SYLLABUS AND SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR MSQE

(Program Code: MQEK and MQED)

2015
Syllabus for PEA (Mathematics), 2015

Algebra: Binomial Theorem, AP, GP, HP, Exponential, Logarithmic Series,

Sequence, Permutations and Combinations, Theory of Polynomial Equations;
(up to third degree).
Matrix Algebra: Vectors and Matrices, Matrix Operations, Determinants.
Calculus: Functions, Limits, Continuity, Differentiation of functions of one
or more variables. Unconstrained Optimization, Definite and Indefinite Integrals: Integration by parts and integration by substitution, Constrained
optimization of functions of not more than two variables.
Elementary Statistics: Elementary probability theory, measures of central
tendency, dispersion, correlation and regression, probability distributions,
standard distributions-Binomial and Normal.
Sample questions for PEA (Mathematics), 2015
1.

lim

{ x }, where {x} = decimalpart of x, is

{ x}

sin

x 0+

(a) 0
2.

(b) 1

(c) non-existent

f : [0, 1] [0, 1] is continuous.Then it is true that

(a) f (0) = 0, f (1) = 1
1
2
is constant for all 0,1
= for at least one [0,1]

(b) f is differentiable only at x =

(c)
(d)
3.

f ( x) = x 2 + x 4 .Then f is
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)

continuously differentiable at x = 2
differentiable but not continuously differentiable at x = 2
f has both left and right derivatives at x = 2
none of these

(d)none of these

4. In an examination of 100 students, 70 passed in Mathematics, 65 passed in Physics

and 55 passed in Chemistry. Out of these students, 35 passed in all the three subjects,
50 passed in Mathematics and Physics, 45 passed in Mathematics and Chemistry and
40 passed in Physics and Chemistry.Then the number of students who passed in
exactly one subject is
(a) 30

(b) 25

5. The square matrix of the matrix

(c) 10

(d) none of these

a b
is a null matrix if and only if
c 0

(a) = = = 0
(b) = = 0, is any non-zero real number
(c) a = b = 0 , c is any non-zero real number
(d) a = 0 and either = 0
= 0
6. If the positive numbers x, y, z are in harmonic progression, then
log (x + z) + log (x 2y + z) equals
(a) 4 log ( x z )

(b) 3 log ( x z )

(c) 2 log ( x z )

(d) log ( x z )

7. If f (x+2y, x-2y)= xy, then f (x,y) equals

(a)

x2 y2
8

(b)

x2 y2
4

(c)

x2 + y2
4

8. The domain of the function f ( x) = x 2 1 log

(a) , -1)

(b) ( 1, 0)

(d) none of these

( 1 x ) ,x 0,is

(c) null set

(d) none of these

9. The graph of the function y = log (1 2 x + x 2 ) intersects the x axis at

(a) 0, 2
(b) 0,- 2
(c) 2

(d) 0

10. The sum of two positive integers is 100.The minimum value of the sum of their
reciprocals is
(a)

3
6
1
(b)
(c)
(d) none of these
25
25
25

 , , is

11. The range of the function f ( x) = 4 x + 2 x + 4 x + 2 x + 3 , where

3
(a) ,
4

3
(b) ,
4

(c) (7, )

(d) [7, )

12. The function f : R R satisfies f ( x + y ) = f ( x ) + f ( y ) x, y R , where R is the

n

real line, and f (1) = 7 .Then

f (r ) equals

r =1

(a)

7 n (n + 1)
7n
7(n + 1)
(d) 7 n ( n + 1)
(b)
(c)
2
2
2

13. Let f and g be differentiable functions for 0 < x < 1 and f (0) = g (0) = 0, f (1) = 6
.Suppose that for all x (0, 1) , the equality f ' ( x ) = 2 g ' ( x ) holds. Then g(1) equals
(a) 1

(b) 3

(c) -2

(d) -1

14. Consider the real valued function f ( x) = ax 2 + bx + c defined on [1, 2].Then it is

always possible to get a k (1, 2) such that
(a)

=2 +

(b)

+2

(c)

=3 +

(d) none of these

1
.The second term equals the first term divided by 1
3
more than the first term. The third term equals the second term divided by 1 more
than the second term, and so on. Then the 500thterm is
1
1
1
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d) none of these
503
501
502

15. In a sequence the first term is

16. In how many ways can three persons, each throwing a single die once, make a score
of 10?
(a) 6

(b) 18

(c) 27

(d) 36

17. Let a be a positive integer greater than 2.The number of values of x for which
+
= 0 holds is
(a) 1

18. Let
#$

(b) 2

(c) a

be a solution to any optimization problem

(d) a + 1
,

"

subject to

Let
,
be a solution to the same optimization problem
, subject to #$ , $ with an added constraint that #& ,
, "
& .Then which one of the following statements is always true?




