IA ideas library
Finance and economics IA ideas: loans, savings, inflation and inequality
Money questions are personal, which makes them good for engagement: should you lease or buy, how long will a student loan take to pay off, is saving or investing better? The mathematics — compound interest, annuities, amortisation, geometric series, inequality measures — is squarely in the syllabus, especially for AI.
The trap is producing a worked example from a textbook. Use real current rates, compare realistic scenarios, and reflect on what the model leaves out (inflation, tax, risk, changing rates).
Next step: shortlist ideas with the free IA topic explorer, which filters starting points by course, interest and how easy the data is to get. For feedback on your own draft, the IA package (€39 once) gives you 5 AI feedback credits and every annotated exemplar in full.
How finance explorations reach the top bands
Personal engagement (C)
Use your own real decision: a phone contract, a first car, a loan. Get real prices and terms, and make the assumptions (inflation, interest) yours.
Reflection (D)
Test how sensitive the answer is to the assumptions (rates, time, inflation) and reflect on what the numbers leave out: risk, flexibility, value.
Use of mathematics (E)
SL: Financial mathematics set up from first principles (geometric series, compound interest, annuities), with at least one formula derived rather than only using a solver, and a clear comparison.
HL: Continuous compounding and e, a differential equation for a balance, an optimisation over a rate or term, or a statistical model of prices.
An HL version
Model continuous compounding or a changing interest rate with calculus, or optimise the decision over a variable (term, deposit) analytically.
Finance & economics ideas (11)
- Should I lease or buy my first car?AI SLAI HLSolid
- Will I ever repay my student loan?AI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- Is a longer mortgage ever the better deal?AI SLAI HLAA SLAA HLAccessible
- How much does it cost to start saving ten years later?AI SLAI HLAA SLAA HLAccessible
- Has my pocket money kept up with inflation?AI SLAA SLAI HLAccessible
- Measuring inequality: fitting Lorenz curves and computing the Gini coefficientAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Is the euro–dollar exchange rate a random walk?AI SLAI HLAA HLAmbitious
- Contract or SIM-only? The real cost of a new phoneAI SLAA SLAccessible
- What price maximises profit at our school bake sale?AA SLAI SLAA HLAI HLSolid
- How fast do cars lose value? Modelling depreciation from listingsAI SLAI HLAA SLAccessible
- Where does e come from? Compounding more and more oftenAA SLAA HLSolid
Also relevant (18)
- How much is being near a station worth?AI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- Does money buy a longer life? GDP and life expectancyAI SLAI HLAA SLAA HLSolid
- How many packs does it take to finish a sticker album?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- How many extra tickets should an airline sell?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Is a lottery ticket ever worth buying? Expected value and rolloversAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLAccessible
- Is solar power growing logistically?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- How much does a cold month cost my family?AI SLAI HLAA SLAccessible
- What is the cheapest way to connect villages with fibre broadband?AI HLAI SLSolid
- Will one phone brand take over? Brand loyalty as a Markov chainAI HLSolid
- How many attempts until the rare item? Drop rates and pity systemsAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- What is the cheapest way to hire coaches for a school trip?AA SLAI SLAA HLAI HLAccessible
- The cheapest healthy weekly shop: a linear programming diet problemAI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- How many of each? Planning a charity bake sale with linear programmingAA SLAI SLAccessible
- How few staff can a café roster? An integer programming rotaAI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- What speed minimises the total cost of a long drive?AA SLAI SLAA HLAI HLSolid
- Will the pension pot last? Monte Carlo savings with random returnsAI SLAI HLAmbitious
- What interest rate are you really paying? Solving for the rate by iterationAI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- Who should pay what for a shared taxi? The Shapley valueAA SLAI SLAA HLSolid
Frequently asked questions
Is compound interest enough maths for an IA?
On its own, usually not. Combine it with something that needs thought — deriving the annuity formula from a geometric series, sensitivity analysis, comparing scenarios over time, or fitting a model to real price data.
Where can I find reliable financial data?
Central banks and statistics offices: FRED, the ECB Data Portal, the ONS and Eurostat all publish interest rates, inflation and prices with CSV downloads.
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Taking Economics? Maths IA ideas for economics students
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