Covers microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, public finance, and international economics, designed for candidates pursuing advanced studies in economic theory and policy analysis.

GATE Humanities and Social Sciences - Economics

Official 2025 syllabus extracted from https://gate2025.iitr.ac.in/doc/2025/GATE%20_XH-C1_2025_Syllabus.pdf

Microeconomics

Theory of Consumer Behaviour: Cardinal and Ordinal Approach

Consumer preferences

Nature of the utility function

Marshallian and Hicksian demand functions

Duality theorem

Slutsky equation and comparative statics

Homogeneous and homothetic utility functions

Euler's theorem

Theory of Revealed Preference: Weak and Strong Axioms

Theory of Production and Costs: short-run and long-run

Existence, uniqueness and stability of market equilibrium

Walrasian and Marshallian stability analysis

Cobweb model

Decision making under uncertainty and risk

Asymmetric information: adverse selection and moral hazard

Theory of agency costs

Theory of search

Non-cooperative games: constant sum game, mixed and pure strategy

Bayesian Nash equilibrium, SPNE, Perfect Bayesian equilibria

Theory of firm: market structures, competitive and non-competitive equilibria

Structure-Conduct-Performance paradigm

Factor pricing: marginal productivity theory of distribution

Theory of employment in imperfectly competitive markets

Monopolistic exploitation

General equilibrium analysis

Welfare economics: fundamental theorems

Social welfare function

Pareto-optimality

Macroeconomics

National income accounting: closed economy and open economy issues

Determination of output and employment: Classical and Keynesian framework

Theories of consumption: Absolute Income, Relative Income, Life Cycle, Permanent Income

Robert Hall's Random Walk model

Dale Jorgenson's Neoclassical Theory of Capital Accumulation

Tobin's investment function

Keynesian stabilization policies

Autonomous multipliers and investment accelerator

Demand and supply of money

Components of money supply

Liquidity preference and liquidity trap

Money multiplier

Interest rate determination

Central banking: objectives, instruments of monetary policy

Prudential regulation

Quantitative easing

Commercial banking

Non-banking financial institutions

Capital market and its regulation

Theories of inflation and expectations augmented Phillips curve

Real business cycles

Adaptive and rational expectations hypotheses

Closed economy IS-LM model

Mundell-Fleming model

Monetary and fiscal policy efficacy

Impossible Trinity

Statistics, Econometrics and Mathematical Economics

Concepts of probability

Probability distributions (discrete and continuous)

Central Limit Theorem

Index numbers and construction of price indices

Sampling methods and sampling distribution

Statistical inferences and hypothesis testing

Linear regression models

Gauss-Markov theorem

Heteroscedasticity, multicollinearity, autocorrelation

Spurious regressions and unit roots

Simultaneous equation models: recursive and non-recursive

Identification problem

Differential calculus and applications

Linear algebra: matrices, Cramer's rule

Static optimization problems

Input-output model

Linear programming

Difference and differential equations with applications

International Economics

Theories of international trade

International trade under imperfect competition

Gains from trade, terms of trade, trade multiplier

Tariff and non-tariff barriers

Dumping and anti-dumping policies

GATT, WTO and Regional Trade Blocks

Trade policy issues

Balance of payments: composition, equilibrium and adjustment mechanisms

Foreign exchange market and arbitrage

Exchange rate determination

IMF and World Bank

Public Economics

Market failure and remedial measures

Asymmetric information, public goods, externality

Regulation of market: collusion and consumers' welfare

Public revenue: tax and non-tax, direct and indirect taxes

Progressive and non-progressive taxation

Incidence and effects of taxation

Public expenditure

Public debt and management

Public budget and budget multiplier

Tax incidence

Fiscal policy and implications

Environment as a public good

Coase theorem

Cost-benefit analysis

Development Economics

Theories of economic development: Adam Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Schumpeter, Rostow

Balanced and unbalanced growth, Big Push approach

Indicators of development: HDI, SDGs, MDGs

Poverty and inequalities: concepts and measurement

Social sector development: health, education, gender, fertility, morbidity, mortality, migration, child labor

Age structure and demographic dividend

Models of economic growth: Harrod-Domar, Solow, Ramsey

Technical progress: disembodied and embodied

Endogenous growth models

Indian Economy

Economic growth in India: pattern and structure

Agriculture, industry and services: growth and challenges

Rural and urban development

Flow of foreign capital

Trade policies

Infrastructure development: physical and social, PPPs

Reforms in land, labour and capital markets

Poverty, inequality and unemployment

Monetary policy in India

Fiscal policy: receipts and expenditure structure

Tax reforms and GST

Fiscal federalism, Centre-State financial relations, Finance Commissions

Sustainability of deficits and debt

FRBM Act 2003

Demonetization and aftermath

India's balance of payments and trade composition

India's exchange rate policy

GATE Humanities and Social Sciences - Economics Syllabus 2025, 2026 and more: Subjects, Topics, and What to Study