Economic Development

What Economic Development covers

Economic Development is A2 content, examined in both A2 Unit 3 and A2 Unit 4, which each cover all A level content. 82 recall questions across 6 subtopics.

The 6 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Measurement: What is meant by economic development and how it is measuredDevelopment against growth, GDP per head as a first measure and why it misleads, GDP, GNP and GNI compared, and purchasing power parity worked through with figures.Open →
• Measurement: Human development index, More indirect indicators such as access to health and educationRecall questions on The human development index, The economic structure of an economy, More indirect indicators such as access to health and education.Open →
• Obstacles: Why LEDCs may face difficulties in competing with MEDCsRecall questions on Why LEDCs may face difficulties in competing with MEDCs and in raising their level of economic development.Open →
• Obstacles: Relevant obstaclesRecall questions on Relevant obstacles; including: the extent to which endowment with natural resources is beneficial or whether there is a resource curse.Open →
• Solutions: Liberalisation as a route to development, Aid and debt reliefRecall questions on Liberalisation as a route to development, Aid and debt relief.Open →
• Solutions: Foreign direct investment and trade strategiesRecall questions on Foreign direct investment and trade strategies, Human capital, infrastructure and microfinance, Institutions, and why no single approach works.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Economic Development further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Economic growth vs Economic development

  Economic growth: a sustained increase in a country’s real output. Economic development: a sustained improvement in material and social wellbeing, not output alone.

• Gross domestic product vs Gross national income

  Gross domestic product: the value of output produced inside a country’s borders, whoever owns the firms. Gross national income: the income accruing to a country’s residents, wherever it was earned.

• The Human Development Index vs The resource curse

  The Human Development Index: a composite measure combining life expectancy, schooling and income per head. The resource curse: the tendency of resource-rich economies to grow more slowly than resource-poor ones.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by economic development?

   Model answer

   Economic development is a sustained improvement in the material and social wellbeing of a population, covering rising real incomes alongside better health, education, opportunity and quality of life.

2. 2

   How does economic development differ from economic growth?

   Model answer

   Economic growth is simply an increase in a country's real output, whereas economic development is a broader improvement in living standards and welfare that growth makes possible but does not guarantee.

3. 3

   Which money measure is normally used as a first indicator of a country's development, and how is it obtained?

   Model answer

   Real GDP per head, obtained by dividing real GDP by the population; the real adjustment strips out inflation and the per head adjustment allows for population size.

4. 4

   A country has a real GDP of US$63 billion and a population of 18 million. Calculate its real GDP per head.

   Model answer

   Real GDP per head is US$63 billion ÷ 18 million = US$3,500 per person.

5. 5

   Name three reasons why official national income figures understate the true output of a less economically developed country.

   Model answer

   Subsistence production consumed by the household is never traded and so goes unrecorded, a large informal or black economy escapes the statistics, and weak statistical services collect incomplete data.

6. 6

   Why can a substantial rise in national income leave the living standards of most of the population unchanged?

   Model answer

   National income per head is an average, so if the extra income accrues mainly to a wealthy minority the typical household sees no improvement.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Economic Development revision questions

What does Economic Development cover in WJEC A-Level Economics?

6 subtopics: measurement: what is meant by economic development and how it is measured, measurement: human development index, more indirect indicators such as access to health and education, obstacles: why ledcs may face difficulties in competing with medcs, obstacles: relevant obstacles, solutions: liberalisation as a route to development, aid and debt relief and solutions: foreign direct investment and trade strategies. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Economic Development organised?

By the WJEC 1520QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.