OCR GCSE Economics

## The main economic groups An economy is made up of the people and organisations that make, buy and sell goods and services. Economists sort them into three main groups, sometimes called economic agents. **Consumers** are the people (and households) who use goods and services to meet their wants. They spend their income on products, and they also supply the labour that firms need, so they are on both sides of the economy at once. Their choices about what to buy, and how much to save, shape what is worth producing. **Producers** are the people and organisations that make goods or provide services. They include individuals such as a self-employed plumber, firms of every size, and the government when it provides services such as state schools or the NHS. Producers decide what to make, how much to charge and how many workers to employ, and they aim for different things: a private firm usually wants profit, whereas a public service is set up to provide something people need. The **government** has several roles. It is a producer of services, an employer, a collector of taxes and a spender of the money raised. It also makes laws and regulations that set the rules for markets, and it uses taxes, spending and other policies to pursue aims such as stable prices, jobs and growth. ### Interdependence The three groups depend on each other. Consumers buy what producers make, and the money they spend becomes the producers' revenue. Producers use that revenue to pay wages, which gives…