Using AI to analyse the past five Leaving Cert Economics Exams, this is a list of the 30 most commonly examined concepts, ordered by frequency and recurrence across both Section A and Section B.
1. Demand and Supply / Market Equilibrium:
Appears repeatedly through shifts, equilibrium changes, price controls, market intervention, housing, labour and product markets.
2. Price Elasticity of Demand (PED):
Calculations, interpretation, revenue implications, business decisions.
3. Government Intervention in Markets:
Taxes, subsidies, rent caps, minimum pricing, regulation.
4. Market Failure:
Externalities, social costs/benefits, alcohol, environment, housing.
5. Inflation:
Cost-push, demand-pull, causes and impacts.
6. Labour Market and Employment:
Derived demand, wages, unemployment impacts.
7. Taxation:
Direct vs indirect tax, taxation principles, behavioural taxes.
8. Sustainability / Environmental Economics:
Carbon reduction, climate policy, sustainable development.
9. Opportunity Cost:
PPF questions and government spending decisions.
10. Production Possibility Frontier (PPF):
Opportunity cost, efficiency, impossible points.
11. Market Structures:
Monopoly, oligopoly, perfect competition.
12. Costs and Revenue Theory:
Fixed, variable, average, marginal costs.
13. National Income Measures:
GDP, GNP/GNI, welfare indicators.
14. Government Spending and Fiscal Policy:
Budget choices, expenditure priorities.
15. Economic Growth and Development:
Welfare, competitiveness, policy measures.
16. Multiplier Effect:
Calculations and wider economic effects.
17. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI):
Importance to Ireland and economic effects.
18. International Trade:
Brexit, exports, exchange rates.
19. Monetary Policy:
ECB, interest rates, Eurozone membership.
20. Circular Flow of Income:
Injections and leakages.
21. Factors of Production:
Land, labour and derived demand.
22. Cost-Benefit Analysis:
Public projects and government decisions.
23. Income Distribution / Inequality:
Gender pay gap, housing access, living wage.
24. Housing Market Economics:
Rent controls, homelessness, housing supply.
25. External Costs and External Benefits:
Solar panels, alcohol consumption, pollution.
26. Utility Theory:
Marginal utility, diminishing utility, consumer equilibrium.
27. Exchange Rates:
Appreciation/depreciation and trade effects.
28. Demographics and Population Changes:
Ageing population, labour implications.
29. Subsidies and Price Supports:
Agriculture and government support.
30. Economic Welfare and Living Standards:
GDP vs welfare, quality of life measures.