General Economics I

Theory of  Consumer’s Demand

•  Cardinal utility Analysis:

• Marginal utility and demand,

• Consumer’s surplus,

• Indifference curve,

• Analysis and utility function,

• Price income and substitution effects,

• Slutsky theorem and derivation of demand curve,

• Revealed preference theory.

•  Duality and indirect utility function and expenditure function, Choice under risk and uncertainty.

•  Simple games of complete information, Concept of Nash equilibrium.

•  Factors of production and production function. Forms of Production Functions:

• Cobb Douglas,

• CES and Fixed coefficient type,

• Translog production function.

•  Laws of return,

• Returns to scale and Return to factors of production.

• Duality and cost function.

•  Measures of productive efficiency of firms,

• Technical and allocative efficiency.

• Partial Equilibrium versus General Equilibrium approach.

• Equilibrium of the firm and industry.

• Pricing under different market structures,

• Public sector pricing,

• Marginal cost pricing,

• Peak load pricing,

• Cross-subsidy free pricing and average cost pricing.

• Marshallian and Walrasian stability analysis.

• Pricing with incomplete information and moral hazard problems.

• Neo classical distribution theories;

• Marginal productivity theory of determination of factor prices,

• Factor shares and adding up problems.

• Euler’s theorem,

• Pricing of factors under imperfect competition,

• Monopoly and bilateral monopoly.

• Macro- distribution theories of Ricardo, Marx, Kaldor, Kalecki.

• Inter-personal comparison and aggression problem,

• Public goods and externalities,

• Divergence between social and private welfare,

• compensation principle.

• Pareto optimality.

• Social choice and other recent schools, including Coase and Sen.

• Differentiation and Integration and their application in economics.

• Optimisation techniques, Sets Matrices and their application in economics.

• Linear algebra and Linear programming in economics,

• Input-output model of Leontief.

• Measures of central tendency and Dispersions, Correlation and Regression.

• Time series.

• Index numbers.

• Sampling of curves based on various linear and non-linear function.

• Least square methods and other multivariate analysis (only concepts and interpretation of results).

• Analysis of Variance,

• Factor analysis,

• Principle component analysis,

• Discriminant analysis.

•  Pareto law of Distribution,

•  Lognormal distribution,

•  Measurement of income inequality.

•  Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient.

•  Univariate and multivariate regression analysis.

•  Problems and remedies of

•  Heteroscedasticity, Autocorrelation and Multicollinearity.

General Economics II

Economic Thought

• Mercantilism

• Physiocrats

• Classical

• Marxist

• Neo-classical

• Keynesian

• Monetarist Schools of thought

Concept of National Income and Social Accounting:

• Measurement of National Income,

• Inter relationship between three measures of national income in the presence of Government sector and international transactions.

• Environmental considerations,

• Green national income.

Theory of employment, Output, Inflation, Money and Finance:

• The Classical theory of Employment and Output and Neo-classical approaches.

• Equilibrium, analysis under classical and neo classical analysis.

• Keynesian theory of Employment and output.

• Post Keynesian developments.

• The inflationary gap

• Demand pull versus cost push inflation,

• The Philip’s curve and its policy implication.

• Classical theory of Money,

• Quantity theory of Money.

• Friedman’s restatement of the quantity theory,

• The neutrality of money.

• The supply and demand for loanable funds and equilibrium in financial markets, Keynes’ theory on demand for money.

• IS-LM Model and

• AD-AS Model in Keynesian Theory.

Financial and Capital Market

• Finance and economic development

• Financial markets

• Stock market

• Gift market

• Banking and

• Insurance

• Equity markets,

• Role of primary and secondary markets and efficiency

• Derivatives markets

• Future and options

Economic Growth and Development

• Concepts of Economic Growth and Development and their measurement

• Characteristics of less developed countries and obstacles to their development – growth, poverty and income distribution.

•  Theories of growth

•  Classical Approach:

• Adam Smith,

• Marx Schumpeter-Neo classical approach

• Robinson

• Solow

• Kaldor

• Harrod Domra

•  Theories of Economic Development,

• Rostow

• Rosenstein-Rodden

• Nurske

• Hirschman

• Lilienstein and Arthur Lewis

• Amin and Frank (Dependency school) respective role of state and the market.

• Utilitarian and Welfarist approach to social development and A.K. Sen’s critique.

• Sen’s capability approach to economic development

• The Human Development Index.

