OCR Economics

The Mint Magazine covers a wide range of topics that align with the A Level/IB syllabus enriching student learning by offering a practical element of super-curricular reading on topical events. These qualifications are taught across the UK in all further education settings.

The following is constantly updated and reviewed in line with changes to the subject exam board syllabus taught at your school, sixth form or college, in addition to new articles for our subscribers to read. Teachers can choose articles as supplementary content to enrich your students’ reading each week. 

 Forage through to see which article would suit your lessons

Component 1

Introduction to Microeconomics

Understanding economics as a social science, what the economic problem is and the economic rationale.

A solid case – summary

Interview with historian Tehila Sasson on the solidarity economy and its relationship to neoliberalism. Headlines The solidarity economy aimed to make capitalism more ethical by connecting values like solidarity and

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Time for a switch

Ellie Standen explains how levies break, dividends divide and it’s time to take back the power industry into the public sector.  Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has promised great things in

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The Role of Markets

How do the demand and supply forces work in tandem? How are prices determined? Do all consumers behave the same way? What happens when things don’t go to plan… what causes these issues and why, what may the implications be and how can governments remedy this?

Who will save the world?

Raj Thamotheram is, in theory, betting on pension funds. Covid has transformed global politics and the Omicron variant has caused markets to tumble. Meanwhile COP26 failed to address, adequately, the

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Business Objectives

Do business always look at profit maximisation? 

How firms scale, whether they are private or public, to merge or divest, customer loyalty, regulation and shareholders versus stakeholders are all other factors that are taken into account to consider why some businesses decide to grow while others decide to stay small…

The troubles with peace

Brendan Murtagh tells how in the face of inadequate investment there is potential in the poorest communities in Northern Ireland’s capital to share the economic benefits of peace.  Despite recent

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Out of our heads

Lindsey Hall tells of the ideas behind Real Ideas. Since we founded Real Ideas fourteen years ago, we have worked with all kinds of ideas – big concepts, quirky thoughts,

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Market Structures

In what markets do firms compete? How are these markets regulated? Is it better or worse to compete or collaborate with each other?

A solid case – summary

Interview with historian Tehila Sasson on the solidarity economy and its relationship to neoliberalism. Headlines The solidarity economy aimed to make capitalism more ethical by connecting values like solidarity and

Read More »

Time for a switch

Ellie Standen explains how levies break, dividends divide and it’s time to take back the power industry into the public sector.  Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has promised great things in

Read More »

Labour Market

What causes demand and supply for labour? Which industries are more competitive? What factors cause barriers in entering the marketplace? How are wages determined between and within regions?

A change of key

How can we make work in the post-pandemic world work for us? Richard McNeill Douglas plays with some ideas. Covid has not been the only pandemic we have had to

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The love of money

What is the going rate for being a mum? Madhavi Venkatesan suggests it’s time to stop following the money. The pandemic has highlighted the relationship and trade-off between parenting and

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Component 2

Aggregate Demand and Supply

How do the levers of consumption, investment, government expenditure and net trade work? How does the government look to build capacity? What happens when things don’t go to plan… what causes these issues and why, and what the implications may be.

Democratically digital

Internet access has been a lifeline during the Covid pandemic.  Miriam Brett argues it is too important to remain in the hands of private sector interests. An invisible lifeform has

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Constructive argument

‘Building back better’ is all well and good but, ask Kate Bayliss, Ben Bowles and Elisa Van Waeyenberge, better for whom?   Investment in infrastructure is a major part of the

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Economic Policy Objectives

What policies does the government consider during a boom, a recession, in protecting the environment, in achieving a more equitable distribution of income? How does the government learn from its mistakes?

Cents and sensibility

Fifty years ago the Limits to Growth report started a debate that pitted environmentalists against economists — and the economists won. Richard McNeill Douglas investigates why and what comes next. 

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Broken China 

The world’s second largest economy may have reached its zenith, says Richard Vague. China failed to deliver anything close to its historically-robust growth in the September 2022 quarter, with 3.9%

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The point of no return

The disintegration of growth is irreversible. Roxana Bobulescu explains. I was born in Romania in 1972 when the country was a socialist republic. It was the year of the Meadows

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Implementing Policy

How effective is government in meeting their macroeconomic objectives? What trade-offs do they face?

Why we should abandon GDP

Gross Domestic Product is the most popular and useless quantity in economics say Erald Kolasi and Blair Fix. For all that it purports to say, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fails

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Here We Go

Incheon towards the future: the city hosted 3,000 people for the 6th Wellbeing Forum. There is an international group of government officials labouring to make life better for people. Wellbeing

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The human touch

There is a world of innovation and entrepreneurism where the bottom line is the last thing that matters. René Kemp tells. We live in a world of marketisation with its

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The Global Context

Exploring globalisation, international trade and patterns in trade over time. What bodies regulate trade, what advantages do trading blocs have and how do countries remain internationally attractive?

A solid case – summary

Interview with historian Tehila Sasson on the solidarity economy and its relationship to neoliberalism. Headlines The solidarity economy aimed to make capitalism more ethical by connecting values like solidarity and

Read More »

Time for a switch

Ellie Standen explains how levies break, dividends divide and it’s time to take back the power industry into the public sector.  Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has promised great things in

Read More »

The Financial Sector

What are the role of financial markets? How do central banks play a role and what does market failure look like in the financial sector?

A solid case – summary

Interview with historian Tehila Sasson on the solidarity economy and its relationship to neoliberalism. Headlines The solidarity economy aimed to make capitalism more ethical by connecting values like solidarity and

Read More »

Time for a switch

Ellie Standen explains how levies break, dividends divide and it’s time to take back the power industry into the public sector.  Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has promised great things in

Read More »