KSLU Solved Question Papers
Principles of Economics
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 1
2023 Mar Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Principles of Economics 2023 Mar 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 2023 Mar examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2023 Mar 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 80 · 20 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.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Critically explain the scarcity definition of Economics.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: Robbins's definition (1932) in his words; its three elements and the problem of choice; its main features; why it was an advance on the welfare definition, with Robbins's own example; a critical examination; and a conclusion.
The definition
Lionel Robbins gave the scarcity definition in An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (1932). He wrote:
"Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses."
The elements of the definition
1. Ends are unlimited. "Ends" are human wants. They are countless. As soon as one want is satisfied, another arises.
2. Means are scarce. "Means" are the resources used to satisfy wants: money, time, land, labour and goods. They are limited compared with wants. Scarcity is relative: a thing is scarce when there is less of it than people want.
3. Means have alternative uses. A scarce resource can be used in more than one way. A rupee can buy food or books. A field can grow rice or cotton.
From these three facts comes the problem of choice. A person must decide which wants to satisfy and which to leave unsatisfied. Every choice has an opportunity cost: the next best alternative given up. Economics, for Robbins, is the study of this choice.
A worked illustration: a State government's choice
A State government has Rs 1,000 crore to spend this year. Its ends are many: new schools, a new hospital, rural roads, a drinking water scheme and a stadium. Together they would cost Rs 3,000 crore. The money is scarce in relation to these ends, and it can be spent on any of them. So the government must choose.
Suppose it chooses the hospital and the water scheme. The schools, roads and stadium it gives up are the opportunity cost of that choice. Robbins's definition describes exactly this kind of problem, whether the chooser is a person, a firm or a government. It does not matter that health and water are not "material wealth" in the old sense.
Main features
- It is a science of choice, not of wealth or welfare.
- It is neutral between ends. It does not judge whether a want is good or bad.
- It is universal. The problem of choice exists for an individual, a family, a firm and a nation, in every kind of economic system.
- It includes non-material goods and services.
- It makes economics a positive science.
An advance on the welfare definition
Robbins rejected Marshall's limitation of economics to "material" welfare. He compared the wages of a sewage collector with the wages of the members of an orchestra. The first work aids material welfare. The second, he wrote, has "not the remotest bearing on material welfare". Yet one theory of wages explains both. So economics should study all scarce means, whatever end they serve. His definition removed the artificial line between material and non-material goods.
Critical examination
1. It is too neutral. By refusing to judge ends, economics cannot say that food for the hungry matters more than luxuries for the rich. Economic policy needs value judgments, and a purely neutral science cannot guide it.
2. It ignores unemployment. Robbins assumed that scarce resources are fully used. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, millions of workers and machines lay idle. J.M. Keynes's General Theory (1936) showed that the problem may be the under-use of resources, not their scarcity.
3. It ignores economic growth. The definition deals with the allocation of a given quantity of resources. It does not explain how resources and incomes grow over time, the central problem of developing countries.
4. It is too wide. Almost every human act involves choosing between scarce means: choosing a spouse, a religion or a political party. On this view, economics would take over the other social sciences.
5. It neglects distribution and welfare. Questions of poverty and inequality get little attention.
6. Scarcity is not always the problem. In rich economies, the problem may be too much output relative to demand, with unsold goods and idle capacity.
What followed
To meet these criticisms, Paul Samuelson widened the definition. He kept scarcity and choice, and added the use of resources over time and their distribution now and in the future. This growth definition is the form most widely used today. It answers the second and third criticisms above, while keeping Robbins's central insight that every economic problem begins with scarcity and choice.
Conclusion. Robbins defined economics 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 core of the subject. It included all goods and services and made economics a neutral, positive science. Critically examined, it is too neutral to guide policy and silent on unemployment and growth. It is also so wide that it blurs the boundary with other sciences. It remains the starting point of modern economics, widened by Samuelson to include growth.
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