f6 Econ Mock Paper2 Question Paper
f6 Econ Mock Paper2 Question Paper
Total pages: 17
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Class ______
Name: ___________________________
Instructions:
Your answer must be written on the space provided; otherwise, it will not be marked.
S6 Mock Exam, Economics Paper 2 (2017-18) Page 2 of 17
Question 1
The Cross-Harbour Tunnel is serious congested during the rush hours. Raising the tolls is one way to
ease the congestion. Explain whether such a proposal will definitely increase the cost of travelling by
the Cross-Harbour Tunnel.
(3 marks)
Question 2
In the Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced that the government would invest heavily to
promote innovation and technology and develop Hong Kong into a “smart city”.
Question 3
Factory A produces Good X with capital and labour only. The table shows the production data of it.
Average working hours
Date Capital Workers Output
per workers
1 July 10 10 9.6 19 200
2 July 10 10 9.5 19 000
3 July 10 10 9.4 18 800
(a) How did the average productivity of labour change between 1 July and 3 July? (2 marks)
(b) Could the production data between 1 July and 3 July illustrate the law of diminishing marginal
returns? Explain your answer. (3 marks)
Question 4
Explain ONE reason why the aggregate demand curve is downward sloping? (3 marks)
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Question 5
Country A is a small and open economy which has recently raised the ad valorem tariff on the import
of gasoline.
(a) With the aid of a diagram, explain how this will affect the quantity of gasoline imported.
(4 marks)
(b) Will the tariff affect the average quality of gasoline imported by Country A? Explain your answer
with reference to the law of demand. (3 marks)
(c) Would the tax revenue from imported tariff definitely increase? Explain. (2 marks)
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Question 6
Money supply Implicit price deflator Real GDP
(Annual growth rate, %) of GDP (Annual growth rate, %)
2015 - 120 -
2016 8% 126 5%
(a) Calculate the inflation rate between 2015 and 2016. (1 mark)
(c) John bought the 1 year fixed rate bonds of a listed company at the end of 2015. The nominal
interest rate was 8% per year.
(i) Calculate the real return of the bonds as in 2016? Explain your answer. (2 marks)
(ii) Explain whether John would NECESSARILY lose due to the inflation. (2 marks)
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Question 7
Table X shows the total quantity of goods that Country A and Country B can produce with one unit of
resources.
Good X Good Y
Country A 20 OR 10
Country B 80 OR 20
Assume that the cost of trade is zero. Explain why and how Country B may benefit from the trade with
Country A. Calculate the maximum possible gain to Country B per unit of export. (4 marks)
Question 8
Fairwood Holdings Limited is a fast-food chain in Hong Kong.
(a) Explain TWO reasons why operating a fast-food chain may help to reduce the average cost of
production. (4 marks)
(b) Fairwood Holdings Limited listed its stocks in the stock market for trading. State ONE advantage
and ONE disadvantage for a company to list its shares in the stock exchange. (2 marks)
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Question 9
Study the diagram below:
Exchange rate of the US dollar in terms of RMB
(a) How did the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar (HKD) and the Renminbi (RMB) change
between 2014 and 2016? Explain your answer, (3 marks)
(b) Suppose the prices of goods and services (in HKD) in Hong Kong remain unchanged.
Explain why the change in (a) might increase the total spending (in RMB) of the Mainland tourists
in Hong Kong? Illustrate your answer with a diagram. (5 marks)
S6 Mock Exam, Economics Paper 2 (2017-18) Page 8 of 17
Section B: 54 marks
Question 10
Read the information below and answer the questions:
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the pilot “Starter Home” scheme for the
sandwich class in her policy address:
1. The scheme will provide 1,000 flats to households below the market rate.
2. The upper income limit for applicants will be capped at HK$34,000 a month for single people
and HK$68,000 for households with two or more members.
3. Buyers must be people who have lived in Hong Kong for at least seven years and have never
owned property.
4. There will be restriction on the resale of these flats to prevent speculation. For example, flats
bought under the scheme cannot be sold in the secondary property market within a fixed
period.
5. Land for the "Starter Homes" will come from sites already owned by private developers, or
those to be bought from the government.
