Meaning, scope and relevance of Social Science

Correct answer: A. A small income difference can produce a large difference in eligibility

Under the stated rule, ₹19,900 qualifies because it is below ₹20,000, while ₹20,100 does not. A strict eligibility threshold can therefore treat households differently even when their incomes are close.

Correct answer: D. A trade-off between serving many people efficiently and providing reasonable access to remote groups

A central facility may serve many users at lower average cost, yet create access difficulties for distant residents. Public planning must consider both efficient service delivery and the distribution of access.

Correct answer: B. Examining how land conversion may affect livelihoods, flood exposure and different community groups

Wetlands can provide ecological functions and support human livelihoods. Land conversion may affect several groups differently, so Social Science examines environmental changes together with their economic and social consequences.

Correct answer: C. Factory hiring is direct, supplier-related employment is indirect, and employment supported by employees' spending is induced

Direct employment occurs within the factory. Indirect employment arises through suppliers, while induced employment can result when workers spend their earnings on other goods and services. These categories describe different pathways of economic influence.

Correct answer: A. The translations may measure different levels of satisfaction despite appearing to ask the same question

Survey comparisons require questions to convey equivalent meanings across languages. A stronger expression may change how respondents interpret the scale, making results less comparable.

Correct answer: D. The estimated average income may be biased downward because high-income households are underrepresented

When nonresponse is related to the variable being measured, respondents may not represent the population accurately. Underrepresentation of high-income households can reduce the observed mean income.

Correct answer: B. 5 percentage points

Village A improves by 15 percentage points, and Village B improves by 10 percentage points. The difference-in-differences estimate is 15 minus 10, or 5 percentage points. Interpreting this as a causal effect requires assumptions, including comparable trends without the programme.

Correct answer: C. An association between group characteristics and group outcomes does not identify individuals' behaviour

Group-level turnout and population composition do not reveal exactly which individuals voted. Drawing conclusions about individual behaviour from neighbourhood averages risks an ecological inference error.

Correct answer: A. The earlier decline cannot have been caused by a centre that had not yet opened

A proposed cause must occur before the effect attributed to it. A decline beginning before the centre opened cannot be explained by its opening, although the centre might influence subsequent changes.

Correct answer: D. They act as a mediating factor through which the scholarship can influence attendance

A mediating factor helps explain how an intervention influences an outcome. In this case, the scholarship may reduce financial barriers, which can then support attendance.

Correct answer: B. The probability of a missing answer is related to the amount being measured

When missingness depends on the unreported value, the observed responses can systematically differ from the full population. The average calculated from available answers may therefore underestimate debt.

Correct answer: C. Observed relationships can depend on the level at which data are grouped and analysed

Relationships observed between areas need not match relationships between individuals within those areas. Differences in aggregation and local conditions can change the strength of statistical associations.

Correct answer: D. Some residents may benefit without contributing, reducing the incentive to fund the service voluntarily

Public street lighting is generally difficult to restrict to individual contributors, and one person's benefit does not usually prevent others from benefiting. This can create a free-rider problem in voluntary funding.

Correct answer: A. Trends in product demand, selling prices, input costs and business closures

Demand and production costs influence businesses through different mechanisms. Examining sales, prices and costs over time can help assess their relative contributions, including whether both factors were involved.

Correct answer: B. Paired information on parents' and their children's occupations

Intergenerational occupational mobility concerns movement between occupational positions across generations. Linked parent-child information allows researchers to examine these transitions directly.

Correct answer: D. Poor health may itself lead people to seek hospital care more often

The direction of causation may run from poor health to greater hospital use rather than the reverse. Researchers must consider reverse causality before interpreting an observed association.

Correct answer: C. Network effects can increase opportunities for communication as participation grows

A communication network can become more valuable to each user when more relevant people participate. Greater membership creates additional possible connections, although actual usefulness also depends on how the application functions.

Correct answer: A. Higher-income households have been excluded, so the observed group does not represent the entire town

The selection rule omits all households above the threshold. The resulting average describes the restricted group, not the full town population, and is likely to underestimate the townwide mean if higher incomes are present.

Correct answer: D. Both the number served and the distribution of access improvements across groups

The plans differ in overall coverage and distributional effects. Comparing efficiency alongside who gains access makes the trade-off explicit without treating one measure as sufficient.

Correct answer: B. Shared question wording and response tendencies may inflate the observed association

When both measures come from the same method and setting, response styles or wording can contribute to their correlation. Researchers should consider common-method bias alongside genuine relationships.

Correct answer: C. Cultural diffusion can introduce new elements that coexist with established practices

Cultural diffusion occurs when ideas or practices spread between groups. Receiving communities may adapt new elements while preserving existing traditions, producing cultural change without complete replacement.

Correct answer: D. Lower prior achievement influences funding allocation, reversing the assumed direction of explanation

Funding is targeted toward schools already performing poorly, so their low results may precede increased spending. This creates endogeneity and makes a simple comparison unsuitable for estimating funding's causal effect.

Correct answer: A. Check whether the relationship remains under reasonable alternative measures and analytical assumptions

Robustness checks examine whether a finding depends heavily on one particular measurement or analytical choice. Consistent findings across reasonable alternatives can increase confidence, although they do not alone establish causation.

Correct answer: C. The comparison village may be indirectly affected by the programme through information spillovers

A comparison group is less informative when it receives some benefits indirectly from the intervention. These spillover effects can reduce the observed difference between treated and untreated groups.

Correct answer: B. Differences in institutional access can shape opportunities even when individual skills are similar

Entrepreneurship depends not only on skills but also on access to finance, institutions and markets. Unequal access to affordable credit can create different opportunities for similarly capable individuals.