 Supply-side policies

Unit 4 – The global economy (45 hours SL / 65 hours HL)

• 4.1 Benefits of international trade (includes HL-only sub-topics and a calculation)
• 4.2 Types of trade protection (includes HL-only calculations)
• 4.3 Arguments for and against trade control/protection
• 4.4 Economic integration
• 4.5 Exchange rates (includes an HL-only sub-topic)
• 4.6 Balance of payments (includes HL-only sub-topics)
• 4.7 Sustainable development (includes an HL-only sub-topic)
• 4.8 Measuring development
• 4.9 Barriers to economic growth and/or economic development
• 4.10 Economic growth and/or economic development strategies

How the four units connect

Unit 1 sets up the toolkit (scarcity, opportunity cost, models) that Units 2-4 apply at three different scales: the individual market (Unit 2), the national economy (Unit 3), and the world economy (Unit 4). A student who is shaky on Unit 2’s supply-and-demand diagrams will struggle disproportionately in Units 3 and 4, since both reuse the same diagrammatic language (shifts, equilibrium, elasticity) applied to aggregate and international markets instead of a single good.

Assessment

DP Economics is assessed through external written papers plus an internally-assessed portfolio of three commentaries (20 hours of the total teaching time at both SL and HL). Standard Level candidates sit two external papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2, three hours in total, worth 70% of the SL grade); Higher Level candidates sit a third paper, Paper 3 (a policy paper), taking external assessment to four hours forty-five minutes and 80% of the HL grade. The papers differ in kind: Paper 1 is an extended response paper (one question from a choice of three, in two parts: part (a), worth 10 marks, and part (b), worth 15 marks); Paper 2 is the data response paper; and HL Paper 3 is the policy paper. Economics is graded heavily on evaluation (weighing up arguments, not just describing them), which is worth practising deliberately rather than assuming it follows automatically from knowing the content.

Command terms and how marks are actually awarded

DP Economics uses a defined hierarchy of command terms, and the paper structure tests them in ascending order of demand:

• Define / State – a precise, syllabus-accurate definition, no more.
• Explain – a reasoned chain of cause and effect, usually supported by a labelled diagram (e.g. explain why a negative production externality causes market failure, using a diagram showing marginal private cost against marginal social cost).
• Analyse – explain plus draw out the implications, often “using a diagram.”
• Evaluate / To what extent – weigh the strength of an argument against a counter-argument or a real-world limitation, and reach a reasoned judgement rather than simply listing both sides.

Papers 1 and 2 (the extended response paper and the data response paper) are weighted most heavily toward evaluate-level command terms, which is why practising argument-and-counter-argument paragraphs is a better use of revision time close to the exam than re-reading definitions that are already secure.

The internal assessment portfolio

The IA is a portfolio of three commentaries, each based on a different section of the syllabus (one from Microeconomics, one from Macroeconomics, and one from either Introduction to economics or The global economy), each built around a published news article no more than one year old at the time of submission and roughly 800 words of commentary. Each commentary must apply a different economic concept or theory – examiners specifically penalise near-duplicate concepts appearing across the three pieces. Because the commentaries draw on real, dated news articles, the same source-verification discipline that applies to written revision content applies here: cite the article’s publication and date precisely, since a stale or unverifiable source undermines the commentary’s foundation regardless of how strong the economic analysis built on top of it is.

Diagrams as a shared language across units

Nearly every unit in this syllabus is assessed partly through the ability to draw, label and interpret a diagram correctly under exam conditions – supply-and-demand curves in Unit 2, aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves in Unit 3, and trade/exchange-rate diagrams in Unit 4 all reuse the same axis conventions and shift logic introduced early in Unit 2. A diagram that is unlabelled, or that shows a shift in the wrong direction, typically loses the marks attached to it even when the surrounding written explanation is accurate – so diagram practice deserves dedicated revision time separate from content recall.

Exam preparation

For a paper-by-paper exam-day plan – diagram practice, evaluation-writing strategy, and HL Paper 3’s policy focus – see the exam preparation guide.

Source

International Baccalaureate Organization, Economics guide (Diploma Programme), first assessment 2022.