The government estimates there are about 55,000 households in Hong Kong that fall within the
income range of the scheme and own no property.
(a) With reference to the information above and your knowledge, discuss the “Starter Home”
scheme in terms of the following:
(i) its effects on the price and the number of private housing units
(ii) its effects on promoting equity in society
(5 marks)
(b) Student A: The number of applicants of the “Starter Home” scheme will exceed the number of
the flats. This will even be worse if the upper income limit of the applicants is relaxed.
With the aid of a demand-supply diagram, explain why Student A may be correct. (5 marks)
(c) The secondary property market resembles perfect competition though it is not.
(i) State TWO ways that the secondary property market resembles perfect competition.
(ii) State TWO reasons why the secondary property market is NOT perfect competition.
(4 marks)
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Question 11
The Fed (central bank of the USA) has adopted “quantitative easing” to stimulate the economy after
the Financial Tsunami. Yet, according to the Fed, the US economy is getting better: Hiring is strong,
consumers continue to spend and business investment is rising. Besides, there are worries about
inflation.
Hence, the Fed has decided that the U.S. economy is strong enough for the central bank to reduce its
balance sheet: This involves the reduction of its holdings (or selling) of government bonds and other
securities that it acquired after the Financial Tsunami. The Fed will start reducing its holdings by $10
billion in the coming month and raising that amount gradually in the months to come.
(b) Explain how the selling of government bonds affects the following:
(i) the money supply
(ii) the aggregate output
(iii) one other economic variables
(8 marks)
(c) Assume that some of the government bonds or securities held by the Fed are sold to foreign
residents.
(i) In which account of the balance of payments accounts will this transaction be recorded?
(1 mark)
(ii) Name ONE component of the current account that may be affected by this transaction.
Explain your answer. (2 marks)
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Question 12
Good Car Ltd. is a show room in Hong Kong, which imports and sells electric private cars. It has recently
expanded to sell other electric vehicles.
(a) State the type of expansion of the above show room. Explain your answer. (2 marks)
(c) In the last year, the sales of Good Car Ltd. increased by $500 000. Would this be added to Hong
Kong’s GDP in that year? Explain your answer. (3 marks)
The government had in the past few years waived the first registration tax of electric private cars
in full. The policy aimed at reducing air pollution by encouraging people to switch from gasoline-
powered cars to electric cars.
The Financial Secretary announced the full tax exemption to electric private cars would end from
1 April 2017. He explained this could help to curb car growth and improve traffic.
The full tax exemption to electric private cars has been terminated. Evaluate this change in
terms of the following:
(i) the effectiveness to curb car growth and improve traffic. (4 marks)
Question 13
Country A relies heavily on its tourist industry. Nevertheless, political instability and the threat of civil
war have hit its tourism badly.
(b) Holding potential output constant, the economy will recover to its original output level even
though there is no intervention from the government.
With the aid of the diagram below, explain the view above with reference to the automatic
market adjustment mechanism. (3 marks)
(c) As an alternative, the government can boost the economy by cutting income tax.
Compared to the automatic market mechanism, explain, without using any diagram, ONE
advantage and ONE disadvantage of implementing a tax cut to boost the economy.
(4 marks)
Price level
LRAS1 SRAS: Short run
SRAS1
aggregate supply
AD1
Aggregate output
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MM’ and PP0 are the production possibility frontier and the production point of Country M before
trade respectively.
(a) Country M did not engage in international trade initially. Indicate the consumption point of
Country M in the Figure 1. Explain your answer. (2 marks)
(b) (i) Suppose the terms of trade is 2X = 1Y. Draw in the Figure 1 the consumption possibility
frontier (CPF1) and the production point (PP1). (2 marks)
(iii) With the aid of the Figure 1, explain whether Country M will gain from trade.
(3 marks)
(iv) Suppose Country M insists to consume the same amount of Good X before trade. Indicate
the volume of exports as XX in Figure 1. (1 marks)
(c) The United Nations uses the Human Development Index (HDI) to measure the level of economic
development of a country.
