Advanced level 2026 South West mock Economics guide

This image provides the Mark Guide for the first essay question from the Economics Paper Two, focusing on population and labor mobility.

PAPER TWO (ESSAY)

QUESTION 1

a) Candidates should Define optimum population then identify and explain the determinants of an optimum population:

• Definition: An optimum population is an ideal population size which makes the best use of available resources and technology, thus producing the highest output per head. It is a population size with a labour force which, together with other resources and technology, yields maximum output per head.

  (up to 2 marks for Definition)

• Determinants:

  • Natural resource endowment

  • Level of technology

  • The size of the labour force

  • The discovery and exploitation of new (natural) resources

  • Political stability and instability

  • The structure of a population

  • Capital stock

  • The quality of labor force

  • Trade openness

  • Infrastructural development

  • Level of industrialization, etc.

    (up to 8 marks for any 4 points; Listing: max. of 2 marks for 4 points)

b) Identify and explain the negative effects of immobility of labour:

• Frictional unemployment

• Fall in productivity

• Regional wage differentials

• Slows down economic growth

• Discourages investment and entrepreneurship

• Fall in efficiency

• Increased cost of employing workers

• Regional imbalances

• Inefficient allocation of resources

• Reduced productivity of workers

• Reduced standards of living

• Decline in technological development, etc.

  (up to 10 marks for any 5 points; Listing: max. of 2 marks for 5 points)

Given that this is a mark guide, would you like me to help you expand the bullet points into full paragraphs, as a student would be expected to write them for the full 8 or 10 marks?