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A-Level Macroeconomic Policies

What the A-Level syllabus expects for Macroeconomic Policies, and how to practise it.

What the syllabus expects

The macroeconomic policy decisions governments make to reach objectives tied to living standards.
Policy instruments and how effective they are: fiscal policy, where discretionary government spending and taxation steer the level of economic activity and living standards; monetary policy, which acts through managing exchange rates (as Singapore does) and interest rates; and supply-side policies, which improve the quantity, quality and mobility of the factors of production so as to enlarge an economy's productive capacity and thereby affect living standards.
Macroeconomic objectives can conflict, and such tensions may sway a government's choice of macroeconomic policy.
Scope: Students should understand that governments across the world give priority to different macroeconomic objectives according to the economy's condition and how developed the country is. They should also appreciate why a government would want to keep fiscal sustainability over the long run, and how transfer payments help make income distribution fairer and support inclusive growth. The Marshall-Lerner condition should be known, though deriving its formula and doing calculations are not required.

About 15% of the past-paper style questions in Rae's bank for this subject sit in this topic.