I don't know if I like doing an early assessment in Econ, but at my last two schools it has been compulsory.
I like to test 3 things:
Can they/are they willing to study? (I get them to prepare answers to these questions)
Can they apply knowledge to questions? (I give them a pack of MCQs to practice)
Can they write? (They plan it in advance using this)
Below is what I'd normally give them for #1 and #3, but I've had to take the #2 bit out because it used MCQs I'd bought. However, you could easily knock something together using selected questions from here.