KSLU Solved Question Papers
Principles of Economics
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 1
2021 Mar (100 marks) Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Principles of Economics 2021 Mar (100 marks) Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2021 Mar (100 marks) examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2021 Mar (100 marks) examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Critically examine the Robin's definition of Economics.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the background (why Lionel Robbins rejected the welfare definition, with his own example); the definition (1932) in his words; its elements (unlimited ends, scarce means, alternative uses, choice); its features; its superiority over the earlier definitions; a full criticism; the growth definition that followed; and a conclusion.
Background
By the 1930s, Alfred Marshall's welfare definition was the accepted view. It described economics as the study of the "material requisites of wellbeing". Lionel Robbins, professor of economics in the University of London, rejected it. His book was An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, published by Macmillan in 1932.
Robbins attacked the word "material". He compared the wages of a sewage collector with the wages of the members of an orchestra. The first work is conducive to material welfare. The second has, in his words, "not the remotest bearing on material welfare". Yet both wages are explained by the same theory of wages, and both command a price. So, he argued, economics cannot be confined to material welfare.
The scarcity definition
Robbins wrote: "Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses."
This is called the scarcity definition, because scarcity of means is its central idea.
Elements of the definition
1. Unlimited ends. "Ends" means human wants. Wants are unlimited. When one want is satisfied, another takes its place.
2. Scarce means. "Means" are the resources used to satisfy wants: time, money, land, labour and goods. They are limited in relation to wants. Scarcity is relative, not absolute. A thing is scarce if there is not enough of it to satisfy all the wants for it.
3. Alternative uses. Scarce means can be put to more than one use. A piece of land can grow rice or sugarcane. An hour can be spent studying or working.
4. Choice. Because wants are many, means are scarce and means have other uses, a person must choose. He must decide which wants to satisfy first and which to leave. This problem of choice is the economic problem.
If any element is missing, there is no economic problem. If means were unlimited, there would be no need to choose. If means had only one use, there would be nothing to decide.
A worked illustration of scarcity and choice
Meera, a law student, has one free evening of four hours and Rs 500. She has several ends: revising for tomorrow's test, watching a film with friends, helping her family at home and buying a new book. Her means, four hours and Rs 500, cannot satisfy all of them. Each hour and each rupee can go to more than one end.
So she must choose. She spends three hours revising and one hour at home, and buys the book. The film is given up. That sacrifice is the opportunity cost of her choice: the value of the next best alternative she gave up. Robbins's definition describes exactly this kind of decision. It does not matter that none of her ends is "material".
Scarcity is relative, not absolute
Scarcity does not mean that a thing is rare. It means that there is less of it than people want.
- Air is plentiful and free, so it is not an economic good. Yet clean air in a polluted city is becoming scarce, and people pay for purifiers.
- Water is free from a river in a village with plenty, but it is sold by the tanker in a dry town.
- Land in the centre of a big city is very scarce and costly, while the same acreage in a remote area is cheap.
So the same thing may be an economic good in one place or time and a free good in another. Scarcity is always relative to wants. This is why Robbins spoke of means that are scarce in relation to ends. A very rich society still faces scarcity, because its wants grow as fast as its means.
Features of the definition
- A science of choice. Economics studies how people choose among alternatives.
- Neutral between ends. Economics does not judge whether a want is good or bad. It studies how means are allocated, whatever the end. A demand for liquor and a demand for milk are studied in the same way.
- Analytical. It focuses on a form of behaviour, not on a class of goods.
- Wide application. It covers all human behaviour where scarce means are allocated, material or not. It applies to a single person, a society and even a planned economy.
- Positive science. It describes and explains. It does not prescribe.
Superiority over the earlier definitions
| Point | Wealth definition | Welfare definition | Scarcity definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author and year | Adam Smith, 1776 | Alfred Marshall, 1890 | Lionel Robbins, 1932 |
| Centre of study | Wealth | Material welfare | Choice under scarcity |
| Services included? | No | Material ones only | Yes, all |
| Point | Wealth definition | Welfare definition | Scarcity definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value judgment | Implied | Yes, about welfare | No, neutral |
| Scope | Social, selfish man | Social man | Individual and social |
- It includes all scarce goods and services, material or not.
- It identifies the real economic problem, scarcity and choice.
- It makes economics a positive science, free of value judgments.
- It has universal application, in every type of economy.
Criticism of the scarcity definition
1. It makes economics too neutral. By refusing to judge ends, it cannot say that feeding the hungry matters more than luxuries for the rich. Many economists hold that economics must give guidance on policy, which needs value judgments.
2. It ignores the problem of unemployment. Robbins assumed that means are scarce and fully used. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, workers and machines lay idle. J.M. Keynes, in The General Theory (1936), showed that the problem may be too little use of resources, not scarcity. The definition does not cover this.
3. It neglects economic growth. Robbins considers the allocation of a given quantity of resources at a moment. It does not ask how resources grow over time, which is the central problem of developing countries.
4. It is too wide. Almost every human action involves choosing between scarce means, including decisions of love, religion and politics. On this view economics would swallow the other social sciences.
5. It is too narrow in another sense. Problems such as poverty, inequality and income distribution, the core of welfare economics, get little place.
6. It ignores the social side. Economics studies man in society. The definition reads like a study of an isolated individual choosing alone.
7. Scarcity is not the whole story. Some problems arise from plenty. In rich economies, unsold goods and a lack of demand can be the problem.
The growth definition
These criticisms led Paul Samuelson to widen the definition. In his textbook, economics studies how people and society choose to employ scarce productive resources which could have alternative uses. They may do so with or without the use of money. The resources produce various commodities over time, which are distributed for consumption now and in the future among various persons and groups in society. This keeps Robbins's scarcity and choice, and adds growth and distribution.
Conclusion. Lionel Robbins defined economics in 1932 as "the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." His definition made scarcity and choice the heart of the subject. It included all services and made economics a neutral, positive science, which is why it remains the starting point of most textbooks. Its weaknesses are real. It is neutral where guidance is needed, silent on unemployment and growth, and so wide that it blurs the line with other sciences. Modern economics keeps Robbins's core and adds growth, following Samuelson.
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