Cambridge International AS & A Level Geography (9696): Topic 14 – Economic transition – Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers from your board or school.

These questions cover Topic 14, Economic transition (sections 14.1 to 14.4), of the Cambridge International AS & A Level Geography (9696) syllabus for examination in 2025 and 2026. The topic is one of four options in Paper 4 Advanced Human Geography Options, where each option has a 10-mark structured question and a choice of two 20-mark essays. All countries, regions, firms and data below are fictional unless a question asks you to use your own case study.

Revise first with the study guide and revision notes. Track your progress on the Cambridge A Level Geography hub and checklist.

Questions

1. Define the term “quaternary sector”. [2]

2. Explain the difference between outsourcing and offshoring. [3]

3. The table shows employment by sector in Velmara, a fictional country (% of workforce).

Year	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary	Quaternary
1990	58	18	21	3
2005	41	27	28	4
2020	24	29	39	8

(a) Describe the changes in Velmara’s employment structure between 1990 and 2020. [3] (b) Suggest reasons for these changes. [4]

4. The table shows indicators for four fictional countries.

Country	GNI per capita (PPP, US$)	HDI	Gini coefficient	Population in multidimensional poverty (%)
Arvenia	42,000	0.79	0.48	6
Bostrel	18,500	0.81	0.29	2
Calmora	6,200	0.58	0.41	31
Dunesse	2,900	0.49	0.36	52

(a) Identify the country that ranks higher on HDI than on GNI per capita. [1] (b) Calculate how many times greater Arvenia’s GNI per capita is than Dunesse’s. Show your working. [2] (c) Using the table, explain why GNI per capita alone may give a misleading picture of wellbeing. [4]

5. Explain two backwash effects that may affect a peripheral region. [4]

6. The table shows GDP per capita (US$) in two regions of Dravonia, a fictional country.

Year	Kessa Valley (core)	Northern Uplands (periphery)
2000	12,400	3,100
2010	19,800	4,500
2020	26,600	7,000

(a) Calculate the ratio of core to periphery GDP per capita for each year, to one decimal place. [3] (b) Using your answers and the table, state whether the regions diverged or converged. [2] (c) Suggest two reasons for the change between 2010 and 2020. [4]

7. Explain the factors that affect the spatial structure of transnational corporations (TNCs). [6]

8. Read the source.

Orrin Apparel (a fictional TNC) has its headquarters and design studio in a high-income country. It owns no garment factories. Instead it places orders with 64 contract factories in three lower-income countries in Asia, where wages are a small fraction of those at headquarters. A regional office in a large Asian port city manages quality control and shipping. Last year it moved 15 orders from one supplier country, where the minimum wage had risen, to another.

(a) Explain how the source illustrates the new international division of labour (NIDL). [4] (b) Suggest two impacts of Orrin Apparel’s operations on a supplier country. [6]

9. Explain two factors that helped the emergence of newly industrialised countries (NICs). [4]

10. With reference to one country you have studied, assess the difficulties faced in trying to reduce regional disparities. [20]

11. “TNCs benefit their home countries more than the countries where their goods are made.” With reference to one TNC you have studied, how far do you agree? [20]

Answers

1. Economic activity based on knowledge and information [1], such as research and development, ICT or consultancy [1]. [2] Examiner insight: A definition earns the second mark only with an example that is clearly quaternary; “banking” alone is often read as tertiary.

2. Outsourcing is contracting work to another firm [1]. Offshoring is moving work to another country [1]. They can happen separately: a firm can offshore to its own subsidiary abroad without outsourcing [1]. [3] Examiner insight: “Explain the difference” needs a contrast; two separate definitions with no linking point usually stop at 2.

3. (a) Primary employment fell from 58% to 24%, a fall of 34 percentage points [1]. Tertiary rose from 21% to 39% and became the largest sector [1]. Secondary rose from 18% to 29%, mostly by 2005, then levelled off (only 2 points after 2005); quaternary rose from 3% to 8% [1]. [3] (b) Mechanisation of farming reduced the labour needed on the land [1]. Manufacturing investment, perhaps FDI, created factory jobs that absorbed rural migrants [1]. Rising incomes increased demand for services such as retail and health [1]. Better education and ICT allowed knowledge-based quaternary jobs to grow [1]. [4] Examiner insight: In “describe” answers, quote the data with units and dates; in “suggest”, link each reason to a specific change in the table.

4. (a) Bostrel [1]. [1] (b) 42,000 ÷ 2,900 [1] = 14.5 times [1]. [2] (c) Arvenia has the highest GNI per capita but a lower HDI than Bostrel [1]. Arvenia’s Gini coefficient (0.48) is the highest, so its income is shared unequally [1]. Arvenia has 6% in multidimensional poverty against Bostrel’s 2%, despite GNI per capita about 2.3 times higher [1]. GNI per capita is an average, so it hides distribution and says nothing directly about health or education [1]. [4] Examiner insight: “Using the table” means each point must quote a figure; a general critique of GNI with no data rarely gains more than 1.

5. Out-migration of young and skilled workers to the core [1] leaves the periphery with an ageing workforce and fewer entrepreneurs [1]. Capital flows to the core, where returns are higher [1], so peripheral firms struggle to raise investment and services decline [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Each effect needs a consequence for the periphery; naming “brain drain” alone gives only half the credit.

