A good economics IA article is integral to getting your 7! If chosen properly, it gives you good scope for stakeholder evaluation, data to draw your economic diagrams, and breath to apply key economic concepts. We propose the following:
1. Determine your IA topic
Ideally, your IA should evaluate the impact of an economic policy on various stakeholders. Find an appropriate article that contains a range of stakeholders, economic theories, and financial data that can be applied to your commentary. Some of the best topics include
Microeconomics:
- “Malaysia’s sugar tax to combat rising obesity”
- “Minimum price to reduce alcohol consumption in the UK”
Macroeconomics:
- “Australia’s interest rate cut in response to the COVID19 pandemic”
- “America’s fiscal stimulus in response to the COVID19 pandemic”
International economics:
- “UK’s tariff on electric cars from EU”
- “Singapore’s currency depreciation to spur economic growth”
2. Shortlist potential articles
Once you have determined your topic, go to Google and search for possible titles and click under News. Some of the search terms can include “sugar tax obesity”, “fiscal policy Singapore”, or “currency depreciation economic growth”. Scan through these articles to choose your preferred one. Do take note to limit the search to the recent 6 months as required by the IB.
3. Annotate your chosen article and submit for approval
Once you have chosen a few articles, narrow down to your preferred one and submit it to your teacher for approval. Do annotate the relevant parts of your article that you will use in your commentary. Make sure that there are at least 3 stakeholders and 2 sets of financial figures that you can use in your commentary. Also, your article should allow you to make references to key economic concept (allocative efficiency, intervention, and more) in the new Economics syllabus
To recap, the best articles should discuss a proposed economic solution that a country is using to combat a given economic problem.
- Appropriate economics concepts for discussion (tax, subsidies, price controls, interest rates, or more)
- Good breadth of stakeholders analysis (consumers, producers, government, society)
- Data or statistics to reference in your diagrams
- Reference to key economic concept (allocative efficiency, intervention, and more) in the new Economics syllabus
