Establishing that the economic problem creates three key questions about determining resource allocation – what to produce, how, and for whom.

The implications of misallocation of resources in respect of the over consumption of demerit goods and goods with external costs, and the under consumption of merit goods and goods with external benefits.

The nature and causes of changes in the pattern of employment, for example increase in proportion of workers employed in the tertiary sector and formal economy as an economy develops; a greater proportion of women in the labour force due to changes in social attitudes; decline in the proportion employed in the public sector as a country moves towards a market economy.