6. (a) 2000: 12,400 ÷ 3,100 = 4.0 [1]; 2010: 19,800 ÷ 4,500 = 4.4 [1]; 2020: 26,600 ÷ 7,000 = 3.8 [1]. [3] (b) The regions diverged between 2000 and 2010, as the ratio rose from 4.0 to 4.4 [1]. They converged in relative terms between 2010 and 2020 (ratio fell to 3.8), although the absolute gap widened from 15,300 to 19,600 US dollars [1]. [2] (c) Rising land and labour costs or congestion in Kessa Valley may have pushed firms to the periphery (spread effects) [1], so new jobs raised incomes there [1]. Government regional policy, such as new transport links or tax incentives, may have attracted investment to the Northern Uplands [1], increasing growth there faster than in the core [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Strong answers notice that a falling ratio and a widening dollar gap can both be true, and say which one they mean by “convergence”.

7. Lower labour and land costs pull routine production to lower-income countries [1]. Large markets attract production or sales offices inside them to avoid tariffs and transport costs [1]. Tax incentives and export processing zones offered by governments attract investment [1]. Containerisation and ICT allow a headquarters to coordinate distant sites [1]. Headquarters and research stay where skilled labour and finance are concentrated, usually in the home country [1]. This creates a hierarchy: headquarters, regional offices in world cities, and production sites in lower-cost countries [1]. [6] Examiner insight: The question asks about spatial structure, so the top marks go to answers that say where each function locates and why.

8. (a) Design and control stay at headquarters in a high-income country [1]. Labour-intensive garment assembly is done in lower-income countries [1]. The location of production is driven by low wages, shown by the large wage gap [1]. Orders moved when the minimum wage rose, showing that production chases low labour costs [1]. [4] (b) Employment: contract factories create jobs [1], often for young women moving from rural areas [1], and wages can be higher than in farming [1]. Instability: the firm owns no factories, so it can move orders quickly [1], as it did when wages rose [1], leaving workers exposed to sudden job losses [1]. [6] Examiner insight: “Suggest” answers must use the source: the fact that Orrin owns no factories is the key detail for judging how secure the jobs are.

9. Export-oriented industrialisation directed by the state [1], for example South Korea’s five-year plans and support for chaebol [1]. Heavy investment in education [1] produced a skilled, productive workforce that attracted investment [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Naming a real NIC and one specific policy turns a general factor into a developed explanation.

10. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point. These indicative points show what a top-level answer could include.

Introduction: defines regional disparity and core-periphery [1]; names a country and policy, e.g. China’s Western Development strategy, proposed in 1999 [1].

Scale of the problem: coastal Special Economic Zones from 1980 gave the east an initial advantage [1]; the western share of national output fell from about 20.9% (1990) to 17.1% (2000) [1].

Physical difficulties: mountainous and high-altitude terrain raises construction costs [1], shown by the Qinghai-Tibet Railway crossing the Tanggula Pass at 5,072 m [1]; distance from ports raises transport costs for western firms [1].

Economic difficulties: cumulative causation continues to favour the core [1]; young workers migrate to coastal cities (backwash) [1]; foreign investment in some western provinces stayed weak [1]; better links can let coastal firms out-compete western ones [1].

Political and social difficulties: in Tibet and Xinjiang critics argue infrastructure brings Han in-migration and resource extraction [1]; the benefits may not reach local groups [1].

Evidence of partial success: growth of Chongqing and Chengdu [1]; gas and electricity transfer projects link western resources to eastern demand [1].

Evaluation: Guizhou still had the fourth-lowest provincial GDP per capita in 2020 [1]; relative gaps are harder to close than absolute poverty [1]; judges which difficulty is greatest, e.g. backwash over terrain [1]; distinguishes viewpoints of central government and local critics [1]; a supported conclusion that answers “assess” [1]. [20] Examiner insight: The higher levels need a ranked judgement of the difficulties, not a list of projects with dates.

11. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point. These indicative points show what a top-level answer could include.

Introduction: defines TNC and home and host country [1]; names a TNC, e.g. Nike [1]; states a line of argument [1].

Benefits to the home country: headquarters near Beaverton, Oregon, employs about 10,500 people in management, design and marketing [1]; high-value functions and profits stay with the brand [1]; research and design jobs are skilled and well paid [1].

Benefits to host countries: Vietnam, Indonesia and China made about 51%, 28% and 17% of Nike Brand footwear in fiscal 2025 [1], so the work supports large numbers of factory jobs [1]; export earnings and skills transfer [1]; some FDI, e.g. the owned Air-Sole plant in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam [1].

Costs to host countries: low wages and criticism of factory conditions in the 1990s [1]; contracts can move as costs rise [1]; most value added leaves the country [1].

Wider effects on the home country: loss of manufacturing jobs as production moved abroad [1]; consumers gain from lower prices [1].

Evaluation: the NIDL explains the split of functions [1]; benefits differ by group: shareholders, designers, factory workers [1]; host countries such as South Korea and Taiwan later moved up the value chain [1]; judgement on the balance of benefits [1]; a supported conclusion [1]. [20] Examiner insight: Case-study detail earns most credit when it is used to weigh home against host benefits, not when it is given as a company history.

Where marks are usually lost

• Quoting data without units, years or percentage points.
• Calculating a ratio the wrong way round, or not showing working.
• Treating a falling ratio as proof that a gap in dollars has narrowed.
• Writing about a TNC’s products and history instead of where its functions are and why.
• Assuming a TNC owns the factories that make its goods.
• Listing regional policy projects with no judgement on whether disparities fell.
• Ignoring the source in “suggest” questions and writing a learned answer instead.
• Ending an essay without a conclusion that answers “how far” or “assess”.

Next steps

Check weak areas against the study guide, then plan your option choices with the exam preparation guide. Find gaps quickly with our diagnostics, or Book a free trial class with a Geography teacher.

Official syllabus

Cambridge International AS & A Level Geography (9696) syllabus for examination in 2025 and 2026, Topic 14 Economic transition (14.1-14.4), assessed in Paper 4 Advanced Human Geography Options. Your teacher will confirm which two Paper 4 options your school teaches.