Edexcel A · Theme 4: A global perspective · 4.3 Emerging and developing economies
Edexcel A Economics past paper questions: Emerging and developing economies
Every Edexcel A question on Emerging and developing economies from 2017 to 2025: 2 essays, 8 data response questions, 2 short answer questions and 1 multiple choice question. It covers The financial sector. Each question links to its paper, mark scheme and examiner report.
SubtopicsThe financial sector 1
Essay questions on emerging and developing economies
In Sudan, public services such as healthcare are struggling to keep running. Power outages, blocking of internet access, and fuel shortages, will mean hospitals struggle to operate. Many of the hospitals in the capital city, Khartoum, have reported shortages of doctors, blood, transfusion equipment, medical supplies, and other skilled workers and commodities. (Source adapted from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/ PIIS0140‐6736(23)00858‐9/fulltext) Evaluate the possible factors influencing the level of economic development in a developing country of your choice.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Cover factors such as conflict and weak institutions, a savings gap and low investment, poor health and education, failing infrastructure, commodity dependence and debt. Apply them to a named country such as Sudan.
- Watch out
- Writing only about GDP growth and never addressing development indicators such as health, education and living standards.
Case study: Sub‐Saharan Africa – growth and development
Evaluate the microeconomic and macroeconomic strategies that could be used to promote development in Kenya, or another developing country of your choice.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Cover both sides. Micro: education, health, microfinance, property rights, infrastructure. Macro: FDI, aid, debt relief, export diversification, exchange rate policy, industrialisation.
- Watch out
- Listing strategies with no judgement. The 25 marks require a ranked and supported conclusion.
Data response questions on emerging and developing economies
Examine two advantages of using the Human Development Index (HDI) to measure the level of economic development in India.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Give two advantages and develop each. HDI combines income, health and education, so it captures development rather than growth alone, and the data is comparable across countries and over time.
- Watch out
- Listing the components of HDI without explaining why combining them is an advantage.
Case study: Trade and development in Africa
Assess two likely benefits of debt relief to Angola. Refer to Extract B in your answer.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Debt relief frees Angolan government revenue from interest payments for health, education and infrastructure, raising human capital and capacity. It also eases the current account and improves the credit rating, attracting investment.
- Watch out
- Writing about aid rather than debt relief, or developing only one benefit when two are required.
Case study: Sub‐Saharan Africa – growth and development
Explain what is meant by the Lewis model. Refer to Extract D in your answer.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- The Lewis model describes surplus labour moving from low productivity subsistence agriculture into higher productivity manufacturing, raising output and saving. Link to the structural change described in Extract D.
- Watch out
- Describing rural to urban migration in general without naming the productivity and saving mechanism at the centre of the model.
Case study: Trade and aid in Rwanda
Using the data in Figures 1 and 2, calculate the change in the level of total aid funding to Rwanda between 2011 and 2012.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Add the aid components for each year from both Figures, then subtract the 2011 total from the 2012 total. Show the working clearly and state the change with units and direction.
- Watch out
- Reading only one Figure, so part of total aid is missed, or giving a bare number with no units or sign.
Case study: Trade and aid in Rwanda
With reference to the information provided, assess the likely impact on the Rwandan economy of the change in aid received between 2017 and 2018.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- State from the data whether aid rose or fell, then trace the effect on government spending, AD, infrastructure and human capital, and on the savings gap and current account.
- Watch out
- Ignoring the data and writing a general essay on whether aid works.
Case study: African countries, 2017
Discuss whether borrowers benefit from microfinance. Make reference to Mozambique in your answer.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Microfinance gives small borrowers access to capital they cannot get from banks. Trace the chain to investment in a small enterprise, higher income and reduced poverty in Mozambique.
- Watch out
- Assuming microfinance always helps. The judgement must recognise that it works for some borrowers and not others.
Case study: Globalisation and Inequality
Discuss the role of the financial sector in the growth and development of developing countries.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Explain the financial sector's functions: mobilising savings into investment, providing credit and microfinance to small firms, sharing risk through insurance, and easing trade payments. Link each to capital accumulation, productivity and development.
- Watch out
- Describing what banks do without linking it to growth and development outcomes.
Case study: World coal prices, 2006–2016, US dollars per tonne
Discuss the benefits of aid to Indonesia.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Aid fills the savings and foreign exchange gap, funding infrastructure, health and education in Indonesia. Human and physical capital rise, shifting LRAS right, and emergency aid speeds recovery after natural disasters.
- Watch out
- Confusing aid with foreign direct investment or with commercial loans that must be repaid.
Short answer questions on emerging and developing economies
Draw a cost and revenue diagram to show the likely impact of a reduction in sales of construction equipment on JCB’s profits.
With reference to the data provided, explain two limitations of using the HDI to compare levels of development between countries and over time.
Multiple choice questions
- A-level Paper 2, June 2025, Q1(a)
With reference to the table above, which one of the following is correct?
Question text is quoted from the question papers, © Pearson Edexcel, for students’ private study. Open the official papers and mark schemes from the links on each question. Examiner insights are written with AI assistance and moderated by Finn.