Hi Diploma students
These are complete revision notes for IB Diploma Programme Economics, free and open to anyone. They cover all thirty-one topics of the syllabus across its four units, at standard level and higher level, with every diagram the guide requires, plus guides to Papers 1, 2 and 3 and the internal assessment.
Economics marks come from four things done together: precise definitions, accurate diagrams that you explain, real-world examples you can develop, and evaluation that reaches a judgment. Each page is built to practise all four, and the practice questions are written in the style of recent IB papers.
Please take note that although succinct notes are essential towards your revision, they should not be the only materials you cover — reading the news with an economist’s eye and writing timed answers to past papers matter just as much.
Happy revising. — Mr. Suta
🧭Start here
How the four units fit together, what HL adds, how Papers 1, 2 and 3 and the IA are built and marked, the command terms, and a revision plan.
📚The syllabus
Four units. Topics marked HL are higher level only; many other topics contain HL-only sections, flagged HL on the page.
Unit 1 — Introduction to economics
Scarcity and choice, the PPC and the circular flow; how economists build and test models; and the ideas of Smith, Marx, Keynes, the monetarists and behavioural economists. 10 hours at SL and HL.
Unit 2 — Microeconomics
How markets work and when they fail: demand, supply and elasticity; price controls, taxes and subsidies; externalities, public goods, asymmetric information and market power. SL 35 hours, HL 70.
Unit 3 — Macroeconomics
The economy as a whole: measuring output, the AD/AS model in both schools of thought, growth, unemployment, inflation and inequality, and the monetary, fiscal and supply-side policies that target them. SL 40 hours, HL 75.
Unit 4 — The global economy
Trade and its winners and losers, protection and integration, exchange rates and the balance of payments; then sustainable development, how development is measured, what holds it back and what helps. SL 45 hours, HL 65.
Assessment
How each component is built and marked, with a full model essay, complete practice questions for Papers 2 and 3 with markschemes, and a step-by-step guide to the IA portfolio.