Recommend in IB Economics

What your response needs

Recommendation → applied mechanism → alternative/trade-off → defended policy package.

• One clear and feasible course of action
• Economic reasoning applied to the supplied context
• Comparison with the strongest alternative or trade-off
• A defended explanation of why the recommendation fits best

A worked economics example

Question: Recommend a policy to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic bags.

An incomplete response: The government should ban plastic bags.

A more complete response:

Introduce a sufficiently large per-bag charge so consumers face more of the external cost.

Combine the charge with information and accessible reusable substitutes, because demand may be unresponsive to a very small charge.

This is more flexible than an immediate ban while revenue can support waste management.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Offering several policies without selecting one
• Repeating benefits without explaining why the policy fits the case

Try it yourself

Read the question and its mark allocation before deciding how much detail to include. A response structure helps you organise your answer; it is not a script to memorise.

Practise recommend · choose a unit and paper

Compare command terms and assessment objectives · Using Econograms in class

More command term guides

About this guidance

These explanations and examples are original Econograms study guidance. They are not official IB questions or markschemes, and Econograms is not endorsed by the International Baccalaureate. Follow the wording and requirements of the question set by your teacher or examination.