UGC-NET (June 2025) · India · National Testing Agency
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersWhat development means, how it is measured, the classic growth models, and the roles of state, market, civil society and international institutions.
In the exams: agricultural economics PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, development (heavy); central bank officer recruitment economic and social issues papers (reported)
UGC-NET Economics and international Master's/PhD programmes (e.g. China Agricultural University, SLU-AFEPA)
Formal treatment of Harrod-Domar, Solow, MRW and endogenous growth models; growth accounting; Sen's poverty axioms and decomposable inequality measures; institutions and comparative development evidence.
How our questions for UGC-NET spread across the units of Development Economics. Difficulty: 4 easy, 19 medium, 18 hard.
| Solow growth model | 8 | |
| Role of civil society and institutions | 6 | |
| Comparative development | 5 | |
| Role of the state and markets | 5 | |
| Harrod-Domar growth model | 4 | |
| Conceptions of development | 3 | |
| Indicators of development | 3 | |
| Classical theories of development | 3 | |
| Growth and development distinguished | 2 | |
| International development institutions | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Which statement about the relationship between the conceptions of development is most accurate?
D. Capability and basic-needs views treat income growth as a means, valued for what it does for people's lives
Modern conceptions layer on the growth view: income remains important as a means, but the end is poverty reduction, capability expansion and sustainability. Sen does not reject growth, Seers explicitly rejected income per head as the sole test, and sustainability constrains the pattern of growth rather than requiring zero growth.
Further reading: Todaro and Smith, Economic Development; Ray, Development Economics
Growth is called 'pro-poor' in the relative sense when
A. the incomes of the poor grow faster than average income
The relative definition requires the growth incidence curve to be higher at the bottom than the mean, so inequality falls. The absolute definition only requires the poor's incomes to rise. A constant Gini means distribution-neutral growth, which is pro-poor only in the absolute sense.
Further reading: Ravallion and Chen, Measuring Pro-Poor Growth, Economics Letters 2003
Sen's transfer axiom requires that a poverty measure rises when income is transferred from a poor person to a richer person. Which measure satisfies this axiom?
A. The squared poverty gap
A transfer between two poor people leaves the headcount and the total poverty gap unchanged (or can even lower the headcount), so neither responds. The squared gap weights larger shortfalls more, so a transfer away from a poorer person raises it. The income gap ratio has the same insensitivity as the poverty gap.
Further reading: Sen, Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement, Econometrica 1976
The saving rate is 15 per cent, the desired capital-output ratio is 3, and the labour force grows at 3 per cent with no technical progress. In Harrod's framework the economy tends toward
B. chronic stagnation, because the warranted rate (5 per cent) exceeds the natural rate (3 per cent)
g_w = 0.15/3 = 5 per cent > g_n = 3 per cent. Capital would have to grow faster than labour allows, so actual growth falls short of warranted growth and the economy tends to depression and excess capacity. If g_w < g_n, unemployment would rise instead. Only a coincidence would give steady full-employment growth.
Further reading: Todaro and Smith, Economic Development; Ray, Development Economics
In the Solow model the steady state is stable because
B. diminishing returns make actual investment exceed break-even investment below k* and fall short above k*
With diminishing returns, s f(k) is concave while (n + g + delta) k is a straight line, so they cross once and k moves toward k* from either side. A fixed capital-output ratio is Harrod-Domar, which produces instability; endogenous population is Nelson's trap.
Further reading: Todaro and Smith, Economic Development; Ray, Development Economics
Early land reform, rapid expansion of schooling, high saving and export orientation are features commonly used to explain the growth of
D. South Korea and Taiwan
The East Asian cases combined these features with selective industrial policy and relatively low inequality. Argentina and Brazil followed import substitution with concentrated land ownership.
Further reading: Todaro and Smith, Economic Development; Ray, Development Economics
The growth diagnostics approach of Hausmann, Rodrik and Velasco (2005) recommends that reformers
C. identify the most binding constraint on growth in each country and address it first
Growth diagnostics uses a decision tree (low return to investment versus high cost of finance, appropriability versus social returns) to find the binding constraint, rejecting uniform reform lists.
Further reading: Hausmann, Rodrik and Velasco, Growth Diagnostics, 2005
Elinor Ostrom's research showed that
B. communities can manage common-pool resources sustainably under suitable locally devised rules
Ostrom (1990; Nobel 2009) documented long-lived community management of irrigation, forests, fisheries and pastures and identified design principles. She distinguished common property (managed by a defined group) from open access, which Hardin's tragedy actually describes.
Further reading: Ostrom, Governing the Commons, 1990
In Acemoglu and Robinson's framework, 'extractive' economic institutions are those that
A. concentrate power and income in a narrow elite and weaken incentives for broad investment
Extractive institutions transfer resources to an elite and deny secure property and open entry to most people; inclusive institutions do the opposite. The term does not mean mining, and taxation by itself is compatible with inclusive institutions.
Further reading: Acemoglu and Robinson, Why Nations Fail, 2012
Ten here, 41 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to UGC-NET in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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