1. ECONOMICS
CURRICULUM FORMS 3 – 5
A division of the Caribbean Secondary
Education Certificate Syllabus
Effective September 2010
Based on the following allocation of periods
Form 3 3 – 35 minutes periods per week
Form 4 & 5 5 – 35 minutes periods per week
Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer
Ministry of Education, Sports, Youth and Gender Affairs
1

2. FORM 3
CONTENT
SECTION TOPIC
a) Economics as a Social Science
- The creation of wealth out to scarce resources
- The production and distribution of goods and services
- The behaviour, interactions and welfare of those
involved in the process
- Economics as a trade off
b) An economy as a mechanism
- Organization of resources for production of goods and
services
The Nature of - Satisfaction of society’s needs and wants
1 Economics c) Main sectors in an economy
d) Concepts of scarcity and choice
e) Opportunity cost and money cost
f) Illustration of Production Possibility Curve
g) Influence on consumers in making economic
decisions
h) Influence on producers in making economic decisions
a) Definition of Production
b) Differences between production and productivity
c) Factors of production
- Resources both human and non-human, required to
produce goods
d) Types and description of economic resources as
Production, factors of production
Economic
2 Resources and
i)
-
Land
Definition
- Characteristics
Resources - Types
Allocation - Importance
- Productivity
ii) Labour
- Definition
- Characteristics
- Functions
- Division of labour
- Specialization of labour
- Productivity
- Efficiency
- Supply
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer

3. ii) Capital
- Definition
- Characteristics
- Types
- Accumulation
- Importance as a substitute for labour
iii) Entrepreneurial talent
- Definition
- Importance
- Functions
e) Rewards of factors of production
- Rent
- Wages and salaries
- Interest
Production, - Profit
Economic f) Fixed, variable, total, average and marginal costs
Resources and g) Differences between short run and long run
Resources h) Goods (tangible) and services ( intangible)
Allocation
(cont’d) i) Resource allocation
- What to produce
- How much to produce
- For whom to produce
j) Types of economic systems
- Traditional (subsistence farming, bartering)
- Command or planned (socialist)
- Free or capitalist (market)
- Mixed ( public and private)
k) Characteristics of each economic system in relation to
- ownership of the factors of production
- Role of government
- Role of the private sector
- How each economic system allocates resources
l) Merits and demerits of economic system in terms
- of its efficiency in allocating scarce resources
- in providing goods and services to each sector of the
population
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer

4. FORM 4
SECTION TOPIC CONTENT
Production, m) Types of business organizations in a free market
Economic n) Features of each type of business organization
2 o) Technical, marketing, financial and risk-bearing
Resources and
economies
Resources
Allocation p) concept of diseconomies of scale
q) advantages and disadvantages of division of labour
a) Concept of a market
b) Definition of supply and demand
c) The relationship between price and quantity
demanded, and price and quantity supplied
d) The concept of ceteris paribus
e) Diagrammatic representation of demand curve and
supply curve
f) Demand and supply conditions – factors determining the
environment for price movement
3 Market and
Prices (cont’d) g) Diagrammatic representations and analyses of hw
changes to the determinants affect demand and supply
curves
h) Market equilibrium – agreement between consumer and
supplier on the price and quantity of goods demanded
and offered
i) Diagrammatic representation of market equilibrium
j) The impact of changes in market conditions on market
equilibrium
k) Illustration of the market equilibrium
l) Price elasticity of demand
- Concept of price elasticity of demand and its
determinants
- Concept of income and cross elasticity of demand
m) Factors affecting price elasticity of demand
n) Illustration, by graphs and tables, of changes in
conditions of demand and supply
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer

5. a) The financial Sector: the complex mix or network of
markets, households, businesses, governments, laws and
institutions interacting with one another
b) The roles of the Financial Sector in mobilizing and
making loanable funds available from savers to spenders
for consumption and investment purposes
c) Functions of the financial sector
d) Economic activities that are not officially regulated and
which take place outside the formal norms of business
transactions.
e) Money as any item considered acceptable to be used as
payment for goods and services
f) From bartering to modern forms of payments
Financial Sector g) Four main functions of money
4
h) Four main qualities of money
i) Money supply: the total stock of money in the economy
at any moment
j) Roles of the Central Bank and the following financial
institutions
Commercial Bank
Stock Exchange
Share Market
Credit Union
Development Bank
Insurance Company
Mutual Fund
Building Society
Investment Trust Company
Informal credit institutions (Sou Sou, Box, Partner,
etc.)
k) Financial instruments;
treasury notes and bonds
corporate bonds
municipal bonds
equity securities
a) Role of government
eg. in taxation and expenditure and transfer policies
5 Economic b) Definition of the following terms and concepts
Management: - national budget
Policies and - national income
- disposal income
Goals - national debt
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer

