AQA A-Level Economics: Micro Topic 1 Model Essays
AQA A-Level Economics
Micro Topic 1 Model Essays
Cleaned and expanded from A* essay plans • selected 15-mark and short essay questi ons
What this pack gives you: concise, exam-ready model responses written in clear AQA-style
economics prose.
Best use: memorise structures, key chains of reasoning, examples, and diagrams rather
than learning every sentence word-for-word.
Coverage in this pack: monopolistic competition, monopoly, oligopoly, elasticity, tax,
consumer/producer surplus, and revenue curves.
Designed to be easy to revise, easy to adapt, and easy to sell as a clean student resource.
Page 1
, AQA A-Level Economics: Micro Topic 1 Model Essays
Contents
1. Explain why, in long-run equilibrium, monopolistically competitive markets are neither
productively nor allocatively efficient.
2. Newer companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google have grown rapidly to become
very competitive giants. Explain the main sources of monopoly power.
3. Explain why oligopolistic firms are affected by both interdependence and uncertainty
when selling their product.
4. A pharmaceutical company can expect to make supernormal profits on a new drug in the
short run. Explain why some firms might be able to continue to make supernormal profits
in the long run.
5. Oligopolistic markets can be defined in terms of market structure or in terms of market
conduct. Using examples of particular industries, explain this statement.
6. Explain how price and output are determined for a firm in a monopolistically competitive
market, in both the short run and the long run.
7. Explain how the concept of cross-price elasticity of demand can be used to understand
the relationship between markets.
8. Explain how the imposition of a tax on a good or service affects both consumer and
producer surplus.
9. Explain how the determination of prices and output by oligopolists is affected not only by
the reactions of their customers, but also by their interdependence with other producers.
10. Explain why the average and marginal revenue curves of a perfectly competitive firm are
horizontal, while those of a monopoly slope downwards.
Page 2
AQA A-Level Economics
Micro Topic 1 Model Essays
Cleaned and expanded from A* essay plans • selected 15-mark and short essay questi ons
What this pack gives you: concise, exam-ready model responses written in clear AQA-style
economics prose.
Best use: memorise structures, key chains of reasoning, examples, and diagrams rather
than learning every sentence word-for-word.
Coverage in this pack: monopolistic competition, monopoly, oligopoly, elasticity, tax,
consumer/producer surplus, and revenue curves.
Designed to be easy to revise, easy to adapt, and easy to sell as a clean student resource.
Page 1
, AQA A-Level Economics: Micro Topic 1 Model Essays
Contents
1. Explain why, in long-run equilibrium, monopolistically competitive markets are neither
productively nor allocatively efficient.
2. Newer companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google have grown rapidly to become
very competitive giants. Explain the main sources of monopoly power.
3. Explain why oligopolistic firms are affected by both interdependence and uncertainty
when selling their product.
4. A pharmaceutical company can expect to make supernormal profits on a new drug in the
short run. Explain why some firms might be able to continue to make supernormal profits
in the long run.
5. Oligopolistic markets can be defined in terms of market structure or in terms of market
conduct. Using examples of particular industries, explain this statement.
6. Explain how price and output are determined for a firm in a monopolistically competitive
market, in both the short run and the long run.
7. Explain how the concept of cross-price elasticity of demand can be used to understand
the relationship between markets.
8. Explain how the imposition of a tax on a good or service affects both consumer and
producer surplus.
9. Explain how the determination of prices and output by oligopolists is affected not only by
the reactions of their customers, but also by their interdependence with other producers.
10. Explain why the average and marginal revenue curves of a perfectly competitive firm are
horizontal, while those of a monopoly slope downwards.
Page 2
