An AI economics tutor for diagrams, calculations and essays

A café raises the price of a coffee from $2.00 to $2.50. The number sold each week falls from 400 to 340. Calculate the price elasticity of demand and say what happens to the café's revenue.

1. Percentage change in price: $\dfrac{2.50 - 2.00}{2.00} \times 100 = 25\%$.
2. Percentage change in quantity demanded: $\dfrac{340 - 400}{400} \times 100 = -15\%$.
3. Elasticity: $\text{PED} = \dfrac{-15\%}{25\%} = -0.6$.
4. Interpret it: the size of the value is less than 1, so demand is price inelastic: quantity falls by proportionally less than the price rises.
5. Check with revenue: before, $2.00 \times 400 = 800$; after, $2.50 \times 340 = 850$. Revenue rises by $50, which is what inelastic demand predicts when the price goes up.

In a session the tutor asks you for each step, and finishes with a "why" question: why might demand for coffee at this café be inelastic?

Many marks in economics come from diagrams. The tutor helps you work out:

• Which curve moves. A change in price is a movement along the demand curve; a change in income, tastes or the price of a related good shifts it.
• Which direction. A new tax on producers shifts supply to the left; a subsidy shifts it to the right.
• What happens next. The new equilibrium price and quantity, and who gains or loses.

Draw your diagram on the whiteboard and ask the tutor to check it: it reads your labels and points to anything missing, such as unlabelled axes or an equilibrium you haven't marked.

Economics essays reward a chain of reasoning ("this causes that, which leads to...") and a balanced judgement. The tutor helps you:

1. Understand exactly what the question asks.
2. Build a chain of analysis for each point, linked to a diagram where useful.
3. Evaluate: on what does the answer depend? Short run or long run? Which groups are affected?
4. Reach a justified conclusion.

Paste your draft for specific feedback on each paragraph. It won't write graded work for you; see the AI writing tutor for how essay feedback works.

• Markets: supply and demand, elasticity, consumer and producer surplus, price controls.
• Market failure: externalities, public goods, information problems, government intervention.
• Firms: costs, revenue and profit, market structures, competition.
• Macroeconomics: GDP and growth, inflation, unemployment, fiscal and monetary policy, exchange rates and trade.
• Business: finance and cash flow, marketing, break-even analysis, business objectives.

Courses differ in content and terminology, so tell the tutor what your course covers. We don't claim to cover any exam board's full specification.

Good economics answers use relevant examples. The tutor can help you think of ways an idea applies, such as why concert tickets sell out at the listed price, or how a sugar tax is meant to change behaviour. It won't invent statistics: for current data such as inflation or interest rates, check an official source (your central bank or national statistics office) because figures change.