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Questions › Microeconomics › Welfare economics and social choice

Welfare economics and social choice: previous year questions

Asked 62 times in 6 exams across 22 years. Newest first.

Practise Welfare economics and social choice, easy to hard →

Jump to a subtopic
  • Pareto efficiency and Pareto improvements 40
  • The fundamental theorems of welfare economics 10
  • Social welfare functions and social choice 8
  • Compensation criteria and welfare measures 4

Pareto efficiency and Pareto improvements

What it means for an allocation to be efficient, checked in exchange economies and other settings.

  1. CUET-PG 2026 Q65Match the LIST-I with LIST-II. List I A. Efficiency in exchange B. Efficiency in the use of inputs C. Efficiency in the output market D. Market…
  2. CUET-PG 2025 Q2The Pareto optimality criterion implies fulfillment of all the following conditions except
  3. UGC-NET 2025 Q52Which of the following statements correctly describe the concept of efficiency in environmental economics? A. An allocation is Pareto efficient if…
  4. CUET-PG 2024 Q9An allocation for agents in an economy, x, is said to be Pareto superior to another allocation y if moving from allocation y to allocation x
  5. CUET-PG 2023 Q29Given below are two statements: One is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R: Assertion A: Pareto optimality implies that an…
  6. IIT JAM 2023 Q32A 2-agent, 2-good economy has aggregate endowment 30 of X and 10 of Y, with uᵢ(xᵢ,yᵢ)=max {xᵢ,yᵢ}. Which allocations (x₁,y₁,x₂,y₂) are Pareto optimal?
  7. CUET-PG 2022 Q72According to the Pareto Criterion, a movement from state A to state B is desirable:
  8. DSE 2021 Q27In an exchange economy there are two goods X and Y and two agents A and B. A owns 10 units of good Y while B owns 10 units of good X. A has…
  9. UoH 2021 Q45Consider a society of a finite number of individuals (1, 2,... n) facing a finite number of states (i.e. alternatives), Z₁, Z₂, … Zₜ (t ≥ 3). Every…
  10. DSE 2020 Q29For the same economy (endowments (0,9) and (10,0); u₁=u₂=min {x,y}), the allocation that gives (10,9) to agent 1 and (0,0) to agent 2 is
  11. CUET-PG 2019 Q41A Pareto-efficient equilibrium makes:
  12. DSE 2019 Q12Scenario 2: Trader 1 is endowed with 100 identical Left shoes. Trader 2 is endowed with 99 identical Right shoes. Each trader's utility equals the…
  13. JNU 2018 Q31A cake has to be distributed between two persons A and B. Among the following, which one is not an efficient distribution of the cake (under the…
  14. JNU 2018 Q34(I) Indirect taxes violate which of the three conditions of Pareto optimality and (II) the rebate to producers on the indirect taxes that they paid…
  15. DSE 2017 Q3An economy has two agents A and B and two goods x and y; both agents treat the goods as perfect complements. The total endowment is (4,2). Which of…
  16. JNU 2017 Q3A cake of weight 1 kg is to be shared between two consumers X and Y. A consumption vector is denoted by (x, y), where x is the consumption in kg by…
  17. UoH 2017 Q6Which of the following market structures is Pareto efficient
  18. DSE 2016 Q21Consider an exchange economy with two agents, 1 and 2, and two goods, X and Y. There are 6 units of X and 4 units of Y available. Agent 1 has the…
  19. JNU 2016 Q31Which of the following conditions of Pareto efficiency is violated by an indirect tax such as the VAT?
  20. UoH 2015 Q28Consider an economy of at least 3 individuals with every individual having strictly monotonically increasing utility functions. Let state Y be…
  21. DSE 2014 Q31Consider an exchange economy with two goods where agents i and j have the same preferences, with the property: if (a,b) and (c,d) are distinct…
  22. DSE 2014 Q37A two-person two-commodity economy has social endowment x=1 (food), y=1 (wine). Preferences are increasing in own consumption but decreasing in the…
  23. DSE 2014 Q38Consider a two-person two-good pure exchange economy with endowments e¹=(1,0), e²=(0,1). Both have identical preferences u¹(x,y)=u²(x,y)=1 if x+y<1…
  24. DSE 2014 Q40An economy has n≥2 individuals with preferences over X. Let S={a,b,c,d,e} and T={a,b,c,d}⊂ S. Consider: A. If a is Pareto optimal (PO) in S, then a…
  25. DSE 2013 Q35In a two-person two-good exchange economy, agents are A and B and goods are 1 and 2, with utilities u_A(x₁,x₂)=α x₁+x₂ and u_B(y₁,y₂)=y₁y₂. There…
  26. DSE 2013 Q38Suppose a city can be described by the interval [0,1]. Only two citizens, A and B, live in this city at different locations, A at 0.2 and B at 0.7.…
  27. DSE 2012 Q2Consider a two-person two-good exchange economy, where agents are denoted by A,B and goods are denoted by X,Y. A Pareto optimal allocation of this…
  28. DSE 2012 Q22Antony and Cleopatra run a food stall together. Their joint profit is 10 Rupees per month, from which Antony gets I_A Rupees and Cleopatra gets I_C…
  29. DSE 2012 Q27A and B live in an exchange economy. There are two goods X and Y. Utility functions of A and B are U^A(x,y)=x+y and U^B(x,y)=x²+y², respectively. A…
  30. DSE 2011 Q45Consider an exchange economy with two agents, 1 and 2, and two goods, X and Y. There are 6 units of X and 4 units of Y available. An allocation is…
  31. DSE 2011 Q49Consider an exchange economy with two agents and aggregate endowment (10,10). The agents' utility functions are u₁(x₁,y₁)=x₁+2y₁ and…
  32. JNU 2011 Q79Suppose there are 3 alternatives x, y and z; and four individuals 1, 2, 3 and 4. The individuals' rankings (orderings) of the three alternatives…
  33. DSE 2010 Q56Consider an economy with two agents A and B and two goods x₁,x₂. Both agents treat x₁ and x₂ as perfect complements. The total endowment of x₁ is 4…
  34. JNU 2010 Q45Consider the five income distributions D₁, D₂, D₃, D₄, D₅. Which of the following is true?
  35. DSE 2008 Q32Consider an exchange economy with persons 1 and 2 and goods x and y. Person 1's utility is u₁(x,y)=x²y² and person 2's is u₂(x,y)=e^(x+y). The total…
  36. DSE 2007 Q28Let a=1 for Agent 2's utility function. Then, the equilibrium allocation in the above question is
  37. DSE 2006 Q1Suppose A and B have to divide a box of chocolates and both of them prefer to have more chocolates to fewer chocolates. An allocation that gives all…
  38. DSE 2006 Q30There are two individuals A and B. The utility function of both individuals are identical and given by u(x,y)=max {x,y}. Each of them has 1 unit of…
  39. DSE 2005 Q2For the exchange economy with Agent 1 endowment (100,100) maximizing min {x₁,y₁} and Agent 2 endowment (50,0) maximizing x₂+y₂: an example of a…
  40. DSE 2004 Q5Consider the exchange economy with two goods and two min -utility agents, but now Agent 1 's endowment of (X,Y) is (999,0) (Agent 2 's endowment is…

