Hello AQA students. A wonderful video for you this one. Hot topic areas for paper one, but also we're talking potential for paper three here. Mainly paper one. Your job is to weigh up these topic areas. An extra 10 15% of your time should be devoted to these so that if these essays come up, you're laughing. You've got the knowledge and grade. You can answer these essays wonderfully, but you're not disregarding other topic areas. you're still revising everything in the course so that if these topic areas don't feature other ones do as essay questions, you can still answer those and secure these top grades. That's what your job is from this video. Also know that this video is one of many in my revision for 2025 exams playlist. Make sure you've watched all the videos in that playlist because they are geared towards helping you revise really well to then secure the top grades in your final exams. Get into that playlist, watch all the videos, but here we go. Hot topic one for paper one. Market failure. Huge topic area. Very very likely to feature in your exams this year. Again, whether it's paper one or paper three, you need to be revising it very well. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what markets uh examiners will link to because often when market failure questions come up, they're linked to actual examples of markets that are failing in the UK or globally. But here is a good list that I'll be weighing up a little bit in my revision for all of these examples coming. know the type of market failure at the root but also know potential policy solutions that could be used to deal with that market failure. So in the UK child care you know there are many positive externalities associated with highquality affordable child care in the UK child care has become so unaffordable so difficult to access many parents having to take time off work or just not work at all to look after their kids and societyy's losing out on the gain of those positive externalities as a result of this. So childare a very big one to bear in mind. But also a national scandal in the UK is how our water companies have been dumping raw sewage into our rivers, our oceans, our lakes as a cost cutting measure to avoid them. Investing in appropriate sewage infrastructure to treat this sewage correctly. Now that's a massive environmental market failure there. So policies to deal with that, understanding the common access resource nature of that market failure, the negative exalities linked to it. uh but also bearing in mind uh the talk of potentially nationalizing some of these companies too which is kind of within the market failure topic although kind of more so linked to market structures I would say but just knowing about this market failure is absolutely massive then we can talk about vaping but also smoking vaping first there is now a vaping tax in the UK introduced in the October November budget last year uh but not just the negative externalities or deemer good aspect of smoking vapes but even the disposal of vapes is an environmental market failure given the amount of plastic within vapes. Um so knowing vaping as a market failure policies to deal with it but also smoking how there have been talks of completely banning smoking outright from birth just not allowed to smoke anymore in the UK. Then gambling in particular the rise of online gambling the addictive nature of that the demerod uh kind of aspect of that rent and accommodation. So we look at the housing market generally, inequity within the housing market, but especially not just house prices, how rents have become so expensive for many people, unaffordable for many people, hard for them to actually access good quality housing as a result of that. Also, we can talk about gaming as a market thing. The negative exalities linked to gaming, the addictive nature of gaming, the deer good aspect of gaming, too. Then we can move to dentistry. how it's very difficult for people in the UK to access NHS state provided but with a cost dentistry services and how many are driven to private private dentistry or they just simply don't go and visit dentists at all. Positive externalities linked to dentistry that society is losing out on as a result of that. How university fees are not doing their job at the moment. They've been they've been increased very slightly by the Labor Party. So whether that's the appropriate way of kind of funding university education in this country but also on the grounds of inequity this one high food prices food prices have been rising dramatically the last two years for a variety of reasons. So maybe knowing the reasons why linking that to demand supply factors and elasticity but also whether like intervention is necessary for the government to step in and to aid consumers out in particular low-income households who are struggling to afford basic necessities like food and groceries. So that's an interesting area for you to think about add to your vision. And lastly, obesity. It's a massive market failure, massive issue in the UK and in other countries. Policies to deal with that. talks from health bodies recently about whether we need to introduce a fat tax in the UK. But there you have it. Market failure major themes for you. You need to be revising market structures very well. Heavy topic area. I'll be focusing on perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, but also a subbranch of monopoly, natural monopoly. Potential for essay questions this year. Don't forget the topic area prior to market structures. There's lots of stuff in there which could be like 15 markers in particular. But if we're looking at bigger essays, business objectives, know your business objectives and apply those to various industries like which one is more appropriate for businesses depending on the industry that they're in. But also how recently in the UK we've had a lot of business closures. Know the reasons why we've had business closures, but also is there a need for government intervention to help businesses out. So know about the shutdown condition, know about kind of the pros and cons of business closure, know about the potential for government intervention, whether it's necessary, whether it's not, the pros and cons of it to help businesses out given the huge cost pressures many businesses have been facing in the UK really since co. Now we go to competition policy. You've got to be revising competition policy really well. Could easily feature strongly in exams this year. So this is how to regulate in market structures that are not working efficiently. So can we think of like real world examples where the CMA at the moment is intervening? Could these be potential essay areas? Uh well look at the market for vets at the moment. Lots of issues there which are against the public interest. Look at baby formula currently being investigated by the CMA. Look what's happening with energy companies, not the retailers, but the manufacturers like BP, Shell, and Axon, how they're facing a windfall tax on their profits, which has been extended all the way through to 2028. Uh we've also seen how big tech have been um accused of abusing their monopoly power, how there is a windfall tax on their revenue as well, how that's been under debate, whether that's necessary, whether it's doing more harm than good, whether it's something to reduce or extend. Um, so these are all big areas that are being talked about at the moment. Just know competition policy well. Know what the policy options are. Know what the justification is, know what the pros and cons of these policy interventions are, and we're good to go. Labor market is absolutely huge, very likely to be a big essay question this year because there have been so many themes in the UK that examiners can latch on to and ask you an essay question about. For example, how the UK suffered massively from huge labor shortages across a wide variety of labor markets that have driven wage growth up that have also led to shortages of goods and services being available has affected living standards for uh consumers in the UK too. That is a labor market theme right there. Uh but also how the conservative party have cut spending on benefits, how they got rid of the cap on bankers bonuses uh just before they lost the election last year. They did all of this. So knowing the impacts of all of that, um how minimum wages have been increasing significantly over recent years, far more than inflation, the pros and cons of minimum wage increases, but also how the Labor Party more recently have enacted a lot of labor market regulations to improve the working conditions, to improve the interests of workers, and many like banning flexible labor market contracts like zero hours contracts, banning practices like fire and rehire, um making it easier for workers to be members of the trade union, making it easier for workers uh for trade unions to organize strikes, making it harder for businesses to fight against those strikes. Also making it a compulsory condition of a labor contract for workers to have flexible work arrangements. Some working from home, some working in an office. Wide variety of regulations there. So knowing a lot of these themes, well, knowing the pros and cons of these, knowing the impacts of these, you never know, could easily be an essay question this year. Then you must be revising income and wealth inequality in high detail. If it was me, I'd be focusing on the consequences of income and wealth inequality quite strongly, but also policies that could be used to bring down income and wealth inequality. Minimum wage rises, a major theme we've talked about with labor markets is also within this topic area of income and wealth inequality, but also novel policies like wealth taxation, like universal basic income. Just know generally policies to bring down income and wealth inequality, the novel ones, but I'd be focusing more on the consequences of income and wealth inequality. And lastly guys, I just make sure that even niche areas of the micro course you're learning very well. So for example, your indoor attacks, your subsidy, your price control diagrams as basic government intervention that you know inside out because these could be nine markers, they could be 50 markers. Do you know your elasticities inside out? Diagrams linked to them, determinance of PD, determinance of PS, you know, know about them in high detail. Do you know how to analyze PPS in high detail where you might need to write a 50 marker? Just make sure these smaller niche areas you know while just in case they come as a 15 marker even topics like economies of scale diminishing returns uh revenue curves know these niche areas for a 15 marker too and then you're good to go in your revision. So, there you have it, guys. Hot topic areas for you to weigh up in your revision whereby if they do feature, you're laughing. You've got that knowledge and grade. You're feeling great. You can answer the essay great, but you're only adding weight to these topic areas. If they don't feature, other topics feature more predominantly. Doesn't matter. You revise those two where you can still ace the essay. So, use the advice in this video really well. Hopefully, you revise great. These essays come up and you smash it. Thank you so much for watching, guys. I'll see you all in the next video.