KSLU Solved Question Papers
Economics I (old course)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 2
2013 Jun Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 2 Economics I (old course) 2013 Jun Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 23 October 2026.
Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
Passages from this volume may be quoted, in print, online or by an AI system, with credit: name munotes.in and link to this volume's page. The volume may not be reproduced as a whole. Full terms at munotes.in/content-license.
munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.
The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2013 Jun examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2013 Jun examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2013 Jun 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 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all 5 questions. (2) One essay type and one short note question or problem from each Unit have to be attempted. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answers should be written with necessary diagrams either in English or Kannada Completely.
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)Discuss the nature and scope of Economics as a social science.[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what a social science is and why economics is one; the nature of economics: its methods (deduction and induction), its laws as tendencies (Marshall's economic laws and the tides, in his words), positive and normative (J.N. Keynes, 1890; Robbins), science and art; the special difficulties of economics as a social science; its scope in brief (subject matter by the definitions, the divisions, micro and macro); its place among the social sciences; and a conclusion.
1. What a social science is
A science is a body of knowledge built by observing facts, classifying them and finding relations of cause and effect. Natural sciences, such as physics and chemistry, study nature. Social sciences, such as economics, political science, sociology and history, study people living in society.
Economics is a social science because it studies human behaviour in society. It asks how people earn, spend, save, produce and exchange, and how their actions affect one another. A person living alone on an island, with no exchange, would raise few economic questions.
2. The nature of economics
(a) Its methods. Economics uses two methods of reasoning.
- Deduction starts from general assumptions and reasons to conclusions. From "buyers want more satisfaction" and "extra units give less satisfaction", it deduces that buyers take more only at lower prices.
- Induction starts from observed facts and generalises from them. Studies of household budgets led to Engel's law (1857): as income rises, the share spent on food falls.
The two methods check each other. Deduction gives theories, and induction tests them against facts. Marshall quoted the German economist Schmoller with approval: "Induction and deduction are both needed for scientific thought as the right and left foot are both needed for walking."
(b) Its laws are tendencies. Marshall defined economic laws as "statements of economic tendencies". They are "those social laws which relate to branches of conduct in which the strength of the motives chiefly concerned can be measured by a money price."
He compared them with nature's laws: "The laws of economics are to be compared with the laws of the tides, rather than with the simple and exact law of gravitation." Tides follow known causes, but winds and storms disturb them. Economic laws hold on average, and only if other things remain equal.
(c) Positive and normative. John Neville Keynes, in 1890, separated a positive science (what is), a normative science (what ought to be) and an art (how to achieve it).
- A positive statement can be tested by facts: "a higher tax on cigarettes reduces the number sold".
- A normative statement rests on a value judgment: "cigarettes should be taxed more heavily".
Lionel Robbins pressed hardest for keeping economics positive. He argued that it can say what follows from what, but cannot say which end is worth pursuing. Most economists today accept that economics is both, because policy needs facts and values together.
(d) Science and art. Economics is a science when it explains. It is an art when it applies knowledge to reach a goal. When the Finance Minister frames a Budget, or the Reserve Bank changes the repo rate to control inflation, economics is being used as an art.
3. Why economics is a less exact science
As a social science, economics faces difficulties a natural science does not.
- No controlled experiments. An economist cannot hold everything else still while changing one price across a whole country.
- Human behaviour varies. People act from habit, custom, emotion and social pressure, not from calculation alone.
- People react to predictions. If a forecast says prices will rise, buyers may rush to buy and make the forecast come true sooner.
- Value judgments enter. Questions of fairness, such as how income should be shared, cannot be settled by facts alone.
- Measurement is hard. Satisfaction, welfare and even national income are measured with error.
- Laws are conditional. Every economic law carries the words "other things being equal". In real life other things rarely stay equal, so a law may seem to fail when in fact its conditions have changed.
These are reasons for care, not reasons to deny that economics is a science. Medicine and meteorology also deal in tendencies and probabilities, and no one denies that they are sciences.
4. The scope of economics in brief
Subject matter. Each definition drew the field differently. It was wealth for Adam Smith (1776) and material welfare for Marshall (first published 1890). For Robbins (1932) it was choice between scarce means with alternative uses, and Samuelson added growth over time. Today the subject studies choice under scarcity, now and over time.
Divisions. Consumption, production, exchange, distribution and public finance.
Branches. Micro economics studies individual units, such as one consumer, one firm and one market. Macro economics, founded on Keynes's General Theory (1936), studies aggregates, such as national income, employment and the price level. Ragnar Frisch introduced both terms in 1933.
5. Economics among the social sciences
| Social science | What it shares with economics |
|---|---|
| Political science | Taxes, budgets and economic policy are made by governments |
| Sociology | Family, caste and custom shape work, saving and spending |
| History | Past events explain present institutions and economic growth |
| Ethics | Questions of fair wages, fair prices and fair shares |
| Law | Property, contract and competition law set the rules of markets |
Economics is distinct because it focuses on the use of scarce resources to satisfy wants. It is linked with the others because people's economic lives are part of their whole social lives.
6. An Indian illustration
Suppose the Government plans to raise the duty on tobacco. Economics as a positive science asks how far sales will fall and how much revenue will rise. As a normative science it asks whether the burden on poor smokers is fair. As an art it designs the duty to meet both aims. Political science asks whether the measure will pass. Sociology asks how habits will change. Law asks whether the duty is valid. One measure thus draws on economics and its sister social sciences together.
7. Why the nature of economics matters to a law student
Courts and legislators increasingly rely on economic reasoning. The Competition Act, 2002 asks whether an agreement harms competition, which is a positive economic question. Tax and labour laws rest on judgments about who bears a burden and what is fair, which are normative questions. A lawyer who can tell a testable economic claim from a value judgment argues more clearly. That is the practical value of knowing the nature of the subject.
Conclusion. Economics is a social science because it studies human behaviour in society in earning and using income. In nature it uses deduction and induction, states laws that are tendencies like the tides, and is positive, normative and an art at once. It is less exact than a natural science, because it cannot experiment and studies people who change and react. In scope it covers choice under scarcity through the divisions of consumption, production, exchange, distribution and public finance, and through micro and macro analysis. It works closely with the other social sciences, and above all with law.
The rest of the answers
The first answer is free. The rest come with the KSLU B.A. LL.B. Semester 2 solved papers.
You have read the question paper and its first answer in full. Buy the solved papers once and you can read every answer of every solved paper in this semester.
Solved papers: ₹499 Already bought it? Sign in
The question paper itself stays free, and so does the syllabus.
Found an error in this volume? Report it and we will check it against the paper.