SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions
In the 2002 football World Cup, France, the reigning world champions, suffered a humiliating defeat to unfancied Senegal. All 11 members of the victorious Senegalese team had played for European clubs. They were not alone. By 2000, the first and second divisions of Europe’s leagues had poached enough African players to field 70 teams. So, have greedy European clubs deprived Senegal of its best footballers, or has the prospect of a lucrative career in Europe encouraged more Senegalese to take up the beautiful game?
This question is posed by a new book, “Give Us Your Best and Brightest”, by Devesh Kapur and John McHale. The authors are development economists first, football fans second (if at all). But they see the emigration of African players as a highly visible example of the “brain drain”. Less visible, but more worrying, is the departure of the poor world’s doctors, nurses, and teachers to more lucrative job markets in the rich world. Ghana, for example, has only 6.2 doctors per 100,000 people. Perhaps three quarters of its doctors leave within ten years of qualifying.
The answer to the Senegal conundrum is of course “both”: the best players leave, and the dream of emulating them motivates many others to take their place. The real question is whether the second effect outweighs the first, leaving the game in Senegal stronger or weaker than it otherwise would be. A few economists, including Andrew Mountford, of Royal Holloway (part of the University of London), and Oded Stark, of the University of Bonn, think the net effect of the brain drain is similarly ambiguous. The prospect of securing a visa to America or Australia should tempt more people in poor countries to invest in education. Mr. Stark calls this a “brain gain”.
Even if the brain drain does leave a country with a better-educated populace, is this necessarily a good thing? Education is not free, and some of those who gambled on a diploma as a ticket overseas will regret their decision. But Mr. Stark assumes that people in poor countries tend to demand too little education. A person’s productivity depends on the skills of those around him, as well as his own. Because of these spill overs, an individual’s education is worth more to the economy as a whole than it is to himself, and he will underinvest in it as a result. Mr. Stark sees limited emigration as one way to fix this market failure.
India’s software engineers are perhaps an example of this principle at work. Indian students had little reason to learn computer coding before there was a software industry to employ them. But such an industry could not take root without computer engineers to man it. The dream of a job in Silicon Valley, however, was enough to lure many of India’s bright young things into coding, and that was enough to hatch an indigenous software industry where none existed before.
India’s valley-dwellers represent just one contingent in a much larger diaspora. India’s relatively happy experience with its educated émigrés is more likely to be the exception than the rule. Its million-strong brain drain represents just 4.3% of its vast graduate population, according to the World Bank. By contrast, almost 47% of Ghana’s highly educated native sons live in the OECD, for Guyana, the figure is 89% This is not a stimulative leeching of talent: it is a hemorrhage.
Emigration, as Mr. Stark suggests, might be a spur to greater accomplishment, and the poor world’s talent, like Senegal’s footballers, deserves a chance to compete on a global stage. It is not easy to run a managed “emigration” policy. The drain of educated minds from poor countries is mostly determined by host countries’ rules, not home countries’ interests. There will be tremendous pressure to loosen those rules in the future, not least because, as the baby boom generation retires, it will seek to “backfill the taxpaying workforce behind it”, as Messrs Kapur and McHale put it. The rich world no longer welcomes the tired and the huddled; it looks set to compete ever more fiercely for the bright and the qualified.
(The Economist)
Q.1 What is the meaning of the term ‘unfancied’?
a)Illogical
b)stern
c)unfortunate
d)not likely to succeed
Q.2 Which of the following statements are wrong?
a)If the chances of getting an education are low, this could benefit poor countries.
b)Many Indians were unsuccessful in getting to America, so they set up coding industries in India.
c)Most Indian emigrants do not return to India.
d)A person’s productivity depends, to a certain extent, on the productivity of those around him/her.
Q.3 What is the focus of this passage?
a)Have foreign clubs deprived african countries of their best players?
b)Does a brain drain pull up the competence standards of the country?
c)Is international migration brain drain?
d)Do poor countries gain when their best and brightest leave?
Q.4 What is the outcome of the Senegal conundrum?
a)The best players leave.
b)The dream of emulating them motivates others.
c)The dream of emulating others motivates the best players.
d)Both (a) and (b).
