By Roy Bowden

Roy, a tutor on NEC’s A level Economics explains how A level Economics students can use the manifestos of political parties to illustrate how economics works in the real world.

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As you will no doubt know, the UK General Election takes place on Thursday 4th July. The reading of political party manifestos is not for the faint-hearted! Fortunately, there are useful summaries of the parties’ main policies should they gain power. 

No examination question paper is going to base questions on these documents. However, if you are an economics student taking exams in 2025 and beyond this doesn’t mean that you can’t make reference to what the various parties proposed. You can use these proposals to link your study of economics to the real world. 

Think about some of the topics you have studied or are about to study and how you might be able to make reference to one or other of the manifestos to illustrate your coverage of economic theory. It doesn’t matter that you may be sitting your exam in a year or two years time. The relevance of them to economic and political debate will remain for some time – no doubt to the next election!

Examples

1. Merit goods such as education and healthcare. Think about diagrams representing marginal private and social benefit to illustrate the impact of these merit goods. Scan the manifestos. 

• The Labour Party refers to building an NHS for the future. 
• The Conservative Party manifesto promises funding for 100,000 apprentices. 
• The Green Party wants to build a healthier country with a ‘properly funded health-care system’.

The Education Policy Institute analysed the manifesto pledges for education.

The King’s Fund analysed the health and care manifesto pledges of the three largest parties in England.

2. Environmental economics – Think about the diagrams representing marginal private and social cost. Take a look at what the parties are saying about further promotion of ‘green’ economics. 

• The Labour Party looks forward to the UK becoming a clean energy superpower. 
• The Liberal Democrats refer to investment in green infrastructure and a Home Energy upgrade programme. 
• The Green Party wants to see ‘greener’ homes for all and a ‘greener’ economy. 

Greenpeace took a look at which party’s manifesto is best on environmental issues.

3. Supply-side economics – Sustained growth is what most political parties wish to achieve. This is more likely if sufficient attention is given to supply-side economics. These are the policies which improve the performance of the economy over the long term. 

• The Reform Party would end ‘immediate access’ to welfare benefits to encourage work ethic.
• The Liberal Democrats wish to incentivise business to invest and create jobs.
• The Labour Party has a plan to ‘make work pay’.
• The Conservative Party wishes to cut taxes for workers and offer more generous childcare to parents.
• The Green Party pledges a rise in the national minimum wage to £15 per hour in order to encourage work ethic.

The BBC have looked at the promises made by individual parties.

Refer to the real world

I’m sure you’ve got the message. A good economics examination candidate will be looking for opportunities to refer to the real world. 

Whatever you think of politics, the various political parties are keen to show the significance of their policies to the real economy. You should show that same enthusiasm in the way that you respond to your economics examination questions.

 

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If you are an A level Economics student, here are some suggestions from Roy that you can think about in relation to the party manifestos:

1. UK labour productivity performance is very weak. Some supply-side policies are designed to bring improvements. What is a concise definition of labour productivity? How would you use an AD/AS diagram to show improvements in labour productivity?

2. How would you use a marginal analysis diagram to illustrate the potential beneficial impact of the parties’ policies on health-care?

3. Take a look at the party manifestos and see if you can identify three policies which would potentially have an impact on aggregate demand in the UK economy.

 

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