(i) List TWO components of the HDI. (2 marks)
(ii) Give TWO possible reasons to explain why the HDI of an open economy is usually larger
than the HDI of a closed economy. (2 marks)
(iii) Suggest TWO possible ways to stimulate economic growth besides engaging in international
trade. (2 marks)
S6 Mock Exam, Economics Paper 2 (2017-18) Page 17 of 17
End of Paper
F6 Economics, Mock Exam 17-18, Paper 2, key 18
Question 1
No + attempt to explain 1
Non-excludable in consumption 1
- It is hard for the owner to exclude others from consuming the good. 1
- It is hard for the owner to collect payments from others for using of the good. 1
Max: 2
Question 3
(a) The average productivity of labour remains constant 1
at 200 units per unit of labour 1
(b) No + supported by correct data 1
Labour: 94 95 96
MP - 20 20 1
The MP is constant, not decreasing when adding the variable factor (labour) to the 1
fixed factor (capital).
Question 4
Price level↑
Any one of the following: 3
→ Real value of money / wealth↓ (1) → C↓ (1) → Q of output demanded↓ (1)
→ MD↑ → r↑ (1) → C↓ / I↓ (1) → Q of output demanded↓ (1)
Question 5
(a) Domestic price + Show the change on the diagram: P1 to P2 1
Quantity of imports Show the change on the diagram: (Q4 – Q1) to (Q3 – Q2) 2
Able to explain why: 1
- Domestic quantity supplied or output increases due to higher prices.
- Domestic quantity demanded decreases due to higher prices
P
Domestic
Demand supply
P2
P1
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
(b) Prices of high and low quality gasoline increase by the same percentage. 1
No change in relative price 1
No quality substitution / No change in average quality 1
Note:
If the tax is a per-unit tax (not an ad valorem tax), the average quality will
increase.
- Prices of high and low quality gasoline increase by the same amount
- Prices of high-quality gasoline decrease relative to prices of low-quality
gasoline.
- People substitute high-quality gasoline for low-quality one.
- Therefore, the market share of high-quality gasoline
- Average quality of gasoline
Comment:
- Most students related their discussion to the price elasticity of demand.
However, this is not required.
- Price elasticity of demand (Ed) helps determine the change in total revenue to
sellers when price changes along the same demand curve.
- The relationships between Ed and total sales revenue may not apply to the
change in tax revenue.
F6 Economics, Mock Exam 17-18, Paper 2, key 20
Question 6
(a) Inflation rate = 126−120 1
126
× 100% = 5%
(bi) MV = PY 1
(bii) %∆M + %∆V = %∆P + %∆Y 2
%∆V = %∆P + %∆Y – %∆M
= 5% + 5% – 8%
= 2%
Students need to show their calculation to score full marks.
Note:
Fisher’s equation: Nominal interest rate = Real interest rate + Expected
inflation
Expected real interest rate = Nominal interest rate – Expected inflation
Realized real interest rate = Nominal interest rate – Actual inflation
If expected inflation = actual inflation,
expected real interest rate = realized real interest rate.
No gain or loss
Question 7
Able to calculate the cost ratios 1
Cost ratios
Country A: 1X = 0.5Y OR 1Y = 2X
Country B: 1X = 0.25Y OR 1Y = 4X
Note:
The maximum possible gain to Country B is indeed the maximum potential gain,
which is equal to the difference between the cost ratios of Good X in the two
F6 Economics, Mock Exam 17-18, Paper 2, key 21
countries.
Question 8
(a) Any two of the following: (Max: 4 marks)
- Lower input prices from bulk purchases of inputs 2
- Lower interest rates from borrowing as a chain store is often large in scale and 2
has lower chance to default.
- Can increase productivity by better division of labour 2
- Can spread the cost of advertising over a larger output 2
- Other reasonable points 2
Max: 4
(b) Advantage:
Any one of the following. Max: 1 mark
- Free transfer of shares. Increase liquidity. Help attract investors 1
- Public subscription of shares and bonds. Wider sources of capital 1
Max 1
Disadvantage:
Any one of the following. Max: 1 mark
- Disclose financial statements / accounts to the public. 1
- More easily taken over by others 1
Max 1
Question 9
(a) The US dollar appreciated against the RMB 1
Owing to the linked exchange system, 1
the HK dollar must appreciate against the RMB too. 1
Comment:
- A lot of students could not express the change clearly. For example: It is not
clear which currency appreciated in the following statement: “The exchange
rate between the US dollar and the RMB increased.”