Q.5 In this passage, the market failure refers to?
a)The brain drain taking place.
b)Inadequate recognition of the desirability of one’s education.
c)Lack of education.
d)Inadequacy of opportunities.
Answers
1. d
2. a
3. c
4. d
5. b
This question is posed by a new book, “Give Us Your Best and Brightest”, by Devesh Kapur and John McHale. The authors are development economists first, football fans second (if at all). But they see the emigration of African players as a highly visible example of the “brain drain”. Less visible, but more worrying, is the departure of the poor world’s doctors, nurses, and teachers to more lucrative job markets in the rich world. Ghana, for example, has only 6.2 doctors per 100,000 people. Perhaps three quarters of its doctors leave within ten years of qualifying.
The answer to the Senegal conundrum is of course “both”: the best players leave, and the dream of emulating them motivates many others to take their place. The real question is whether the second effect outweighs the first, leaving the game in Senegal stronger or weaker than it otherwise would be. A few economists, including Andrew Mountford, of Royal Holloway (part of the University of London), and Oded Stark, of the University of Bonn, think the net effect of the brain drain is similarly ambiguous. The prospect of securing a visa to America or Australia should tempt more people in poor countries to invest in education. Mr. Stark calls this a “brain gain”.
Even if the brain drain does leave a country with a better-educated populace, is this necessarily a good thing? Education is not free, and some of those who gambled on a diploma as a ticket overseas will regret their decision. But Mr. Stark assumes that people in poor countries tend to demand too little education. A person’s productivity depends on the skills of those around him, as well as his own. Because of these spill overs, an individual’s education is worth more to the economy as a whole than it is to himself, and he will underinvest in it as a result. Mr. Stark sees limited emigration as one way to fix this market failure.
India’s software engineers are perhaps an example of this principle at work. Indian students had little reason to learn computer coding before there was a software industry to employ them. But such an industry could not take root without computer engineers to man it. The dream of a job in Silicon Valley, however, was enough to lure many of India’s bright young things into coding, and that was enough to hatch an indigenous software industry where none existed before.
India’s valley-dwellers represent just one contingent in a much larger diaspora. India’s relatively happy experience with its educated émigrés is more likely to be the exception than the rule. Its million-strong brain drain represents just 4.3% of its vast graduate population, according to the World Bank. By contrast, almost 47% of Ghana’s highly educated native sons live in the OECD, for Guyana, the figure is 89% This is not a stimulative leeching of talent: it is a hemorrhage.
Emigration, as Mr. Stark suggests, might be a spur to greater accomplishment, and the poor world’s talent, like Senegal’s footballers, deserves a chance to compete on a global stage. It is not easy to run a managed “emigration” policy. The drain of educated minds from poor countries is mostly determined by host countries’ rules, not home countries’ interests. There will be tremendous pressure to loosen those rules in the future, not least because, as the baby boom generation retires, it will seek to “backfill the taxpaying workforce behind it”, as Messrs Kapur and McHale put it. The rich world no longer welcomes the tired and the huddled; it looks set to compete ever more fiercely for the bright and the qualified.
(The Economist)
Q.1 What is the meaning of the term ‘unfancied’?
a)Illogical
b)stern
c)unfortunate
d)not likely to succeed
Q.2 Which of the following statements are wrong?
a)If the chances of getting an education are low, this could benefit poor countries.
b)Many Indians were unsuccessful in getting to America, so they set up coding industries in India.
c)Most Indian emigrants do not return to India.
d)A person’s productivity depends, to a certain extent, on the productivity of those around him/her.
Q.3 What is the focus of this passage?
a)Have foreign clubs deprived african countries of their best players?
b)Does a brain drain pull up the competence standards of the country?
c)Is international migration brain drain?
d)Do poor countries gain when their best and brightest leave?
Q.4 What is the outcome of the Senegal conundrum?
a)The best players leave.
b)The dream of emulating them motivates others.
c)The dream of emulating others motivates the best players.
d)Both (a) and (b).
Q.5 In this passage, the market failure refers to?
a)The brain drain taking place.
b)Inadequate recognition of the desirability of one’s education.
c)Lack of education.
d)Inadequacy of opportunities.
Answers
1. d
2. a
3. c
4. d
5. b
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Sanya Ambastha
Contributing author
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