← Differences in development

Arguing FOR an indicator, not just against it

The 2022 paper asked for ADVANTAGES rather than disadvantages — a genuine reversal of the more common task, and one worth preparing for explicitly.

The advantages worth naming for common indicators

  • GDP/GNI per capita: a single, widely available, easily COMPARABLE number across almost every country and year, making trend and cross-country comparison straightforward.
  • HDI: combines three genuinely different dimensions (health, education, income), so it is harder to game or distort than a single economic figure alone, and better reflects lived standard of living.
  • Life expectancy: intuitive to understand, reliably recorded in most countries, and sensitive to major shifts in healthcare and living conditions.
  • Infant mortality: highly sensitive to small changes in healthcare, nutrition and sanitation, so it can reveal an improving or worsening situation faster than slower-moving indicators.
Worked example Explaining the advantages of HDI With reference to HDI, explain the advantages of using this indicator to measure differences in development. NAME the indicator: the Human Development Index, combining life expectancy, years of schooling, and GNI per capita into one score from 0 to 1. ADVANTAGE 1: because it combines three separate dimensions, it captures a broader picture of development than a single economic measure like GDP, which HDI was specifically designed to improve on. ADVANTAGE 2: the single combined score makes RANKING and COMPARING countries straightforward, which is useful for identifying which countries most need international support. EVIDENCE: name two case study countries with meaningfully different HDI scores and briefly state what that difference reflects in their actual living conditions. ✓ The same structural method (name → advantage with reasoning → evidence) applies whether the task asks for advantages or disadvantages — only the direction of the argument changes. ✕

Reusing a "disadvantages" answer when "advantages" is asked

Because disadvantages questions are more common in past papers, it is tempting to default to a memorised disadvantages answer even when the task asks for advantages. Read the command word carefully every time — "advantages" and "disadvantages" require genuinely different content, not the same paragraph reframed with different adjectives. ℹ

Some advantages are the flip side of a disadvantage

An indicator being "just an average" is usually framed as a disadvantage (it hides inequality), but that same averaging property is ALSO an advantage in a different context — it allows a single, simple number to summarise an entire country for quick comparison. Recognising when the same property cuts both ways, depending on the question asked, shows a more sophisticated grasp of the indicator than treating properties as fixed positives or negatives.

Practise just this