UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 8 of 150

Correct — A, A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4. Gunnar Myrdal (Swedish, 1898–1987; shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics) wrote Economic Theory and Under-developed Regions (1957) — the book in which he set out circular and cumulative causation, arguing that market forces left alone widen regional inequality through 'backwash' effects that drain capital, skills and labour from poor regions to rich ones, only partly offset by 'spread' effects. Albert O. Hirschman (1915–2012) wrote The Strategy of Economic Development (1958), the classic statement of unbalanced growth: a poor country should deliberately create disequilibria by investing in industries with strong backward and forward linkages, letting the pressure they generate pull the rest of the economy along. Nicholas Kaldor (1908–1986, Hungarian-born British economist, of Kaldor–Hicks efficiency and Kaldor's growth laws) wrote Strategic Factors in Economic Development (1967, Ithaca/Cornell). Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) is the founding text of classical political economy. So A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 — option (a).

• (b)A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4 — This rotates three of the four pairs and gets only Adam Smith right. It hands Myrdal Hirschman's The Strategy of Economic Development, hands Hirschman Kaldor's Strategic Factors in Economic Development, and hands Kaldor Myrdal's Economic Theory and Under-developed Regions.
• (c)A-3, B-2, C-1, D-4 — Gets Hirschman and Smith right but swaps Myrdal and Kaldor — it credits Myrdal with Kaldor's Strategic Factors in Economic Development and credits Kaldor with Myrdal's Economic Theory and Under-developed Regions. This is the most tempting wrong option precisely because the two titles sound alike; the discriminator is that 'Under-developed Regions' is Myrdal's regional-inequality argument.
• (d)A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4 — Gets Kaldor and Smith right but swaps Myrdal and Hirschman — it gives Myrdal The Strategy of Economic Development (Hirschman's 1958 book on unbalanced growth) and gives Hirschman Economic Theory and Under-developed Regions (Myrdal's 1957 book).

This question sits in development economics — the post-1945 literature asking why poor countries stay poor and what a state should do about it. Three of the four names belong to that debate. Myrdal rejected the idea that markets automatically equalise regions and argued for cumulative divergence, so the state must intervene. Hirschman argued the opposite of the then-fashionable 'balanced growth' school: deliberately induce imbalance, because linkage effects, not tidy proportionality, are what actually mobilise entrepreneurship in a poor economy. Kaldor worked on growth regularities, taxation and the role of manufacturing as the engine of growth. Adam Smith is the odd one out — an eighteenth-century classical economist, and the giveaway pair in every option.

Every option ends with D-4, so The Wealth of Nations is free — it is placed there only to make the item look harder. That reduces the question to three names and three titles, and the real trap is the near-identical pair of titles: 'Economic Theory and Under-developed Regions' (Myrdal) and 'Strategic Factors in Economic Development' (Kaldor). Anchor one pair you are certain of — most students know Hirschman for 'strategy' and unbalanced growth — and the codes then separate cleanly: option (a) is the only one that keeps both B-2 and A-1.

• Gunnar Myrdal (1898–1987) — Economic Theory and Under-developed Regions (1957); the idea of circular and cumulative causation with 'backwash' and 'spread' effects. He also wrote An American Dilemma (1944), Asian Drama (1968) and The Challenge of World Poverty (1970), and shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with F. A. Hayek.
• Albert O. Hirschman (1915–2012) — The Strategy of Economic Development (1958): unbalanced growth through backward and forward linkages. He later wrote Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970).
• Nicholas Kaldor (1908–1986) — Strategic Factors in Economic Development (1967). He is better known for Kaldor–Hicks efficiency, Kaldor's growth laws and An Expenditure Tax (1955); he advised the Government of India on tax reform in the mid-1950s, recommending an expenditure tax.
• Adam Smith — An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776): division of labour, the self-regulating market and the 'invisible hand'; the founding work of classical political economy.

• Confusing 'Strategic Factors in Economic Development' (Kaldor) with 'The Strategy of Economic Development' (Hirschman) — near-identical titles, different authors, nine years apart.
• Assuming the balanced-growth school is Hirschman's; he argued the opposite. Balanced growth belongs to Rosenstein-Rodan and Nurkse.
• Attributing Asian Drama or The Challenge of World Poverty to Amartya Sen — both are Myrdal's.

UPPSC repeatedly asks author–book pairs in economics as a four-item match-list or a single 'who wrote…' item (2023 Paper-I asked who authored The Challenge of World Poverty), while UPSC prefers to test the underlying idea — balanced versus unbalanced growth, or the meaning of cumulative causation — rather than the title.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The concept of 'circular and cumulative causation', explained through 'backwash' and 'spread' effects, is associated with :

  • (a)W. W. Rostow
  • (b)Gunnar Myrdal
  • (c)Ragnar Nurkse
  • (d)Albert O. Hirschman

  Answer(b) Gunnar Myrdal — he set it out in Economic Theory and Under-developed Regions (1957); Rostow gave the stages of growth, Nurkse the vicious circle of poverty and balanced growth, Hirschman unbalanced growth.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The doctrine of 'unbalanced growth', which recommends investing in industries with strong backward and forward linkages, was advanced in which one of the following books ?

  • (a)An Expenditure Tax
  • (b)Asian Drama
  • (c)The Strategy of Economic Development
  • (d)The Wealth of Nations

  Answer(c) The Strategy of Economic Development — Albert O. Hirschman, 1958. An Expenditure Tax is Kaldor (1955), Asian Drama is Myrdal (1968), The Wealth of Nations is Adam Smith (1776).