Found an angle you like?
Drop it straight into the free Economics IA frame. The planning sections — choosing articles, mapping sections and key concepts, designing diagrams — are free; unlock the full step-by-step build to write all three commentaries with the rubric, worked examples and evaluation, ready to export.
Start your portfolio in the Economics frame →MICROECONOMICS — MARKETS, ELASTICITY, EXTERNALITIES & INTERVENTION
Micro articles about a single market, price or policy give you the cleanest diagrams and the tightest cause-and-effect analysis.
1 · A government sugar tax — analysing a price intervention
A news report of a new tax on sugary drinks lets you show the tax shifting supply, the new equilibrium and the burden split — then evaluate elasticity, regressivity and whether it corrects the externality. The classic high scorer.
2 · A bumper harvest crashes a crop's price — elasticity and farm revenue
An article about a glut (coffee, cocoa, grain) lets you link a supply increase to a large price fall and, via inelastic demand, falling total revenue — a counter-intuitive result that rewards real analysis.
3 · A city caps rents — a price ceiling and the shortage it creates
A rent-control story gives a textbook maximum-price diagram with excess demand, then a rich evaluation of who gains and loses and the long-run supply effects — equity used as a genuine lens.
4 · A subsidy for electric vehicles — correcting a positive externality
A subsidy news item lets you model the MSB–MPB gap and the welfare gain, then evaluate cost to taxpayers, opportunity cost and whether the subsidy is the most efficient instrument.
5 · A plastic-bag charge or carbon levy — taxing a demerit good
A short article on a new charge lets you analyse the externality, the welfare loss it targets and the price signal — with elasticity and behaviour-change driving a balanced evaluation.
6 · A minimum wage rise — a price floor in the labour market
A wage-floor story gives a clean labour-market diagram with potential excess supply (unemployment), then evaluation of monopsony, elasticity of labour demand and the equity–efficiency trade-off.
7 · A merger or price-fixing case — market power and the regulator
A competition-authority news item lets you contrast monopoly price and output with the competitive outcome, show the deadweight loss, and evaluate whether intervention restores efficiency.
8 · A spike in a staple's price — demand, supply and the burden on households
An article on a sharp rise in egg, bread or energy prices lets you isolate the cause, model the shift, and evaluate the distributional impact through the lens of scarcity and inelastic demand.
MACROECONOMICS — INFLATION, UNEMPLOYMENT, GROWTH & POLICY
Macro articles about a policy decision or a headline indicator let you put the whole economy on one AD–AS diagram and evaluate trade-offs.
9 · A central bank raises interest rates to fight inflation
A rate-decision article lets you trace the transmission mechanism to AD, model the effect on the price level and output, and evaluate the growth-and-jobs trade-off and policy lags.
10 · A government's budget boosts infrastructure spending — fiscal policy
A budget article lets you analyse expansionary fiscal policy shifting AD, discuss the multiplier and crowding out, and evaluate the debt and inflation costs against the growth gains.
11 · Rising youth unemployment after a downturn
An unemployment-figures article lets you classify the unemployment (cyclical, structural), model a deflationary gap, and evaluate demand-side vs supply-side responses through an equity lens.
12 · Inflation surges on rising energy costs — cost-push pressure
A cost-of-living article lets you distinguish cost-push from demand-pull inflation, model the SRAS shift, and evaluate the stagflation dilemma facing policymakers.
13 · A country posts strong GDP growth — what's behind the headline
A growth-data article lets you model actual vs potential growth on AD–AS or a PPC, and evaluate whether GDP growth has improved living standards, sustainability and distribution.
14 · A tax cut to stimulate spending — supply-side or demand-side?
A tax-policy article lets you analyse the demand-side AD shift and a possible supply-side LRAS effect, then evaluate the fiscal cost, timing and distributional impact.
15 · A government raises its inflation-fighting credibility — expectations and policy
An article on a central-bank target or forward guidance lets you analyse how expectations feed into wage- and price-setting, and evaluate the interdependence of policy, confidence and outcomes.
16 · Government debt and austerity — the cost of a deflationary fiscal stance
A spending-cuts article lets you model contractionary fiscal policy, discuss the multiplier in reverse, and evaluate the sustainability of debt against the short-run output and employment costs.
Ready to write your commentaries properly?
