Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad

Admission Test

Fall 2020

Name: _________________________ Registration No. ________________

CNIC No. ___________________________

RULES:
i. Duration for online exam is 5 hours. Submission after 2PM will notaccepted.Attempt all
questions
ii. Ensure that your document is not plagiarized. Failure to comply will resulted in
disqualification fromadmission process.
iii. In case an applicant unable to send a type-written document, he can submit hand-written
papers. Applicant must email scanned copies of tests that meets the following criteria:
a. Each pageclearly numbered
b. Scanned copyeasily readable

Question 1:You are a policy analyst in the Policy Reform Unit. Your tasks are to preparepolicy
briefson current “issues.” Prepare a policy brief that covers the following steps

[Pick any issue of your choice](Word limit: 400 words)

a. Define the problem (policy context)

b. Identify the political, social, economic or behavioral context of the situation
c. As a policy analyst, assign critical causes for this situation. (Not more than 3)
d. Develop a policy solution

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Question 2:The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in high unemployment and poverty. An
independent source develops a proposal on social safety nets to address poverty.

(Link to the proposal: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/391034-)

You are tasked to critically review this proposal and suggest the best solution to achieve “No
Poverty” given the scenario of low economic growth. Follow the following steps:

a. Define the issue

b. Gathering evidence on the issue
c. Leading causes of the issue
d. Evaluating existing proposal
e. Develop policy solutions
f. Selecting the best policy solution

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Question 3:Answer the questions following questions using the figure below:

The above graph describes the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) for three countries, Egypt, Pakistan,
and India. The IMR represents the number of deaths within one year of birth for 1000 live births.
In addition to the three countries, the graph provides three quartiles – 25%, 50%, and 75%. The
bottom line is 25% quartile, which represents the highest IMR in the 25% of the countries with
the best infant mortality. The second line is 50%, which is the MEDIAN IMR. The median has
the property that half of the countries have lower IMR, and half of the countries have higher
IMR. It is in the middle. The third line in the 75% or the 3 rd quartile. 75% of the countries have
lower IMR than this curve, while 25% of the countries have higher IMR. Answer the questions
below based on this graph.

i. Highlight the key features of the above graph (Word limit 150 words)

ii. For the year 1960, the following statements about IMR are TRUE:
A. Egypt, India, and Pakistan were all in the first quartile, the best 25%.
B. Egypt, India, and Pakistan were all in the second quartile, between 25% and 50%.
C. Egypt, India, and Pakistan were all in the third quartile, between 50% and 75%.
D. All three countries were above the third quartile, belonging to 25% of the countries with
the highest infant mortality

iii. Which of the following statements about IMR in Pakistan is FALSE:

A. IM has declined dramatically, falling from about 160 to about 60 per 1000.
B. Pakistan has improved its position relative to India.
C. Egypt has improved its position relative to Pakistan
D. Throughout, Pakistan has remained with the third quartile, 25% with the highest IM.

iv. Which of the following statements is FALSE:

A. India has remained at approximately 75% throughout this period
B. Pakistan has remained slightly above 75% throughout this period.
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 C. Egypt has remained slightly above 75% throughout this period.
D. All countries in the world have had dramatic improvements in infant mortality.

v. Which of the following statements about IMR in Egypt is FALSE

A. Egypt dramatically improved its IMR, going from about 200 to about 25 per 1000.
B. Egypt dramatically improved its ranking among countries, going from among the worst
to about the middle.
C. Egypt overtook Pakistan concerning IMR in around 1981.
D. Egypt overtook India to IMR in around 1990.

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Question 4:The table shows Pakistan’s rankings and scores in the World Giving Index.High
ratings reflect more charitable behavior in each dimension: Helping Strangers, Monetary Help,
Volunteering Time. The overall score combines all three counts. RANKING demonstrates the
position of the total score within the entire group of 240 countries for which the data was
collected. Low ranks are desirable, as these reflect more charitable behavior, with 1 st being the
top and most highly ranked country, with the maximum overall charity score.

i. Highlight the key features of the table above (Word limit 150 words)

ii. Which of the following statements about the ranking of Pakistan is TRUE?
A. Pakistan’s ranking has remained relatively stable over the years.
B. Pakistan’s ranking has improved substantially since 2010.
C. Pakistan has been among the top 100 countries for charity since 2010.
D. Pakistan’s ranking for charity has steadily improved.

iii. Which of the following statements about the scores of Pakistan is FALSE?
A. Except for 2010, Pakistan’s score in Helping Strangers has been between 40% and 55%.
B. 2011 was a peak year for Pakistan in terms of providing Monetary Help.
C. 2011 was a peak year for Pakistan in terms of Volunteering Time for Charity.
D. 2011 was a peak year for Pakistan in terms of Helping Strangers.

iv. Which of the following statements reflects something we can learn from the tabled
data
A. Pakistani’s have relatively higher scores for volunteering time than for helping strangers.
B. Average scores for providing monetary help are higher than those for helping strangers.
C. The overall score of Pakistan was highest in 2013
D. The overall ranking of Pakistan was worst in 2010