VCE Vault

VCE Economics past exams 2023–2025

Every question from the last three VCE Economics exams, matched to the lesson that teaches it, with class averages from the examiners' reports and worked solutions. VCE Economics (Year 12) lessons.

2025 Exam

  • MC 1 (1 mark, class average 92%): The central question economics deals with. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • MC 2 (1 mark, class average 79%): Pick the description of allocative efficiency. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • MC 3 (1 mark, class average 75%): What makes price elasticity of demand greater. Lesson: Price Elasticity of Demand and Supply
  • MC 4 (1 mark, class average 64%): What explains a price rise shown as a movement up a supply curve. Lesson: The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • MC 5 (1 mark, class average 68%): Compare unemployment rates from employment and labour force figures. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate
  • MC 6 (1 mark, class average 65%): Which factor is not an aggregate supply factor. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Factors, Aggregate Demand Factors
  • MC 7 (1 mark, class average 77%): Pick the description of a regressive tax. Lesson: Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Equity in Income Distribution
  • MC 8 (1 mark, class average 80%): Pick the example of an automatic stabiliser. Lesson: Automatic vs Discretionary Stabilisers
  • MC 9 (1 mark, class average 63%): Likely result of higher interest rates combined with cuts to government spending. Lesson: Policy Mix — Coordinating Monetary, Fiscal and Supply, Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate, Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance
  • MC 10 (1 mark, class average 52%): Effects of boosting demand when the economy is close to full capacity. Lesson: Aggregate Demand Factors, The Business Cycle
  • MC 11 (1 mark, class average 80%): Which change would most likely make the Australian dollar appreciate. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate
  • MC 12 (1 mark, class average 76%): How speculators influence the exchange rate. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate
  • MC 13 (1 mark, class average 93%): What net foreign debt is made up of. Lesson: External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • MC 14 (1 mark, class average 43%): Calculate a terms of trade index from export and import price indexes. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • MC 15 (1 mark, class average 90%): Effect of lower tariffs on the price and quantity of imports. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity
  • Q1a (2 marks, class average 70%): Outline the features of a public good. Lesson: Market Failure — Externalities, Public Goods, Asymmetric Info
  • Q1b (3 marks, class average 47%): With an example, explain how the government directly providing something can fix a market failure. Lesson: Market Failure — Externalities, Public Goods, Asymmetric Info
  • Q2a (3 marks, class average 67%): Use one demand factor and one supply factor to explain the shift in the world coffee market. Lesson: The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • Q2b (3 marks, class average 43%): Why the price elasticity of supply of coffee beans changes over time. Lesson: Price Elasticity of Demand and Supply
  • Q3a (2 marks, class average 75%): What "strong" and "sustainable" each mean in the economic growth goal. Lesson: Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth
  • Q3b (3 marks, class average 57%): Why imports are subtracted when adding up aggregate demand. Lesson: Aggregate Demand Factors
  • Q3c (3 marks, class average 73%): How severe weather in 2025 made low and stable inflation harder to reach through cost inflation. Lesson: Price Stability and Inflation, Aggregate Supply Factors
  • Q3d (6 marks, class average 55%): Evaluate how far full employment was achieved over two years and the effect on living standards. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate, Living Standards — Material and Non-material
  • Q4a (2 marks, class average 65%): Define the terms of trade. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • Q4b (2 marks, class average 50%): One factor that could explain the small rise in the terms of trade in late 2024. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate
  • Q4c (3 marks, class average 43%): One way the rise in the terms of trade could affect low and stable inflation. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, Price Stability and Inflation
  • Q4d (5 marks, class average 48%): Short-term and long-term effects on Australian resource allocation of US tariffs on our exports. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity, Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • Q5a (2 marks, class average 60%): One weakness of monetary policy, apart from being blunt, in achieving sustainable growth. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate
  • Q5b (5 marks, class average 60%): The RBA's stance over two years and its effect on full employment and living standards. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate, Full Employment and the Natural Rate, Living Standards — Material and Non-material
  • Q6a (2 marks, class average 45%): Why the 2025-26 deficit might end up smaller than the budget's \$42.1 billion estimate. Lesson: Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Automatic vs Discretionary Stabilisers
  • Q6b (4 marks, class average 63%): Predict how one 2025-26 Budget measure will affect strong and sustainable growth. Lesson: Automatic vs Discretionary Stabilisers, Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth
  • Q6c (6 marks, class average 38%): Strengths and weaknesses of monetary and budgetary policy for inflation when the world is uncertain. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate, Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Policy Mix — Coordinating Monetary, Fiscal and Supply, Price Stability and Inflation
  • Q7a (5 marks, class average 58%): Analyse how capped but still skilled-focused immigration affects aggregate supply and inflation. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity, Aggregate Supply Factors, Price Stability and Inflation
  • Q7b (4 marks, class average 63%): Short-run and long-run effects of a carbon-pricing style policy on balancing resource use now and later. Lesson: Market Failure — Externalities, Public Goods, Asymmetric Info, Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency, Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity

2024 Exam

  • MC 1 (1 mark): Classify the sunlight and rain a wheat crop relies on. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • MC 2 (1 mark, class average 65%): How the opportunity cost of coffee changes along a bowed-out PPF. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • MC 3 (1 mark, class average 55%): Which change shifts the demand curve for a good to the right. Lesson: The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • MC 4 (1 mark, class average 96%): Which change is most likely to increase aggregate demand. Lesson: Aggregate Demand Factors
  • MC 5 (1 mark, class average 56%): What happened to the relative price of milk when its price was steady but coffee rose. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency, The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • MC 6 (1 mark, class average 90%): Pick the pair of features that both belong to an expansion. Lesson: The Business Cycle
  • MC 7 (1 mark, class average 64%): Calculate the annual inflation rate from quarterly CPI index numbers. Lesson: Price Stability and Inflation
  • MC 8 (1 mark, class average 80%): Effect of a fall in supply when demand is relatively inelastic. Lesson: Price Elasticity of Demand and Supply, The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • MC 9 (1 mark, class average 66%): Effect of a price ceiling below equilibrium on the amount of rice available. Lesson: Market Failure — Externalities, Public Goods, Asymmetric Info, The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • MC 10 (1 mark, class average 74%): Which change is unlikely to add to cost inflation in the short term. Lesson: Price Stability and Inflation
  • MC 11 (1 mark, class average 69%): Calculate the unemployment rate from labour force data. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate
  • MC 12 (1 mark, class average 90%): What aggregate supply policies are designed to do. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity
  • MC 13 (1 mark, class average 85%): Which change will not slow labour productivity. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Factors, Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity
  • MC 14 (1 mark, class average 77%): Calculate the terms of trade index and its trend from price indexes. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • MC 15 (1 mark, class average 86%): Which change most likely improves Australia's international competitiveness. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate
  • Q1 (3 marks, class average 70%): Outline how relative scarcity and opportunity cost are connected. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • Q2a (4 marks, class average 70%): Diagram: how net overseas migration in 2023-24 affects the labour market. Lesson: The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium, Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity
  • Q2b (3 marks, class average 63%): Use demand and supply to show how migration affects the housing market. Lesson: The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • Q2c (4 marks, class average 70%): Effect of a skilled-migrant focus on capacity, sustainable growth and non-material living standards. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity, Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth, Living Standards — Material and Non-material
  • Q3a (2 marks, class average 90%): Describe the trend in long-term unemployment from January 2022 using the graph. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate
  • Q3b (3 marks, class average 43%): Tell hidden unemployment apart from long-term unemployment. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate
  • Q3c (3 marks, class average 67%): One consequence of missing full employment and how it affects material living standards. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate, Living Standards — Material and Non-material
  • Q4a (2 marks, class average 65%): Describe the NAIRU. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate
  • Q4b (2 marks, class average 65%): How one supply-side factor has made the inflation target harder or easier to hit recently. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Factors, Price Stability and Inflation
  • Q4c (5 marks): How the current monetary policy stance works through one channel to bring inflation down. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate, Price Stability and Inflation
  • Q4d (6 marks, class average 57%): Evaluate how well Australia met the inflation and full employment goals over two years. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate, Price Stability and Inflation, Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate
  • Q5a (2 marks, class average 35%): How one structural factor helped turn the current account from surplus to deficit in 2023. Lesson: External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • Q5b (2 marks, class average 35%): How a foreign purchase of an Australian cotton farm shows up in the balance of payments. Lesson: External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • Q5c (2 marks, class average 70%): How one listed factor would affect the Australian dollar. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate
  • Q5d (4 marks, class average 57%): Discuss how effective trade liberalisation is in achieving strong and sustainable growth. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity, Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth
  • Q6a (3 marks, class average 60%): Identify the 2024-25 budget stance and one reason for choosing it. Lesson: Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance
  • Q6b (4 marks, class average 55%): How one automatic and one discretionary stabiliser changed the budget outcome in the past two years. Lesson: Automatic vs Discretionary Stabilisers, Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance
  • Q6c (2 marks, class average 65%): One way to fund a budget deficit or use a surplus. Lesson: Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance
  • Q6d (4 marks, class average 50%): One strength each of monetary and budgetary policy in influencing growth over two years. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate, Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth
  • Q6e (5 marks, class average 66%): How one listed budgetary policy affects aggregate supply, competitiveness and full employment. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity, Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, Full Employment and the Natural Rate

