DSE Economics Syllabus: Topics, Papers & 2028 Changes

Economics is one of the elective subjects in the three-year senior secondary curriculum and belongs to the Personal, Social and Humanities Education (PSHE) key learning area. It builds on the concepts students meet in junior secondary schooling — especially the strand “Resources and Economic Activities” — and reorganises the content of the Economics (Secondary 4–5) curriculum implemented in 2003, strengthening its depth and breadth so that students can apply economic analysis to real situations.

The structure has two parts: the compulsory part covers basic concepts, microeconomics and macroeconomics; the elective part offers two units, of which students choose one, taking up about 10% of curriculum time. The elective units include both broadening work and topics for deeper investigation, allowing students to select according to their ability and interest. The curriculum aims to develop students’ interest in investigating human behaviour and social issues from an economic perspective, and to help them reason and make rational choices through economic analysis.

On learning outcomes, the curriculum document states that students should understand that scarcity, choice and cost are the foundation of economic problems; understand the relationship between productivity growth, specialisation and exchange; apply the basic demand–supply model fluently to explain phenomena and use consumer surplus and producer surplus to learn the concept of efficiency; and use the aggregate supply–aggregate demand model and the quantity theory of money to explain changes in output, employment and the general price level. These abilities are what make Economics distinctive among senior secondary subjects.

The DSE Economics syllabus does not train memorisation — it trains an analytical language for explaining the real world. Seeing the news, government policy and even your own choices through scarcity, cost and incentives is a perspective few other subjects give you.

The compulsory part carries a suggested 216 hours in total, of which the five microeconomics topics (A to E) take about 100 hours. The topics below follow the curriculum document’s numbering, learning focuses and suggested lesson times (the hours are the EDB’s planning reference; schools may allocate them flexibly):

The five macroeconomics topics (F to J) take about 94 hours and form the second half of the compulsory part. The curriculum document suggests introducing macro topics in the later part of Secondary 4 or in Secondary 5, starting with the measurement of GDP and aggregate supply–aggregate demand analysis, before returning to the more analytical micro topics such as efficiency.

The elective part extends certain compulsory topics to broaden students’ economic knowledge. The curriculum document suggests teaching it in Secondary 6, with a suggested 22 hours and about 10% of curriculum time. Students choose one unit according to interest and ability: those drawn to firms’ pricing strategies can take Unit 1, while those interested in macroeconomic performance and economic growth can take Unit 2.

There is no School-based Assessment (SBA) in Economics: 100% of the mark comes from the public examination, which consists of Paper 1 and Paper 2. Below is the latest assessment framework published by the HKEAA (2026 HKDSE):

Note the weight of Paper 2: candidates must complete Parts A, B and C within 2 hours 30 minutes, and Part B’s structured and essay questions alone carry 35% — the centre of gravity of the whole paper, and the battlefield for diagram-and-explain technique. There are seven assessment objectives, covering knowledge and understanding of basic economic concepts and theories; applying concepts to real situations (especially the Hong Kong economy); understanding and interpreting economic information in various forms; mastering the basic tools of economic analysis; analysing economic issues; evaluating arguments, proposals and policies from different perspectives and making informed judgements; and finally presenting views clearly and logically with the support of diagrams and examples.

In July 2025 the Education Bureau published the updated Economics Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4–6) and a supplementary document setting out optimisation measures for senior secondary Economics. They have been implemented from Secondary 4 in the 2025/26 school year, and therefore apply to the 2028 HKDSE and beyond. Students and parents planning subject choices should note three changes:

• Students may opt out of the elective part — the updated curriculum document states under its guiding principles that schools should allow students to choose not to take the elective part and focus on the compulsory part; students who perform well may still reach Level 5 in the HKDSE. Candidates sitting the 2026 and 2027 HKDSE still answer the elective part under the existing arrangement.
• Paper 2 Part C gains weighting, Part B is adjusted — the elective part rises from 9% to 11% of the total subject mark, while Paper 2 Part B moves from 35% to 33%; Paper 2 Part A stays at 26%, and Paper 1 keeps its 30% and its time allocation.
• Content slightly enriched and teaching examples updated — the monopoly pricing section of Elective Unit 1 adds a learning point on situations where a monopoly may bring benefits to society, and several teaching examples are updated — for instance, comparing the prices of soft drinks or snacks at a sports centre and a supermarket instead of comparing newspaper prices, to illustrate the availability of substitutes and the price elasticity of demand.

Of the three changes, the first matters most to students: although the elective part takes only about a tenth of curriculum time, it is where many candidates lift their grade. A student who opts out must be genuinely solid across the compulsory part to have a chance of Level 5 or above. Schools plan their curriculum according to their own circumstances and students’ preferences, so the actual arrangement is the one the school announces.

Economics grades are rarely separated by how many theories a student has memorised, but by whether the diagram and conditions of one topic can be transferred accurately to an unfamiliar situation — and that transfer ability is only built by drawing diagrams by hand and explaining them aloud, again and again.

• Drill every topic with a concept–diagram–application routine — first write down the definitions and conditions of the topic, then draw the matching diagram by hand (demand and supply, AD–AS, monopoly pricing), and finally explain it with a real Hong Kong example. Only when all three can be produced from memory has the topic really been mastered.
• Draw the diagrams yourself, don’t just read them — Paper 2 Part B expects candidates to draw their own curves and mark the change in equilibrium. Do a timed blank-paper drawing for each chapter, labelling axes, curves and the direction of shift; slow drawing or missing labels is where marks are lost.
• Keep Hong Kong current affairs as an example bank — the February Budget covers taxation and public expenditure; Competition Commission cases map onto Elective Unit 1; news about the linked exchange rate and interest rates is the best teaching material for money and banking. Cutting out and labelling news against topics gives you ready examples under exam pressure.
• Practise Paper 1 as a timed 45-question run — Paper 1 allows 1 hour, roughly 1 minute 20 seconds per question. Do one full timed paper a week; skip the hardest numerical items (elasticity, tax burden shares) and return to them, rather than losing the marks at the end of the paper to one difficult question.
• Keep an error logbook sorted by topic — file mistakes under topics A to J with the cause (concept confusion, drawing error, calculation slip) and the correct approach. Redoing only the wrong items is far more efficient than redoing whole papers.
• Decide on the elective unit before Secondary 6 — the curriculum document suggests teaching the elective in Secondary 6. If pricing strategy appeals, Unit 1 (monopoly pricing and competition policy) links smoothly with the micro topics; if you are stronger in macro analysis, Unit 2 (trade theory, growth and development) echoes the international trade topic.

• Official Resources — the Education Bureau’s Personal, Social and Humanities Education key learning area pages carry the Economics Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4–6) (prepared in 2007, updated in 2015 and 2025) and its supplementary document; the HKEAA website carries the Economics assessment framework, sample papers and marking schemes. Parents and students should treat the official documents as the final authority (EDB curriculum documents).
• Further Reading — beyond the school textbook, work topic by topic with the EDB resource packages (for example “International trade and finance”, “National income determination and price level: the AS–AD model” and “Elective Unit 1: the Hong Kong Competition Ordinance”). For the home and online tuition arrangements for this subject, see the DSE Economics tutoring guide; to compare other senior secondary electives, see the DSE Maths tutoring guide, and families planning overseas study can compare the IB Economics syllabus guide and the IGCSE Chemistry syllabus guide.
• Parent Tips — Economics has one great advantage: teaching material is everywhere in daily life. Watch a financial news item or Budget report together and ask your child to explain it back with a demand and supply diagram or the redistribution effect of inflation; you will soon see whether the understanding is real. Before subject selection, also review the school’s curriculum plan with your child — especially how the elective part is arranged — so the Secondary 6 workload is planned early.

Note: The information above is for reference only. Please consult professional education institutions for details.

This article was initially drafted and organised with AI. Editor / Professor Chan Kwok-wai; Managing Editor / Kong Yee-leung