Economics (AS & A Level) · May / June 2025 · Paper 11 · Question 4

In 2020, there was a worldwide pandemic. High-income countries quickly developed a vaccine. Low-income countries built high-tech factories to manufacture large quantities of the vaccine for export. What explains this international division of labour?

1. Ahigh-income countries: availability of specialists in research and development; low-income countries: lower costs of production
2. Bhigh-income countries: scarce human resources; low-income countries: over-supply of unskilled labour
3. Chigh-income countries: many people tended to avoid the disease; low-income countries: many people tended to catch the disease
4. Dhigh-income countries: no government control over resource allocation; low-income countries: strict government control over resource allocation

As printed in the paper