(a)
,

, )
(b)
,

,




(c) |
,
||
, |
(d) |
,
||
, |
$.

19. Let , be a real solution to:

subject to * + , where
, " +
> 0, * > 0 and 0, .Then which one of the following statements is true?
(a) depends only on p
(b) depends only on m
(c) depends on both p and m (d) is independent of both p and m.
20. Let 0 < $ < & < 1 and let
all values of x for which
;
(a) . = { |

$2 "
0 ,
3}
&
&
12 "

$,

(c) . = { | 00,

&

, 13}

;
&

= | $ | | & |.Let X be the set of

achieves its maximum. Then

$,

&

(b) . = { | { $ ,

& }}

(d) . = { | [ $ ,

& ]}.

21. Let A and B be two events with positive probability each, defined on the same sample
space. Find the correct answer:
(a) P(A/B) > P(A) always
(b) P(A/B) < P(A) always
(c) P(A/B) > P(B) always
(d) None of the above
22. Let A and B be two mutually exclusive events with positive probability each, defined
on the same sample space. Find the correct answer:
(b) A and B are necessarily independent
(c) A and B are necessarily dependent
(d) A and B are necessarily equally likely
(e) None of the above
23. The salaries of 16 players of a football club are given below (units are in thousands of
rupees).
100, 100, 111, 114, 165, 210, 225, 225, 230,
575, 1200, 1900, 2100, 2100, 2650, 3300

Now suppose each player received an extra Rs. 200,000 as bonus. Find the correct
answer:
(a) Mean will increase by Rs. 200,000 but the median will not change
(b) Both mean and median will be increased by Rs. 200,000
(c) Mean and standard deviation will both be changed
(d) Standard deviation will be increased but the median will be unchanged
24. Let Pr(X=2)= 1. Define 5&6 = 7 . 5 &6 , 5 = 7 . . Then:
(a) 5&6 =2 (b) 5&6 =0
(c) 5&6 > 0
(d) None of the above
25. Consider a positively skewed distribution. Find the correct answer on the position of
the mean and the median:
(a) Mean is greater than median
(c) Mean and median are same

(b) Mean is smaller than median

(d) None of the above

26. Puja and Priya play a fair game (i.e. winning probability is for both players)
repeatedly for one rupee per game. If originally Puja has a rupees and Priya
has b rupees (where a>b), what is Pujas chances of winning all of Priyas money,
assuming the play goes on until one person has lost all her money?
(a) 1

(b) 0

(c) b/(a+b)

(d) a/(a+b)

27. An urn contains w white balls and b black balls (w>0) and (b>0).The balls are
thoroughly mixed and two are drawn, one after the other, without replacement.
Let Wi denote the outcome 'white on the i-th draw' for i=1,2.Which one of the
following is true?
(a) P(W2) = P(W1) = w/(w+b)
(b) P(W2) = P(W1) = (w-1)/(w+b-1)
(c) P(W1)= w/(w+b), P(W2)= (w-1)/(w+b-1)
(d) P(W1)= w/(w+b), P(W2) = {w(w-1)}/{(w-b)(w+b-1)}
28. A bag contains four pieces of paper, each labeled with one of the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, with
no repeats. Three of these pieces are drawn, one at a time without replacement, to
construct a three-digit number. What is the probability that the three-digit number is a
multiple of 3?
(a)

(b)

(c)

