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Tejasvi Rana Rank 12 (Economics Marks – 325, CSE-2016), Download Her Economics
Optional Notes and Related Documents
Economics Optional
Paper1
My score jumped form 89 in 2015 to 173 in 2016. I think greater clarity of models that comes with
re-readings facilitated this jump. Apart from that, I did not shy away from trying different tricks and
techniques to improve presentation of my answers. These I have discussed topic wise.
Micro
Cover HL Ahuja comprehensively except a few chapters. The chapters to be excluded
are given at Abhimanyu Gahlaut’s blog. In case of any confusion, follow a simple thumb
rule. If there are questions asked in previous years from that chapter or related
chapters, then those needs to be covered. It is advised to make small notes of this
bulky book as it is repetitive.
Gaurav Aggarwal has made notes from this book on Evernote. For welfare economics
portion specifically, I read the book for understanding and then avoided duplication of
efforts by revising from his notes. There are some topics (of welfare economics)
covered in his notes which you will not find in the book.
For Hicks, Kaldor and Schitovsky werlfare criteria, refer to this link for greater
understanding- http://policonomics.com/compensation-criteria/ Since almost every year
one question comes from this topic, see if you can get better clarity.
Macro
Richard Froyen is the basic book. Understand the models and the economic inference.
Example: If you explain how shifts in, say, IS- LM curve mean for the economy, then i
think you get better marks. This explanation is given in the book
HL Ahuja must be covered for the following.
Covering new terms and definitions e.g. Say’s Law, Principle of Effective
Demand, Inflationary Gap, Consumption Function, Paradox of Thrift, Insider
Outsider Model
Different take on/ interpretation of the model. Example
Classical Full Model on Pg 67
Keynes’ Critique of Classical Theory Pg 69
Comparison of Keynes and Classical Model
Topics that may appear in exam on the basis of previous year questions e.g
Chapters- Investment Demand, Unemployment
You won’t take a lot of time to cover HL Ahuja as you just have to check that you are
not missing anything important.
For a few extra marks, cram a few facts/ terms from macroeconomic history. You can
get these in ‘Perspectives’ section given in Froyen. Here are a few examples I had
thought of using somewhere
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Pg 168: The terms like ‘spending hypothesis’ and ‘money hypothesis’ can be
used for comparison of models.
Name of papers of Keynes, Friedman etc can be written in the brackets.
Some relevant quotes of Keynes and Friedman like
In long run, we are all dead.
When the capital development of a country becomes a by product of the
activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done.
Money and Banking
I covered QTM and Keynes Money demand from Froyen
For other topics, I referred to HL Ahuja.
Public Finance
I relied on Musgrave and Musgrave. Its better to make notes from this book for
organising things better.
Some chapters like Maximum Social Advantage, Public Revenue, and Division of Tax
Burden (I and II), i did from H L Bhatia.
I left some portions like Debt and Borrowings uncovered as questions on these can be
done using macroeconomic models. You can go through HL Ahuja (Macro) Part VI but
a quick reading should suffice.
International Trade
Salvatore is the bible.
Know the names of economists who have given different theories as this year a model
was asked by the name of the person who gave it.
Cover empirical tests of different models also.
Do cover Ch 9, 10,11 and 12 of the book as these are less technical and questions
appear each year.
Growth and Development
For theories, read ML Jhingan. Refer to Gaurav Aggarwal notes for summary/ revision
Multinationals can be covered from Salvatore
For changing role of markets and planning, and welfare indicators, i referred to Gaurav
Aggarwal’s notes.
For basic needs approach, I got some document. I am sharing the notes I made from
there.
For environment portion, I got this wonderful source from where it seems most of the
questions have appeared. Just google all the units mentioned here or smartly edit the
web
address. http://www.iitg.ernet.in/scifac/qip/public_html/cd_cell/chapters/m_k_dutta_enviro
nmental_economics/TITLE%20PAGE.pdf
Write important 2-3 assumptions before explaining/ talking about any model.
For paper 1, it is better if you are able to revise the models 2-3 times as you will get
greater clarity each time you revise.
There are some topics like Role of central Bank or instruments of monetary policy
which appear quite frequently. Select these and prepare your answers.
I revised International Trade and Macroeconomics more than other topics as questions
are more predictable from here and we end up attempting these questions only.
Practice diagrams, graphs and figures. If a model has a figure, i think there are no
marks without it.
I attempted Q6 in Paper 1 (CSE 2016). There were 2 questions which required proofs. I
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think it is better to attempt these if you can as they may fetch you more marks if done
correctly.
Paper II
I got 106 last year and 152 in CSE 2016. This paper has always been a nightmare for me. Even
now, I wish I could save myself from writing about it.
We all know how in social sciences, it is very difficult to prove a hypothesis as so many X variables
combine to give Y. Similarly here, we try so many things in our answers that we dont know what
worked. But this time in this paper, I think I did almost everything wrong except a few. My time
management was horrible in this paper. So a lot of content I had prepared, i could not write. I had
skipped some topics while preparing. But I focussed on the presentation. I made a lot of diagrams
and pie charts, even if they conveyed very less. And since I faced paucity of time especially in last
questions, I wrote less but I made sure that at least data and economists’ names are not missing.
Because of these reasons I think I have got a decent score.
Booklist
Pre Independence portion
I referred Tirthankar Roy mainly.
For land reforms, I referred Gaurav Aggarwal notes and Tirthankar Roy
I am providing notes for this portion. These I have made just now in April before CSE
2016 result. These are not my creation. Since I had time to spare, I combined Gaurav
Aggarwal, Abhimanyu Gahlaut and Riju Bafna notes, and included additional data and
facts from Tirthankar Roy. Note that referring to multiple sources for each sub-topic is
not advisable as rate of return is low. You can look at these notes if you like.
Since the weight age in the exam to this portion is on a rise (it seems), perhaps one
should spend some time on this otherwise neglected portion.
Pre and Post Liberalisation
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Agriculture Land reforms I am providing notes.
and Land Source: Uma Kapila and Dutt & Sundaram
tenure System
Green Uma Kapila covers Gulati and Fan’s 3 stages of Green Revolution
Revolution
Agri and WTO Agri and WTO: Indian Perspective by Biswajit Dhar
Industry Composition Policies and Composition from Gaurav Aggarwal notes/ Dutt and
and growth Sundaram
Growth explanation: Uma Kapila
Trade NEP and trade Uma Kapila for trends in volume, composition and direction of trade
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TRIPS, TRIMS, I am providing documents and notes
GATS
Note
Uma Kapila chapters are according to 25th edition
M&P chapters are according to 34th edition
Dutt and Sundaram and M&P are almost equivalent. Go for either one.
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SCANNED NOTES
Evernote link for strategy and notes: https://www.evernote.
com/pub/tj_iitk/economicsnotes
Google Drive link for scanned notes: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-
Oa7Q8caXTKdnNsQi1teFZtVnc?usp=sharing
Google Drive link for relevant documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-
Oa7Q8caXTKOFBscWNEblFwTG8?usp=sharing
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