OCR A Level Economics Microeconomics June 2019 question paper H460/01

1 (a) Calculate the participation rate in the UK labour market for the period from June to August 2017.

Refer to lines 6–9.

Identify and explain why the change in average weekly earnings in nominal terms is greater than in real terms.

What does Fig. 2 suggest will happen to the dependency ratio in the UK between 2015 and 2045?

A firm in a monopolistically competitive market decides to introduce more casual employment practices, such as zero-hour contracts.

Explain, using a diagram, the effect of this decision on the firm’s equilibrium position in the short run.

Evaluate whether income inequality in the UK is a cause for concern.

* Evaluate, using evidence from the stimulus material, the impact of an increase in labour

market flexibility in the UK.

2* Price ceilings have been used in a number of different markets, ranging from rented housing in New York to food in Venezuela and the cap on energy bills in the UK.

Evaluate, using an appropriate diagram(s), the impact a price ceiling may have on the level of

consumer and producer surplus in a market.

3* Netflix is the world’s largest online video subscription service. By 2018, after only 10 years in existence, it had 137 million worldwide subscribers. 65% of online video viewers in the USA watch Netflix at least once a month.

Evaluate, using an appropriate diagram(s), the advantages and disadvantages of a perfectly

contestable market.

4* Within any economy there is a great deal of specialisation by firms in the production of particular products, such as manufacturing of cars by BMW, Nissan and Toyota in the UK. Each manufacturer employs the division of labour. So some workers design cars, some test them, others market them and the assembly itself is divided into many different tasks.

Evaluate the extent to which specialisation and the division of labour might help in addressing the

basic economic problem.

5* From 2007 to 2016, nearly 1000 international mergers took place involving a UK business. Many of these were examples of horizontal integration. One of the largest was between British Airways and the Spanish airline, Iberia.

Evaluate the potential economic consequences for economic agents of a horizontal merger.