ASRJC H2 Prelim 2024 P1

1 © ASRJC Economics Department 9570 / JC2 Prelim / 2024 H2 Economics ASRJC Preliminary Examination 2024 Suggested Answers and Markers’ Comments Question 1: Impacts of the Electric Vehicle Industry a With reference to Figure 1, compare consumer and government spending on electric cars between 2016 to 2021. [2] Similarity: Both increased between 2016 to 2021. Difference: Consumer spending is always higher or increased by a larger extent than government spending on electric cars between 2016 to 2021. Marker’s comments • Most students could score for this question. • Students should take note to take the most obvious trend over the entire period, where possible. In this case, there are two obvious overall trends. Hence, students should not take the data for split years. • Some students were still reporting data, instead of showing intepretation such as using comparative words to show similarity or difference. b Explain two reasons why electric vehicle charging points are not public goods. [4] Public goods are defined by its two key characteristics of non -excludability and non - rivalrous in consumption. In addition, once provided, an additional trait is that it cannot be rejected by the consumers, which means it is also non-rejectable. Charging points are not considered a s public good because they are rivalrous in consumption. This means that the benefits will be depleted by additional users. When one driver uses one charging point, it will not be available for charging for the other user and he will have to queue for it , thus making the usage of charging point rivalrous in consumption. Charging points are not considered as public goods because they are excludable in consumption. This means that non -payers can be excluded from using the charging points as users will have to pay a fee to operate the charging points such as having security feature in the device to only allow usage upon payment/ easy to set up payment mode to prevent non-payers from using the charging points. Charging points are not considered as public goods because they are rejectable in consumption. This means that consumers can choose not to consume it once it has been produced. It is possible for consumers to reject the benefits of charging points (i.e. benefits of driving a fully powered electric vehicles) that have been provided for as they have the right to reject, subject to taste and preferences. For example, they can choose not to use it and use petrol for the ICE cars if they prefer. Hence, charging points are not public good. Marker’s comments • Most students could score at least 2m for this question. Instead of just stating the definition of characteristics in context, students should continue to elaborate how it coud be applied to the context.

2 © ASRJC Economics Department 9570 / JC2 Prelim / 2024 • Many students wrote that the characteristics were “not non -excludable” w