• Physical quality of Life Index and Human Poverty Index

•  Basics of Endogenous Growth Theory

International Economics

• Gains from International Trade

• Terms of Trade policy, international trade and economic development

• Theories of International Trade:

·     Ricardo, Haberle, Heckscher- Ohlin and Stapler Samuelson

• Theory of Tariffs-

·     Regional Trade Arrangements. ASEAN Crisis of 1998, Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and Euro Zone Crisis- Causes and Impact

Balance of Payments

• Disequilibrium in Balance of Payments

• Mechanism of Adjustments

• Foreign Trade Multiplier

• Exchange Rates

• Import and Exchange Controls and Multiple Exchange Rates

• IS-LM Model

• Mundell- Fleming Model of Balance of Payments

Global Institutions

• UN agencies dealing with economic aspects

• World Bank

• IMF

• WTO

• Multinational Corporations

• G-20

General Economics III

Public Finance

• Theories of taxation: Optimal taxes and tax reforms, Incidence of taxation

• Theories of public expenditure: Objectives and effects of public expenditure, public expenditure policy and social cost benefit analysis

• Criteria of public investment decisions

• Social rate of discount

• Shadow prices of investment

• Unskilled labour and foreign exchange

• Budgetary deficits

• Theory of public debt management

Environmental Economics

• Environmentally sustainable development

• Rio process 1992 to 2012

• Green GDP

• UN Methodology of Integrated

• Environmental and Economic Accounting.

• Environmental Values: Users and non-user’s values, option value.

• Valuation Methods: Stated and revealed preference methods.

• Design of Environmental Policy Instruments: Pollution taxes and pollution permits,

collective action and informal regulation by local communities.

Theories of exhaustible and renewable resources.

International environmental agreements,

RIO Conventions.

Climatic change problems.

Kyoto protocol,

UNFCC,

Bali Action Plan,

post 2015 agreements,

tradable permits and carbon taxes.

Carbon Markets and

Market Mechanisms.

Climate Change Finance and

Green Climate Fund.

Industrial Economics

•  Market structure,

•  Conduct and performance of firms

•  Product differentiation and market concentration

•  Monopolistic price theory and Oligopolistic interdependence and pricing, entry preventing pricing

•  micro level investment decisions and the behaviour of firms

•  research and development and innovation,

•  market structure and profitability

•  public policy and development of firms.

Planning in a developing economy.

Planning regulation and market.

Indicative planning.

Decentralised planning

Indian Economics

History of development and planning

•  Alternative development strategies

•  Goal of self-reliance based on import substitution and protection

•  The post-1991 globalisation strategies based on stabilisation and structural

•  Adjustment packages: Fiscal reforms, financial sector reforms and Trade reforms.

Federal Finance

•  Constitutional provisions relating to fiscal and financial powers of the States

•  Finance Commissions and their formulae for sharing taxes,

•  Financial aspect of Sarkaria Commission Report,

•  Financial aspects of 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments.

Budgeting and Fiscal Policy

• Tax, Expenditure, Budgetary deficits, Pension and Fiscal reforms

• Public debt management and reforms

• Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act

• Black money and Parallel economy in India—definition, estimates, genesis, consequences and remedies

Poverty, Unemployment and Human Development

• Estimates of inequality and Poverty measures for India

• Appraisal of Government measures

• India’s human development record in global perspective

• India’s population policy and development

Agriculture and Rural Development Strategies

• Technologies and institutions

• Land relations and Land reforms

• Rural credit

• Modern farm inputs and Marketing— Price policy and Subsidies

• Commercialisation and diversification.

• Rural development programmes including poverty alleviation programmes, development of economic and social infrastructure and

• New Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

India’s experience with Urbanisation and Migration

• Different types of migratory flows and their impact on the economies of their origin and destination

• The process of growth of urban settlements

• Urban development strategies

Industry: Strategy of industrial development

• Industrial Policy Reform

• Reservation Policy relating to small scale industries.

• Competition policy

• Sources of industrial finances.

• Bank, Share market, Insurance companies, Pension funds, non-banking sources and Foreign direct investment,

• Role of foreign capital for direct investment and Portfolio investment,

• Public sector reform,

• Privatisation and Disinvestment.

Labour

• Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment

• Industrial relations and Labour welfare

• Strategies for employment generation

• Urban labour market and Informal sector employment

• Report of National Commission on Labour

• Social issues relating to labour e.g., Child Labour, Bonded Labour International Labour Standard and its impact.

Foreign trade

• Salient features of India’s foreign trade

• Composition, Direction and Organisation of trade

• Recent changes in trade

• Balance of payments

• Tariff policy

• Exchange rate

• India and WTO requirements

• Bilateral Trade Agreements and their implications

Money and Banking

• Financial sector reforms

• Organisation of India’s money market

• Changing roles of the Reserve Bank of India

• Commercial banks

• Development finance institutions

• Foreign banks and

• Non-banking financial institutions

• Indian capital market and SEBI

• Development in Global Financial Market and its relationship with Indian Financial Sector

• Commodity Market in India-Spot and Futures Market, Role of FMC

Inflation

• Definition,

• Trends,

• Estimate

• Consequences and remedies (control)

• Wholesale Price Index: components and trends

• Consumer Price Index: components and trends.

General English

•  General English papers will be made available of an essay in English.

•  There will be other questions to know the basic understanding of candidates and the use of words in English.

•  Also, Unseen passages will be given for summarizing.

General Study

•  General Awareness

•  Geography

•  History

•  Polity