IB Economics IA Ideas — Article & Commentary Topics

This post is about choosing topics. For how to actually write and structure each commentary against the rubric, see the IB Economics IA guide.

• is based on a different news article, published recently (roughly within the last year), from a news source — not a blog, not a textbook, not a Wikipedia summary
• covers a different section of the syllabus: one microeconomics, one macroeconomics, one the global economy
• applies an economic concept and diagram to the article, then evaluates the policy or event

So "ideas" for the IA really means two things at once: a usable article and the diagram/concept you will attach to it. The full mechanics — rubric criteria, word count, key-term definitions, structure — are covered in the IB Economics IA guide.

• Recent — published within about a year of when you write. Older articles risk being ruled out and often describe a policy that has already been analysed to death.
• A real policy or event — a government, central bank, or firm actually did something: raised a tax, changed rates, imposed a tariff. Concrete events give you something to analyse.
• One clear diagram — you should be able to name the single diagram the article calls for before you start writing. One well-explained diagram beats three half-drawn ones.
• Room to evaluate — there are winners and losers, short-run versus long-run effects, or a debate about whether the policy works. If everyone agrees, there is nothing to judge.

Practical habit: bank articles weekly as you go, jotting the diagram you would draw next to each link. By the time you write, you will have a shortlist instead of a panic.

Microeconomics

• A sugar, plastic, or tobacco tax → indirect tax on a demerit good; draw the supply shift with the tax wedge and shade the welfare loss / change in consumer and producer surplus.
• A minimum-wage rise → a price floor in the labour market; show the floor above equilibrium and the potential surplus of labour (unemployment).
• A rent cap or rent freeze → a price ceiling; show the ceiling below equilibrium and the resulting shortage of housing.
• A subsidy for EVs, solar panels, or farming → a subsidy diagram; show the supply shift, the change in price and quantity, and the government cost.
• A merger, cartel fine, or dominant-firm story → market power; a monopoly/imperfect-competition diagram, or a discussion of barriers to entry and consumer harm.
• A congestion charge or carbon price → a negative externality of consumption/production; show the divergence between private and social cost or benefit and the welfare loss.

Macroeconomics

• A central-bank interest-rate decision → monetary policy; show the effect on AD via investment and consumption, and the movement along AD/AS.
• A government budget, stimulus package, or spending cut → fiscal policy; an AD shift, with a note on the multiplier and the trade-off with the deficit.
• An unemployment or inflation report → AD/AS; use it to explain demand-pull versus cost-push inflation, or a deflationary/inflationary gap.
• A minimum-wage or benefits change viewed nationally → the macro side: effects on aggregate demand, cost-push pressure, and employment.
• A growth-forecast downgrade or recession warning → the business cycle and an AD/AS treatment of a slowdown.

The global economy

• A tariff or trade-war story → protectionism; draw the tariff diagram and identify the effects on domestic producers, consumers, government revenue, and welfare loss.
• A currency's sharp rise or fall → exchange rates; explain appreciation/depreciation on a forex demand-and-supply diagram and the impact on exports and imports.
• A new trade agreement or bloc expansion → gains from trade; discuss comparative advantage, trade creation, and trade diversion.
• An aid package, debt-relief deal, or development report → economic development; barriers to development, the role of aid, and its limitations.
• An FDI or export-led-growth story → strategies for growth and development, with their trade-offs.

• Pick your strongest, most diagram-friendly article first, then deliberately fill the two remaining sections.
• Vary the diagrams: a tax wedge, an AD/AS shift, and a tariff diagram show range better than three demand-and-supply sketches.
• Vary the countries or contexts where you can — it signals wider awareness.
• Keep all three articles recent and spread across your course, not scraped together the week before the deadline.

• Too broad. "The state of the global economy" or "why inflation matters" has no single event to analyse and no one diagram. Pick a specific decision.
• Too old. An article from two years ago risks disqualification and usually covers stale policy.
• No diagram. If you cannot name the diagram before writing, the article will fight you the whole way.
• Description, not analysis. A human-interest story with no policy or price mechanism gives you nothing to explain with economics.
• Not a news source. Blogs, textbook extracts, and encyclopaedia entries do not count — it must be journalism about a real event.

1. Name the diagram out loud. If you hesitate, drop the article.
2. Write the one-sentence question the commentary will answer — e.g. "Will the UK's plastic tax reduce packaging waste?" A crisp question forces a crisp diagram.
3. List two evaluation points — a short-run/long-run split, a stakeholder who loses, or an assumption that might not hold. If you cannot find two, the article is too thin.
4. Check the word budget. At ~800 words, a narrow policy beats a sprawling one. Cut the article down to the single decision you will analyse.

How recent must my Economics IA article be?

Can all three commentaries be on the same topic?

No. The three commentaries must cover different sections of the syllabus — one microeconomics, one macroeconomics, and one the global economy — and each uses a different article. Repeating a topic or section defeats the point of the portfolio.

Do I have to use three different diagrams?

There is no rule that the diagrams must all differ, but variety helps you demonstrate range and follows naturally from covering three sections. A tax wedge, an AD/AS shift, and a tariff diagram is a healthy spread.

Can I use an article in a language other than English?

Often yes, if you provide a translation or summary as required — check your school's process. Local-language news can be a great source of specific, less over-used stories.

What if my article covers several policies?

Narrow it. Analyse one decision or effect with one diagram. A commentary that tries to cover everything in the article ends up describing rather than analysing, and blows the word count.