(d) 9/24

29. Consider two random variables X and Y where X takes values -2,-1,0,1,2 each with
probability 1/5 and Y=|X|. Which of the following is true?
(a) The variables X and Yare independent and Pearson's correlation coefficient
between X and Y is 0.
(b) The variables X and Y are dependent and Pearson's correlation coefficient
between X and Y is 0.
(c) The variables X and Y are independent and Pearson's correlation coefficient
between X and Y is 1.
(d) The variables X and Y are dependent and Pearson's correlation coefficient
between X and Y is 1.
30. Two friends who take the metro to their jobs from the same station arrive to the
station uniformly randomly between 7 and 7:20 in the morning. They are willing to
wait for one another for 5 minutes, after which they take a train whether together or
alone. What is the probability of their meeting at the station?
(a) 5/20

(b) 25/400

(c) 10/20

(d) 7/16

Syllabus for PEB (Economics), 2015

Microeconomics: Theory of consumer behaviour, theory of production, market structure
under perfect competition, monopoly, price discrimination, duopoly with Cournot and
Bertrand competition (elementary problems) and welfare economics.
Macroeconomics: National income accounting, simple Keynesian Model of income
determination and the multiplier, IS-LM model, models of aggregate demand and
aggregate supply, Harrod-Domar and Solow models of growth, money, banking and
inflation.
Sample questions for PEB (Economics), 2015

1.

Consider an agent in an economy with two goods .$ and .&.Suppose she has income
20.Suppose also that when she consumes amounts $ and & of the two goods
respectively, she gets utility
< $ , & = 2 $ + 32 & 3 & & .
(a) Suppose the prices of .$ and .& are each 1.What is the agent's optimal
consumption bundle? [5 marks]
(b) Suppose the price of .& increases to 4, all else remaining the same.Which
consumption bundle does the agent choose now? [5 marks]
(c) How much extra income must the agent be given to compensate her for the
increase in price of .&? [10 marks]

2.

Suppose a government agency has a monopoly in the provision of internet

connections. The marginal cost of providing internet connections is , whereas the
inverse demand function is given by: p = 1 q. The official charge per connection is
set at 0; thus, the state provides a subsidy of per connection. However, the state can
only provide budgetary support for the supply of 0.4 units, which it raises through
taxes on consumers. Bureaucrats in charge of sanctioning internet connections are in
a position to ask for bribes, and consumers are willing to pay them in order to get
connections. Bureaucrats cannot, however, increase supply beyond 0.4 units.
(a) Find the equilibrium bribe rate per connection and the social surplus.
[5 marks]
(b) Now suppose the government agency is privatized and the market is
deregulated; however, due large fixed costs of entry relative to demand, the
privatized company continues to maintain its monopoly. Find the new
equilibrium price, bribe rate and social surplus, specifying whether
privatization increases or reduces them. [10 marks]
(c) Suppose now a technological innovation becomes available to the privatized
monopoly, which reduces its marginal cost of providing an internet
connection to c, 0 < c < .Find the range of values of c for which
privatization increases consumers' surplus. [5 marks]

3.

Suppose the borders of a state, B, coincide with the circumference of a circle of

radius r > 0, and its population is distributed uniformly within its borders (so that the
proportion of the population living within some region of B is simply the proportion
of the state's total land mass contained in that region), with total population
normalized to 1.For any resident of B, the cost of travelling a distance d is kd, with k>
0.Every resident of B is endowed with an income of 10, and is willing to spend up to
this amount to consume one unit of a good, G, which is imported from outside the
state at zero transport cost. The Finance Minister of B has imposed an entry tax at the
rate 100t% on shipments of G brought into B. Thus, a unit of G costs p(1+t) inside
the borders of B, but can be purchased for just p outside; p(1+t) < 10.Individual
residents of B have to decide whether to travel beyond its borders to consume the
good or to purchase it inside the state. Individuals can travel anywhere to shop and
consume, but have to return to their place of origin afterwards.
(a) Find the proportion of the population of B which will evade the entry tax by
shopping outside the state. [5 marks]
(b) Find the social welfare-maximizing tax rate. Also find the necessary and
sufficient conditions for it to be identical to the revenue-maximizing tax rate.
[5 marks]
(c) Assume that the revenue-maximizing tax rate is initially positive. Find the
elasticity of tax revenue with respect to the external price of G, supposing that
the Finance Minister always chooses the revenue-maximizing tax rate.
[10 marks]

4.

