Free Microeconomics MCQs with Answers

• A. surplus
• B. shortage of everything
• C. equality
• D. capitalistic system

Explanation: A surplus allows some people to control or accumulate resources beyond immediate subsistence, creating differences in wealth, power, and…

• A. horizontal mobility
• B. vertical mobility
• C. intragenerational mobility
• D. inter structural mobility

Explanation: Moving from janitor to security guard without changing social rank is horizontal mobility, because the occupation changes while the…

• A. a high position in the stratification system
• B. a low position in the stratification system
• C. lack of talent
• D. lack of desire for an education

Explanation: Life chances refer to the opportunities people have for education, income, health, and security, and these generally worsen lower in the…

• A. classes are the result of different life styles
• B. status is also a phenomenon of stratification
• C. classes are determined by the relationship of a group in society to the means of production
• D. classes are composed of the have-nots who eventually revolt against the haves

Explanation: For Marx, class is rooted in a group's relationship to the means of production: owners form the bourgeoisie and non-owners form the…

• A. anomie
• B. labeling theory
• C. innovation
• D. differential association theory

Explanation: Cultural transmission theory explains deviance as learned through interaction with others, which is the central idea of differential…

• A. psychotherapy
• B. psychosurgery
• C. hypnotherapy
• D. electroconvulsive shock therapy

Explanation: Psychosurgery, including procedures such as lobotomy, was once used for severe mental disorders but was largely abandoned because of…

• A. anxiety or emotional tension producing physical symptoms
• B. purely imaginary physical problems
• C. bodily ailments creating mental disorder
• D. all of the above

Explanation: Psychosomatic illness occurs when anxiety or emotional stress produces genuine physical symptoms.

• A. Freud,s theory that anatomy is destiny
• B. Mead,s theory of inherited criminality
• C. Cooley,s theory of original sin
• D. None of the above

Explanation: None of the listed statements correctly identifies a sociological theory of deviance: Freud's claim is psychoanalytic, while the…

• A. trauma
• B. anomie
• C. alienation
• D. anomaly

Explanation: Anomie is a state of normlessness in which people become detached from accepted rules and legitimate ways of behaving.

• A. is based on violence
• B. gains small amounts of money for its perpetrators
• C. is very costly to society
• D. is punished more severely than blue-collar crime

Explanation: White-collar crime is usually nonviolent occupational or business crime, but fraud and corporate offences can impose very large costs on…

• A. demand is elastic
• B. demand is inelastic
• C. there is aggregate demand
• D. exchange takes place

Explanation: If a substantial price reduction produces little additional buying, quantity demanded responds weakly to price, indicating inelastic…

• A. anomie
• B. alienation
• C. crime
• D. differentiation

Explanation: Crime is deviance that violates formal laws and can therefore attract legal punishment.

• A. anomie
• B. labeling
• C. transmission
• D. forgiveness

Explanation: When deviant behaviour becomes known to others, society may attach a deviant identity to the person through labeling.

• A. a person's marginal productivity
• B. whom one knows
• C. which skills one has
• D. innate talent

Explanation: In the marginal-productivity theory of distribution, a factor's income is linked to the value of its marginal product, meaning the extra…

• A. the market does not provide for satisfying public needs
• B. the market is not equitable favoring those with more resources
• C. the market makes no provision for protecting smaller participants
• D. all of the above

Explanation: A completely laissez-faire market may underprovide public goods, produce unequal outcomes, and fail to protect weaker participants from…

• A. clearance price
• B. equilibrium price
• C. pressure price
• D. a buyer's market

Explanation: At the intersection of supply and demand, the quantity supplied equals the quantity demanded, so there is no persistent surplus or…

• A. are totally free to pursue their goals
• B. are affected by prices and incomes
• C. try to maximize their worth
• D. try to maximize their labor

Explanation: Market participants respond to incentives, especially changes in prices and incomes, when deciding what to buy, sell, or produce.

• A. factor markets
• B. resource markets
• C. product markets
• D. abstract markets

Explanation: Firms sell finished goods and services in product markets, while they buy labour, land, capital, and other inputs in factor or resource…

• A. are unrelated concepts
• B. amount to the same thing
• C. are closely related to price
• D. are closely related to supply

Explanation: A need is a want or requirement, whereas demand requires both willingness and the purchasing power to buy a good.

• A. the nuclear family
• B. the extended family
• C. everyone who lives under one roof
• D. all of the above

Explanation: In basic microeconomics, a household is treated as the people living together who make consumption and resource-supply decisions, commonly…