Relationship Between Countries at Different Levels of Development: three questions 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 correct answer is D: life expectancy at birth.
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:
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.
Question 2
Some conditions for providing foreign aid to low-income countries can be restrictive.
Which kind of aid fits this description?
Answer: B.
The correct answer is B: grants that are tied to purchasing donor country goods.
Tied aid comes with a condition on how the money may be spent: the recipient must buy goods or services from firms in the donor country. That restriction reduces the value of the aid, because the recipient cannot shop for the cheapest or most suitable supplier and may end up paying above the world price. Part of the benefit therefore flows back to producers in the donor economy, which is why tied aid is criticised as serving the donor's commercial interests as much as the recipient's development.
Why the other options are wrong:
Tied aid comes with a condition on how the money may be spent: the recipient must buy goods or services from firms in the donor country. That restriction reduces the value of the aid, because the recipient cannot shop for the cheapest or most suitable supplier and may end up paying above the world price. Part of the benefit therefore flows back to producers in the donor economy, which is why tied aid is criticised as serving the donor's commercial interests as much as the recipient's development.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A, emergency food aid after a drought, is given for immediate humanitarian relief and does not restrict the recipient's purchasing decisions.
- C, concessional loans repaid over a long period at low interest, are generous rather than restrictive, the soft terms are the point. A repayment obligation is a cost, but it is not a restriction on how the funds are used.
- D, technical assistance through skilled worker transfers, delivers expertise the recipient lacks. It builds capacity rather than constraining choice.
Question 3
What is likely to happen in a developing country as it becomes more developed?
Answer: B.
The correct answer is B: average life expectancy will rise.
Development brings higher incomes and, with them, better nutrition, clean water, sanitation and access to healthcare. Infant and child mortality fall sharply, infectious disease is controlled, and average life expectancy rises. This is one of the most reliable empirical regularities in development economics, which is why life expectancy is one of the three components of the Human Development Index.
Why the other options are wrong:
Development brings higher incomes and, with them, better nutrition, clean water, sanitation and access to healthcare. Infant and child mortality fall sharply, infectious disease is controlled, and average life expectancy rises. This is one of the most reliable empirical regularities in development economics, which is why life expectancy is one of the three components of the Human Development Index.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A reverses the relationship. Rising incomes and expanding state education mean a higher proportion of people reach tertiary education, not a lower one.
- C is the subtle trap. Population growth typically falls as development proceeds. The demographic transition explains why: death rates fall first, giving a temporary surge in growth, but birth rates then fall too as child mortality declines, women's education and employment expand, and the cost of raising children rises. Mature developed economies have low or even negative natural population growth.
- D reverses the pattern of structural change. Development shifts resources from primary to secondary and then to tertiary activity, so the service sector grows in importance rather than declining.
What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9708 papers and filtered to relationship between 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 relationship between 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.
- Classifying FDI or remittances as aid.
- Asserting aid is good or bad rather than stating the conditions under which it works.
- Forgetting profit repatriation when evaluating FDI, and so missing the GDP against GNI point.
- Presenting import substitution and export promotion without evaluating the record.
- Recommending only external solutions and omitting domestic reform.
- Ignoring institutions, which condition whether any policy works.
- Treating sustainability as a separate afterthought rather than a criterion applied to each policy.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Relationship Between Countries at Different Levels of Development revision notes.