The Economics IA frame walks you through every criterion — articles, sections, key concepts and diagrams — and the paid unlock builds all three commentaries, evaluation and cover sheets into one export-ready portfolio.
Open the Economics IA frame →THE GLOBAL ECONOMY — TRADE, TARIFFS, EXCHANGE RATES & DEVELOPMENT
Global articles about a trade policy, a currency move or a development issue give you distinctive diagrams and a built-in stakeholder evaluation.
17 · A country imposes tariffs on imported steel
A tariff-news article lets you draw the world-price diagram, show the fall in imports and the welfare areas (producer gain, government revenue, deadweight loss), and evaluate the winners, losers and retaliation risk.
18 · A currency slides against the dollar — depreciation and the trade balance
A forex article lets you model the shift causing depreciation, analyse the effect on exports, imports and inflation, and evaluate using the Marshall–Lerner condition and the J-curve.
19 · A new free-trade agreement — gains from trade and who loses
A trade-deal article lets you analyse the efficiency gains from removing protection, then evaluate the distributional cost to displaced domestic producers and the dynamics of adjustment.
20 · An export subsidy or quota dispute — protectionism on trial
A WTO-style dispute article lets you model a quota or export subsidy, show the welfare effects on each country, and evaluate the case for and against the protection.
21 · A developing economy attracts foreign direct investment
An FDI article lets you analyse the growth and employment effects, then evaluate the costs — profit repatriation, dependency, environmental impact — through a development and well-being lens.
22 · A central bank intervenes to defend a fixed exchange rate
An intervention article lets you model the central bank buying or selling its currency to hold a peg, and evaluate the reserve cost, credibility and trade-off against domestic policy autonomy.
23 · Remittances or aid to a low-income country — financing development
An aid or remittances article lets you analyse the injection into the recipient economy, then evaluate effectiveness, dependency and sustainability against the equity goals of development.
24 · A commodity-price shock hits an exporting nation — terms of trade
An article on a swing in oil, copper or coffee prices lets you analyse the terms-of-trade effect on an export-dependent economy, and evaluate the vulnerability that commodity reliance creates.
From a topic to a top-band commentary
An angle is the easy part — the marks are in how you build each commentary. The Economics IA is a portfolio of three commentaries, each marked /14 (Diagrams 3, Terminology 2, Application & analysis 3, Key concept 3, Evaluation 3) for /45 across the portfolio. Whichever articles you pick, the same moves win: cover all three syllabus sections with three different key concepts, draw and fully label a relevant diagram and refer to it explicitly, apply theory to the specific article rather than summarising it, build an explicit chain of cause and effect, and finish each one by evaluating — stakeholders, short vs long run, assumptions — all within 800 words and with a complete cover sheet.
Build your chosen angle into a full portfolio
The examiner-written Economics IA frame takes you through every section with the rubric, worked good-and-bad examples and the traps that cost marks. The planning sections are free — unlock the writing of all three commentaries, the evaluation and cover sheets to finish the whole portfolio and export it to Word or PDF.
Open the Economics IA frame →Economics IA ideas — FAQ
What makes a good Economics IA article and topic?
A recent news article — written for a general audience, not for economists — reporting a real policy or event you can analyse with theory: a tax, subsidy, price change, interest-rate decision, tariff or exchange-rate move. The best articles are short, focused on one issue, contain a clear cause-and-effect mechanism you can model with a labelled diagram, and leave room to evaluate. Choose three across Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and The global economy, with a different key concept each.
How recent must the article be, and where do I find one?
Published within roughly the last 12 months of when you write, from a news source for a general audience — a newspaper or news website, not a journal, textbook or blog written for economists. Look in the business and economics sections of mainstream outlets, use three different sources from three different countries, and record the title, publication, author, dates and URL for the cover sheet straight away.
Can I just copy one of these angles?
Use them as a launchpad, but make each commentary your own: find your own current article, choose the section and key concept that fit it best, and build your own diagram and analysis around the specific event it reports. That ownership is exactly what the application and evaluation criteria reward.
How do I turn an angle into a top-band commentary?
Build it section by section in the free Economics IA frame — choose the article, map the section and key concept, design the diagram, apply theory to the specific event with an explicit cause-and-effect chain, then evaluate stakeholders, short vs long run and assumptions within 800 words, with a complete cover sheet.
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