Economics

This page contains the CBSE Class 11 Economics syllabus for the academic session 2026-27, as prescribed by CBSE curriculum.

Economics is one of the social sciences, which has great influence on every human being. As economic life and the economy go through changes, the need to ground education in children’s own experience becomes essential. While doing so, it is imperative to provide them opportunities to acquire analytical skills to observe and understand the economic realities.

At senior secondary stage, the learners are in a position to understand abstract ideas, exercise the power of thinking and to develop their own perception. It is at this stage, the learners are exposed to the rigour of the discipline of economics in a systematic way.

The economics courses are introduced in such a way that in the initial stage, the learners are introduced to the economic realities that the nation is facing today along with some basic statistical tools to understand these broader economic realities. In the later stage, the learners are introduced to economics as a theory of abstraction. The economics courses also contain many projects and activities. These will provide opportunities for the learners to explore various economic issues both from their day-to-day life and also from issues, which are broader and invisible in nature. The academic skills that they learn in these courses would help to develop the projects and activities. The syllabus is also expected to provide opportunities to use information and communication technologies to facilitate their learning process.

In this course, the learners are expected to acquire skills in collection, organisation and presentation of quantitative and qualitative information pertaining to various simple economic aspects systematically. It also intends to provide some basic statistical tools to analyse, and interpret any economic information and draw appropriate inferences. In this process, the learners are also expected to understand the behaviour of various economic data.

What is Economics?

Meaning, scope, functions and importance of statistics in Economics

Collection of data – sources of data – primary and secondary; how basic data is collected with concepts of Sampling; methods of collecting data; some important sources of secondary data: Census of India and National Sample Survey Organisation.

Organisation of Data: Meaning and types of variables; Frequency Distribution.

Presentation of Data: Tabular Presentation and Diagrammatic Presentation of Data: (i) Geometric forms (bar diagrams and pie diagrams), (ii) Frequency diagrams (histogram, polygon and Ogive) and (iii) Arithmetic line graphs (time series graph).

For all the numerical problems and solutions, the appropriate economic interpretation may be attempted. This means, the students need to solve the problems and provide interpretation for the results derived.

Measures of Central Tendency- Arithmetic mean, Median and Mode

Correlation – meaning and properties, scatter diagram; measures of correlation – Karl Pearson’s method (two variables ungrouped data) Spearman’s rank correlation (Non-Repeated Ranks and Repeated Ranks).

Introduction to Index Numbers – meaning, types – Wholesale Price Index, Consumer Price Index and index of industrial production, uses of index numbers; Inflation and Index Numbers, Simple Aggregative Method.

Meaning of microeconomics and macroeconomics; positive and normative economics

What is an economy? Central problems of an economy: what, how and for whom to produce; concepts of Production Possibility Frontier and Opportunity Cost.

Consumer’s equilibrium – meaning of Utility, Marginal Utility, Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, conditions of consumer’s equilibrium using marginal utility analysis.

Indifference curve analysis of consumer’s equilibrium-the consumer’s budget (budget set and budget line), preferences of the consumer (indifference curve, indifference map) and conditions of consumer’s equilibrium.

Demand, market demand, determinants of demand, demand schedule, demand curve and its slope, movement along and shifts in the demand curve; price elasticity of demand – factors affecting price elasticity of demand; measurement of price elasticity of demand – percentage-change method and total expenditure method.

Meaning of Production Function – Short-Run and Long-Run

Total Product, Average Product and Marginal Product.

Returns to a Factor

Cost – Short run costs – Total Cost, Total Fixed Cost, Total Variable Cost; Average Cost; Average Fixed Cost, Average Variable Cost and Marginal Cost – meaning and their relationships.

Revenue – Total Revenue, Average Revenue and Marginal Revenue – meaning and their relationship.

Producer’s Equilibrium – meaning and its conditions in terms of Marginal Revenue- Marginal Cost.

Supply, market supply, determinants of supply, supply schedule, supply curve and its slope, movements along and shifts in supply curve, price elasticity of supply; measurement of price elasticity of supply – percentage-change method.

Perfect competition – Features; Determination of market equilibrium and effects of shifts in demand and supply. (Short Run Only)

Simple Applications of Demand and Supply: Price ceiling, Price floor.

The objectives of the project work are to enable learners to:

The expectations of the project work are that:

The teacher plays a critical role in developing thinking skills of the learners. A teacher should:

Learners may work upon the following lines as a suggested flow chart:

At the end of the stipulated term, each learner will present the research work in the Project File to the External and Internal examiner. The questions should be asked from the Research Work/ Project File of the learner. The Internal Examiner should ensure that the study submitted by the learner is his/her own original work. In case of any doubt, authenticity should be checked and verified.

Marks are suggested to be given as –