Characteristics of Countries at Different Levels of Development: one question to try now
Real past-paper questions, the answer key from the mark scheme, and the explanation that goes with it. No account needed to answer them.
Question 1
It is often argued that the UN Human Development Index (HDI) is a better indicator of economic development than income per capita because it adjusts for
Answer: D.
The HDI combines three dimensions, income (GNI per capita), education (years of schooling) and health (life expectancy at birth). Life expectancy is the component that income per capita cannot capture at all: two countries with identical average incomes can differ greatly in how long their citizens live, depending on healthcare, sanitation and nutrition. Adding a health dimension is a large part of why the HDI is treated as a broader measure of development than income alone.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A, average hours worked, is not in the HDI. It would be relevant to welfare, the same income earned in fewer hours implies a better standard of living, but the index does not include it.
- B, environmental pollution, is not in the HDI either. This is a recognised limitation of the index, and it is why separate measures such as the Measure of Economic Welfare exist.
- C, income inequality, is the strongest distractor. The standard HDI uses average income and average outcomes, so it says nothing about distribution. There is a separate Inequality-adjusted HDI that does make this correction, but it is a different index, the plain HDI does not adjust for inequality.
What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9708 papers and filtered to characteristics of countries at different levels of development. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on characteristics of countries at different levels of development, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Presenting characteristics as an unconnected list rather than a reinforcing circle.
- Confusing the development poverty trap with the benefit withdrawal poverty trap of 8.2.
- Treating all developing countries as identical.
- Saying population growth is simply bad, without the demographic dividend qualification.
- Forgetting that inelastic demand and supply are what make commodity prices volatile.
- Claiming primary product dependence is bad without explaining income elasticity or volatility.
- Ignoring institutions, which are frequently the binding constraint.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Characteristics of Countries at Different Levels of Development revision notes.