Economic Development · 2 question types
Past paper frequency (2018 to 2024)
This topic accounts for approximately 5% of your exam marks.
New emphasis in the 2027 syllabus; absolute and relative poverty, its causes and policies to alleviate it are now examined as a distinct topic. Guidance based on specimen materials.
People fall into poverty for several distinct reasons. A typical question rewards reasons drawn from different categories.
Behind several of these sits a self-reinforcing poverty cycle: low incomes leave no money to spend on education or healthcare, which keeps productivity and therefore wages low, which keeps incomes low. A high dependency ratio (many children or elderly per worker) makes the cycle harder to break.
Analyse how an event can increase poverty (6 marks)
What comes up: a 6-mark "Analyse" question linking some change (for example a fall in investment, a recession or a rise in unemployment) to a rise in poverty. Each credited chain identifies the cause, then develops the steps to higher poverty.
Write: develop two or three chains, for example: (1) a fall in investment means firms produce less output (1), so unemployment rises (1), incomes fall (1) and people struggle to afford basic necessities, increasing absolute poverty (1); (2) less investment in education, training or healthcare (1) lowers some workers' skills and productivity (1), reducing their wages (1) and widening the gap between rich and poor, increasing relative poverty (1); (3) older or less efficient equipment (1) raises firms' average costs (1), pushing up prices (1) and reducing people's real purchasing power (1).
Watch out: show each step in the chain rather than jumping straight from the cause to "poverty rises". The marks are for the linked reasoning, and naming whether absolute or relative poverty rises strengthens the answer.