The fundamental theorems of welfare economics

When competitive markets deliver efficient outcomes and how transfers can reach any efficient outcome.

  1. UGC-NET 2025 Q30Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R). Assertion (A): When everyone trades in the…
  2. UGC-NET 2024 Q65Consider the following statements: (A) If a market generates a side effect or externality, then the market solution is inefficient. (B) If a market…
  3. CUET-PG 2023 Q47Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R): Assertion (A): According to the first…
  4. UGC-NET 2023 Q4Which of the following is not true in the case of the second theorem of welfare economics?
  5. DSE 2021 Q28Which of the following assumptions is not required for the 'First Welfare Theorem' in an exchange economy?
  6. UoH 2019 Q86In the general equilibrium analysis, which is related to re-distribution of wealth?
  7. JNU 2016 Q33Which of the following addresses redistribution issues to promote the equity objectives of the planner?
  8. UoH 2011 Q14According to the first fundamental theorem of welfare economics, a competitive general equilibrium is Pareto optimal when,
  9. DSE 2008 Q35Consider an exchange economy with the same two agents and utility functions as the last three questions, but now the endowments are (0,1) and (2,0).…
  10. DSE 2005 Q4For the exchange economy with Agent 1 endowment (100,100) maximizing min {x₁,y₁} and Agent 2 endowment (50,0) maximizing x₂+y₂: suppose the…

Social welfare functions and social choice

Combining individual preferences into social judgements, and the limits of doing so.

  1. CUET-PG 2026 Q64Match the LIST-I with LIST-II. List I A. Contract Curve B. Utility Possibility Frontier C. Social Welfare Function D. Production Possibility…
  2. IIT JAM 2026 Q15Consider a social welfare function (SWF) defined as SWF=f(U₁,U₂,…,Uₘ), where Uᵢ is the utility of the i^(th) person and there are m people. Identify…
  3. JNU 2020 Q32There are 200 kgs of food that must be allocated between two sailors marooned at an island. The utility functions of the two sailors are given by u₁…
  4. DSE 2018 Q35Voters arrive at a social ranking of alternatives by consulting a 'holy book': the social ranking is the ranking found in this book. Which of…
  5. JNU 2016 Q30A complete ranking of all feasible allocations that are made possible by the scarce economic resources of an economy is achievable by employing
  6. DSE 2013 Q34In a two-person two-good exchange economy, agents are A and B and goods are 1 and 2, with utilities u_A(x₁,x₂)=α x₁+x₂ and u_B(y₁,y₂)=y₁y₂. There…
  7. DSE 2011 Q14A society has 3 individuals and 3 alternatives A,B and C. Individuals 1 and 2 strictly prefer A to B and B to C. Individual 3 strictly prefers C to…
  8. UoH 2010 Q8Which statement below reflects the essence of Arrow's impossibility theorem?

Compensation criteria and welfare measures

Judging policy changes by whether winners could compensate losers.

  1. CUET-PG 2025 Q54Arrange the following scholarly contributions in their chronological order starting from the oldest to latest: (A) Kaldor-Hicks Compensation…
  2. UGC-NET 2025 Q58The welfare criterion based on compensation payments is known as:
  3. UGC-NET 2024 Q5Find out the correct alterative - Scitovsky double criterion
  4. JNU 2019 Q34Match the Match the items given in List – B with those in List – A List – A: I. A double Kaldor-Hicks Test, II. Compensation Principle, III. Social…