T. Malthus propounded one of the most famous theories, called 'The Malthusian Theory' which is related to

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Correct — A, Population. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) set out the argument in An Essay on the Principle of Population, first published anonymously in 1798, and everything the phrase 'Malthusian theory' refers to comes from that book. Its claim is a comparison of two growth rates: human numbers, if unchecked, multiply in a geometric progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16…), while the means of subsistence can at best be increased in an arithmetic progression (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…). Because a geometric series must eventually outrun an arithmetic one, population presses permanently against the food supply, and the gap is closed by checks — 'positive' checks such as famine, epidemic disease and war that raise the death rate, and 'preventive' checks such as delayed marriage and moral restraint that lower the birth rate. The theory is named for what it explains: the size of the population and the limits on its growth.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) Poverty is a consequence in Malthus's argument, not its subject. He held that misery and want are what appear when numbers press on subsistence, and he used the argument against poor-relief schemes on that reasoning — but the theory itself is a statement about how population grows relative to food, not a theory of poverty. The named theories of poverty belong to other writers.  (c) Too broad, and it points at the wrong book. Malthus did write on general economics — his Principles of Political Economy of 1820 argued about gluts and effective demand, a line later taken up by Keynes — but that work is not what 'the Malthusian theory' names. In every syllabus and every textbook the phrase refers to the population principle of 1798.  (d) Unemployment is not the variable Malthus modelled. His two series are population and subsistence; the adjustment mechanism he described works through mortality and marriage, not through the labour market. The classical treatment of unemployment as a central problem comes much later, with Keynes in the 1930s.

Concept: Malthus's principle of population is the founding pessimistic model of population–resource relations. Two growth rates are set against each other — population geometric, subsistence arithmetic — so any gain in food output is, on his account, swallowed by the extra numbers it permits, and living standards are pulled back to bare subsistence. The corrective he identified is a system of checks: positive checks (famine, disease, war) that operate on deaths, and preventive checks (late marriage, moral restraint) that operate on births. The whole apparatus is about the size of the population; everything else in it — want, mortality, the level of wages — is downstream of that.

State PCS 2022 Q32 — Economy PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q32 — Economy PYQ with Answer