6. - fiscal policy
- fiscal deficit
- monetary policy
- economic growth
- economic development
- developing economy
- developed economy
- balance of payment
- GDP
- GNP
- employment
- unemployment
- inflation
- deflation
- savings
- investment
c) Flows of goods and services and factors of production
between firms and households
d) Illustration of basic flow diagram consisting of
Economic households, firms, government and financial institutions
Management: e) GDP: a measure of national output
5 Policies and GNP: a measure of the increase or decrease in the
standard of living
Goals Calculation of GDP and GNP
f) Nominal output, real output and potential output
g) Economic growth and economic development
h) Inflation and recession
i) The major causes and consequences of inflation and
recession
j) Government’s role in reducing inflation
k) Government’s role in relieving recession
l) Types of unemployment
- structural
- cyclical
- frictional
- seasonal
- real-wage
m) Causes and measures to reduce each type of
unemployment
n) The role of Trade Unions in a free market economy
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer

7. FORM 5
SECTION TOPIC CONTENT
a) Definition of the following terms and concepts
- Balance of trade
- Current account
- Capital account
- Balance of payments
- Balance of payments
- Disequilibria
- Tariff
- Common Eternal Tariff (CET)
- Quota (non-tariff barriers)
- Exchange rate
- Exchange rate regimes
- World Trade Organisation (WTO)
International
6 Trade b) The concept of comparative advantage and gains from
trade. International trade as a “win-win” situation
c) Factors that influence International Trade
- On the import side
- On the export side
d) Terms of trade
e) Factors that influence the level of an exchange rate
f) Fixed, Floating and managed exchange rate regimes
g) Appreciation and depreciation of a currency
h) Downward and upward adjustment to the value of a
currency
i) Balance of payments as a balance sheet indicating all
the international transactions with the rest of the world
j) Balance of trade as the difference between the values of
exports and imports of visible and invisible
k) Current account, capital account and the official
financial account
l) Entries that would appear in the balance of payments
account
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer

8. m) Surplus as excess of receipts over payments: deficit as
excess of expenditure over receipts
n) Factors that give rise to surpluses
o) Factors that give rise to a deficit
p) Possible consequences of balance of payment surpluses
and deficits
q) Possible remedies for balance of payments surpluses
and deficits
a) Main characteristics of Caribbean economies: market
size, resources, nature of dependency
b) Economic problems associated with Caribbean
economies
7 Caribbean c) Definition of the following terms and concepts
Economies in - Debt burden
a Global - Structural adjustment
Environment - Economic integration
- Protectionism
- Laissez-faire
- Common market
- Economic union
- Customs union
- Globalization
- Trade liberalization
- Bi-lateral agreement
- Multi-lateral agreement
- International monetary Fund (IMF)
- Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
- African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
- Free Trade Area of America (FTAA)
- Association of Caribbean States (ACS)
- Caribbean and Canadian Association (CARIBCAN)
- Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME)
- World Bank
- Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)
- European Union (EU)
- Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI)
- Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)
- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
d) Definition and explanation of preferential tariffs
including those offered by the European Union (EU)
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer

9. e) Benefits and costs of preferential tariff arrangements in
light of discussions within the World Trade
Organisation (WTO)
f) Trade liberalization in the context of the termination of all
preferential tariff arrangements world wide
g) Globalization in the context of open competition on a
world scale
h) The free movement of goods, capital, labour and
Caribbean technology
Economies in i) Social and economic benefits of producing goods in large
a Global quantities
Environment
j) Possible social and economic benefits to be derived from
the free movement of capital, goods and labour within
CARICOM
k) Effects of globalization and trade liberalization on firms,
consumers and the sovereignty of territories
l) Concepts and challenges of e-commerce
m) Definition of e-commerce or e-business
n) Benefits of e-commerce or e-business
o) Challenges of e-commerce or e-business
Students should be tested using past paper question under exam conditions.
Students should be given clear guidelines on their SBA Projects as outlined in the Syllabus. The
SBA component should begin no later than Term 1 in Form 5.
Term 2 Form 5 should be used for completion of SBA Projects, revision and further practice on
Past Papers.
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer