Teachers' Guide - Using the Virtual Economy for A-level Business Studies

The main use of the Virtual Economy for A-level Business Studies is likely to be for the external environment or business context section of the syllabus. The model (4th floor) can be used on its own to see the impact of different policies on the economy and to prompt discussion. However, there are various resources in the Virtual Economy to help focus this work.

The most useful section should be the case studies section. There are three main case studies:

1. People
2. Business
3. Government

Each case study has three sections to it. The first section sets up a series of scenarios: different types of firm, different families or different governments. The second section then suggests different policies that could be tried out on the Virtual Economy. Having chosen a scenario and a policy, students should then go on to the report / issues section that considers the effects of the policies on their family / business / government.

The case studies could either be used as worksheets that students do (either individually or in groups) which they then hand in or make a presentation about or they could simply be used as a basis for discussion.

The Virtual Economy model could be used for other areas of the syllabus as well. It could be used when considering marketing. Students could look at the impact that government policies are likely to have on the demand for a firm's product and consider what they could do to counter the effects. They could also look at the nature of the product (the price and income elasticities) and how different products will be affected in different ways. There is a considerable amount on this in the business case study.

It could also perhaps be used for discussion when considering motivation. The model could be used to carry out experiments with different tax policies (both direct and indirect taxes) so that students could consider the effects of these policies on people's motivation to work.