2023 Exam

  • MC 1 (1 mark): Opportunity cost of leaving a salaried job to run your own business. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • MC 2 (1 mark, class average 47%): Which effect would not follow from inflation of 7.8%. Lesson: Price Stability and Inflation
  • MC 3 (1 mark, class average 40%): Classify government spending items as current spending, capital spending or transfers. Lesson: Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Aggregate Demand Factors
  • MC 4 (1 mark, class average 68%): Spot the option that is a weakness, not a strength, of using monetary policy to cool demand. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate
  • MC 5 (1 mark, class average 23%): Which change is least likely to reduce aggregate supply. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Factors
  • MC 6 (1 mark, class average 43%): Calculate the labour force underutilisation rate from hypothetical data. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate
  • MC 7 (1 mark, class average 47%): Where dividends earned by Australians on foreign shares go in the balance of payments. Lesson: External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • MC 8 (1 mark, class average 45%): Which event is least likely to cause cyclical unemployment. Lesson: Full Employment and the Natural Rate, The Business Cycle
  • MC 9 (1 mark, class average 78%): Pick the example of an automatic stabiliser. Lesson: Automatic vs Discretionary Stabilisers
  • MC 10 (1 mark, class average 70%): What would make the price elasticity of supply of avocados rise. Lesson: Price Elasticity of Demand and Supply
  • MC 11 (1 mark, class average 28%): Identify a cyclical factor that would worsen the current account balance. Lesson: External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • MC 12 (1 mark, class average 51%): Which event would make Australia's terms of trade deteriorate. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • MC 13 (1 mark, class average 62%): Least likely result of moving from inside the PPF out to the frontier. Lesson: Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency
  • MC 14 (1 mark, class average 83%): Which outcome does not usually come with productivity growth. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Factors, Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity
  • MC 15 (1 mark, class average 71%): The rivalry and excludability of common access resources. Lesson: Market Failure — Externalities, Public Goods, Asymmetric Info
  • Q1a (2 marks, class average 70%): Name the business cycle stage in late 2023, backed by an indicator. Lesson: The Business Cycle
  • Q1b (4 marks, class average 60%): How one demand factor and one supply factor drove the 2023 business cycle. Lesson: Aggregate Demand Factors, Aggregate Supply Factors, The Business Cycle
  • Q1c (4 marks, class average 63%): Two consequences of missing the goal of strong and sustainable growth. Lesson: Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth
  • Q1d (2 marks, class average 55%): Why underlying inflation can differ from headline inflation. Lesson: Price Stability and Inflation
  • Q2a (4 marks, class average 57%): How falling car tariffs from 1990 shifted resources and changed living standards. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity, Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate
  • Q2b (2 marks, class average 55%): One factor behind the Australian dollar's fall against the US dollar from 2022. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, External Stability — CAD, NFD and Exchange Rate
  • Q2c (4 marks, class average 55%): How the AUD's depreciation from 2022 affected one macroeconomic goal and living standards. Lesson: Trade, Globalisation and the Exchange Rate, Full Employment and the Natural Rate, Living Standards — Material and Non-material
  • Q3a (3 marks, class average 60%): Link the change in the budget outcome since 2021-22 to the level of public debt. Lesson: Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance
  • Q3b (6 marks, class average 45%): How unemployment and inflation in 2023 shaped monetary and budgetary policy stances. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate, Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Full Employment and the Natural Rate, Price Stability and Inflation
  • Q3c (4 marks, class average 55%): Predict the effect of one 2023-24 Budget measure on growth and living standards. Lesson: Automatic vs Discretionary Stabilisers, Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Strong and Sustainable Economic Growth, Living Standards — Material and Non-material
  • Q3d (3 marks, class average 57%): One weakness of budgetary policy when trying to slow demand and inflation. Lesson: Budgetary (Fiscal) Policy — Revenue, Expenditure and Stance, Policy Mix — Coordinating Monetary, Fiscal and Supply
  • Q4a (4 marks, class average 60%): Two non-price factors that could explain falling house prices. Lesson: The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • Q4b (4 marks, class average 48%): Diagram: a non-price factor that causes a contraction along the demand curve for new houses. Lesson: The Market — Demand, Supply and Equilibrium
  • Q4c (3 marks, class average 50%): Explain one market failure linked to building new housing. Lesson: Market Failure — Externalities, Public Goods, Asymmetric Info
  • Q4d (4 marks, class average 45%): Use the asset prices and wealth channel to link falling house prices to AD and full employment. Lesson: Monetary Policy — RBA and the Cash Rate, Full Employment and the Natural Rate
  • Q5a (3 marks, class average 43%): How AS policies complement AD policies to give non-inflationary growth. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity, Policy Mix — Coordinating Monetary, Fiscal and Supply
  • Q5b (4 marks, class average 63%): How more skilled migration affects productivity and international competitiveness. Lesson: Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity
  • Q5c (5 marks, class average 58%): A market-based environmental policy and its effect on intertemporal efficiency and living standards. Lesson: Market Failure — Externalities, Public Goods, Asymmetric Info, Relative Scarcity and Allocative Efficiency, Aggregate Supply Policies — Microeconomic Reform and Productivity