WJEC · The global economy · Growth and development
WJEC Economics past paper questions: Growth and development
Every WJEC question on Growth and development from 2017 to 2025: 5 essays, 2 data response questions and 1 short answer question. It covers Measuring economic performance, Government intervention in markets and International trade and exchange rates. Each question links to its paper, mark scheme and examiner report.
SubtopicsMeasuring economic performance 2Government intervention in markets 1International trade and exchange rates 1
Essay questions on growth and development
Other than the human development index (HDI), explain measures of economic development and why they might be suitable for indicating living standards.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Exclude HDI. Give precise measures with their units, for example doctors per 1,000 population, infant mortality per 1,000 live births, mean years of schooling, internet access per 1,000 people, and GNI per capita at PPP. Describe how each is measured before judging it.
- Watch out
- Precision is the key differentiator. Access to health is too vague, doctors per 1,000 population is a measure. Do not jump straight from naming a measure to its suitability, and centre the analysis on living standards and quality of life.
Assess the view that free international trade is always beneficial for developing economies.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Build the case for free trade for developing economies: larger export markets, cheaper raw materials and capital goods, comparative advantage, competition and technology transfer. Then the case against: comparative advantage in low value volatile primary goods, infant industries, lost tariff revenue, and domestic producers displaced by imports.
- Watch out
- Free trade does not automatically bring free movement of labour or capital. If you use FDI, explain why liberalisation makes the country more attractive to it, rather than assuming it comes as part of the package. Generic answers that never focus on LEDCs were limited to low bands.
Evaluate the extent to which changes in the Human Development Index (HDI) are a good indicator of changes in the level of development in an economy.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Get the HDI components exactly right: GNI per capita at PPP, life expectancy at birth, and expected plus mean years of schooling. Explain why each is a better development measure than national income alone.
- Watch out
- Common factual errors: using GDP instead of GNI, mortality rates instead of life expectancy, and education in general rather than the two schooling measures. Do not separate pros and cons into two blocks.
Explain the impacts of industrialisation on an LEDC.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Define industrialisation and set it in an LEDC context, then analyse a small number of impacts in depth: the Lewis model shift out of agriculture, higher productivity and incomes, export earnings and urbanisation, against pollution, inequality and rural decline.
- Watch out
- Identifying many impacts without developing any of them gives high AO1 and low AO3. Pick fewer and analyse them properly.
Explain how international aid and debt relief can help to raise the level of development in an economy.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Distinguish types: humanitarian, project, tied and multilateral aid, and full debt cancellation against restructuring. For each, link explicitly to the development outcome: savings gap filled, infrastructure and human capital built, debt service freed for health and education.
- Watch out
- Generic treatment of aid and debt relief, without an explicit link to living standards and development, was worth about half marks.
Data response questions on growth and development
With reference to the data and your own economic knowledge, outline why high GNI per capita may not necessarily result in a high value of the Human Development Index (HDI).
Case study: ALL THAT IS GOLD DOES NOT GLITTER
(i) Using Figures 2 and 3, calculate the % of the 2014 total gold supply that was mined in Peru and in Ghana. (ii) With the aid of a diagram, discuss whether the introduction of a guaranteed minimum price for gold will be beneficial for workers in gold mines in poor countries like Peru and Ghana.
Examiner insight
- What to cover
- Part (i) is a percentage calculation from Figures 2 and 3. Part (ii) must be about workers in Peru and Ghana: a guaranteed minimum price raises and stabilises producer incomes, which can feed into wages and employment in the mines.
- Watch out
- Two errors were common: answering as though the scheme were a minimum wage, and arguing that demand for gold would fall, which misses the point that the government buys the surplus.
Short answer questions on growth and development
With reference to the data, describe two possible indicators of development, other than the HDI, that could be used in response to the increasingly digital global economy.
Question text is quoted from the question papers, © WJEC CBAC Ltd, 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.