Suppose there are two firms, 1 and 2, each producing chocolate, at 0 marginal cost.
However, one firm's product is not identical to the product of the other. The inverse
demand functions are as follows:
*$ = =$ $$ >$ $& >& , *& = =& &$ >$ && >& ;
where *$ and >$ are respectively price obtained and quantity produced by firm 1 and
*& and >& are respectively price obtained and quantity produced by firm
2.=$ , =& , $$ , $& , &$ , && are all positive.Assume the firms choose independently
how much to produce.
(a) How much do the two firms produce, assuming both produce positive
quantities? [10 marks]
(b) What conditions on the parameters =$ , =& , $$ , $& , &$ , && are together both
necessary and sufficient to ensure that both firms produce positive quantities?
[5 marks]
(c) Under what set of conditions on these parameters does this model reduce to
the standard Cournot model? [5 marks]

5.

Suppose a firm manufactures a good with labor as the only input. Its production
function is ? = @, where Q is output and L is total labor input employed. Suppose
further that the firm is a monopolist in the product market and a monopsonist in the
labor market. Workers may be male (M) or female (F); thus, @ = @A + @B .Let the
inverse demand function for output and the supply functions for gender-specific labor
C

be respectively * = = & ; @D = ED FG , HD > 0; where p is the price received per unit of

the good and ED is the wage the firm pays to each unit of labor of gender I , I
{J, K}.Let HA HB = 1.Suppose, in equilibrium, the firm is observed to hire both M and
F workers, but pay M workers double the wage rate that it pays F workers.
(a) Derive the exact numerical value of the elasticity of supply of male labor. [10
marks]
(b) What happens to total male labor income as a proportion of total labor income
when the output demand parameter A increases? Prove your claim.
[10 marks]
6.

An economy comprises of a consolidated household sector, a firm sector and the

government. The household supplies labour (@) to the firm.The firm produces a single
good (L) by means of a production functionL = K @ ; K > 0, K < 0, and
maximizes profits = PY WL ,where N is the price of L and O is the wage rate.The
household, besides earning wages, is also entitled to the profits of the firm. The
household maximizes utility (P), given by:
1
1 M
U = ln C + ln
d ( L) ;
2
2 P
M
is real balance holding. The term @
where C is consumption of the good and
P
denotes the disutility from supplying labour; with > 0,
> 0.The household's
budget constraint is given by:
NQ + J = O@ + R + J NS;
where M is the money holding the household begins with, J is the holding they end
up with and S is the real taxes levied by the government. The government's demand
for the good is given by T .The government's budget constraint is given by:
J J = NT NS.
Goods market clearing implies: Y = C + G .
(a) Prove that

UV

UW

0,1 , and that government expenditure crowds out private

UX

consumption (i.e., UW < 0). [15 marks]

(b) Show that everything else remaining the same, a rise in J leads to an equiproportionate rise in P. [5 marks]

7.

Consider the Solow growth model in continuous time, where the exogenous rate of
technological progress, g, is zero. Consider an intensive form production function
given by:
= Y 6 [ + 11 & 6 ;
(1)
where

\
]

(the capital labour ratio).

(a) Specify the assumptions made with regard to the underlying extensive form
production function K ^, @ in the Solow growth model, and explain which
ones among these assumptions are violated by (1). [10 marks]
(b) Graphically show that, with a suitable value of _ + ` , where _ is the
population growth rate, and ` [0,1] is the depreciation rate on capital, there
exist three steady state equilibria. [5 marks]
(c) Explain which of these steady state equilibria are locally unstable, and which
are locally stable. Also explain whether any of these equilibria can be globally
stable. [5 marks]
8.

Consider a standard Solow model in discrete time, with the law of motion of capital is
given by
^ a+1 = 1` ^ a +b a ,
where b a is investment at time t and^ a is the capital stock at time t; the capital
stock depreciates at the rate ` [0,1].Suppose output, L a , is augmented by
government spending, T a , in every period, and that the economy is closed; thus:
L a =Q a +b a +T a ,
where Q a is consumption at time t. Imagine that government spending is given by:
T a = cL a ,
where c [0,1].
(a) Suppose that: Q a = ec L a ; where e [0,1].Derive the effect of
higher government spending (in the form of higher c) on the steady state
equilibrium. [10 marks]
(b) Does a higher c lead to a lower value of the capital stock in every period (i.e,
along the entire transition path)? Prove your claim. [10 marks]