- A number of students stated wrongly that the US dollar depreciated.
(b) The price of HK goods in RMB (as the RMB depreciated against the HKD). 1
+ the quantity demanded
Inelastic demand 1
%P > %Qd 1
Spending in RMB
Diagram:
- P + Q 1
- Correct labelling of the ‘gain’ and ‘loss’ 1
P (in RMB)
P2
+
P1
-
D
Q2 Q1 Quantity
F6 Economics, Mock Exam 17-18, Paper 2, key 22
Note:
The total expenditure in HKD must decrease, as the demand shifts to the left.
Because (i) P in HKD is constant; but (ii) Q
P (in HKD)
D2 D1
P1
-
Q2 Q1 Quantity
Question 10
(ai) Relevant points
- Land supply for private housing due to competitive supply. Therefore, 3
PQ
- Demand for private housing as housing under Starter Home scheme is a 2
substitute. Therefore, P + Q
- Overall: Q but ∆P is uncertain 1
Max: 3
Note:
No mark if students fail to see that the policy is set for the middle class.
No mark if students fail to point out whether this is related to equality in
income or equality in opportunities.
Equality in opportunities involves “fair competition”. Price competition is
replaced by non-price competition under the “Starter Home” scheme.
Students must provide valid arguments why non-price competition is
preferred to price competition in the distribution of housing units.
Comment:
A number of students failed to see that the policy benefits the middle class.
F6 Economics, Mock Exam 17-18, Paper 2, key 23
(b) The price is below market equilibrium (so the number of applicants will exceed 1
the number of flats available.)
Cancelling the income restriction will increase the demand and lead to a 2
larger shortage (from ab to bc)
Diagram: - P is below equilibrium and stays constant. 1
- D resulting in a larger shortage (from ab to bc) 1
P
S
a b c
P1
D1 D2
Q1 = 1000 Quantity
Note: The supply should be vertical as the number of flats is fixed at 1000
units.
Comment:
A few students mixed up “demand” with “Qd” and “supply” with “Qs”.
They said the demand is larger than the supply. Indeed, it should be the
quantity demaned is larger than the quantity supplied.
Question 11
(a) - Issue currency 1
- Carry out monetary policy 1
- Supervise private banks 1
- Clearing house 1
- Lender of last resort 1
- Other reasonable points 1
Max 2
Question 12
(a) Lateral expansion 1
It expands to sell goods which are related but not directly competing with the 1
existing products.
(1 mark if students are able to state that the firm is a resident producing unit
and the output value should be included.)
Question 13
P
LRAS
SRAS1
SRAS2
AD1
AD2
Y2 Y 1 = YF Y
Deflationary gap
Note:
No mark will be given if students merely argue that a tax cut can increase Yd, C,
AD and then Y. This question requires a comparison of the tax cut and the
automatic mechanism. Indeed, both can increase Y back to potential output. 2
Question 14
(a) Consumption = PP0 (indicated in the diagram) (1 mark)
Country M can consume what they produced before trade. PP 0 is the autarky. (1 mark)
Good Y
|Slope| = 1/2
M’ 400 Good Y
Good Y
400
(bi) PP1
M (biii) CP1
M’ 400 Good Y
F6 Economics, Mock Exam 17-18, Paper 2, key 28
Good Y
400
(bi) PP1
Point B: Same quantity
of Good X as at PP0
M
XX B
PP0 (bi) CPF1
M’ 400 Good Y
Paper 1
1 B 6 A 11 B 16 A 21 A
2 C 7 C 12 D 17 D 22 D
3 C 8 B 13 D 18 C 23 C
4 B 9 C 14 C 19 D 24 C
5 B 10 D 15 D 20 A 25 C
26 C 31 B 36 A 41 C
27 C 32 D 37 A 42 D
28 C 33 A 38 C 43 C
29 D 34 B 39 C 44 C
30 D 35 A 40 D 45 A