Economic sectors

Question 1

What are the four economic sectors?

Answer 1

• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary
• Quaternary

Question 2

What are primary economic activities?

Answer 2

Primary economic activities include agriculture, mining, forestry and fishing

Question 3

What are secondary economic activities?

Answer 3

Secondary economic activities involve manufacture such as cars, food processing, ship building.

Question 4

What are tertiary economic activities?

Answer 4

Tertiary economic activities involve providing a service such as healthcare or retail

Question 5

What are quaternary sector activities?

Answer 5

Quaternary economic activities involve high technology such as research and development

Question 6

What were the proportions of economic sectors during the pre-industrial period?

Answer 6

The primary sector dominates with steady increases in the secondary and tertiary sectors

Question 7

What were the proportions of economic sectors during the industrial period?

Answer 7

The amount of GDP and employment in the secondary sector increases to become dominant and then decreases. The primary sector continues to decrease and tertiary sector increases

Question 8

What were the proportions of economic sectors during the post-industrial period?

Answer 8

The tertiary and quaternary sectors increase whilst the secondary and primary sectors decrease.

The tertiary sector dominates the employment and GDP

Question 9

What was a reason for the decrease in primary employment?

Answer 9

Mechanisation has lead to a decrease in jobs available

Question 10

What was a reason for the decrease in secondary employment?

Answer 10

Increasing mechanisation and globalisation lead to a decrease in secondary employment in some countries

Question 11

What was a reason for the increase in tertiary and quaternary employment?

Answer 11

Technological improvements

Question 12

What are physical factors which affect location of economic sectors?

Answer 12

• Availability of raw materials
• How much land is available and the cost of that land
• Where the power supply is
• Climate, some industrys benifit from certain climates

Question 13

What are human factors which affect location of economic sectors?

Answer 13

• Capital, the amount of money available to run and set up the economic activity
• Transport and communication
• Where the market it
• Where the labour is
• Government policy

Question 14

What can change the location of primary industry?

Answer 14

• Drought, soil erosion or flooding
• Raw materials may run out
• Climate change may affect what type of crops can be grown

Question 15

What has changed the location of secondary industry?

Answer 15

• Faster and cheaper transport
• The increase in transnational corporations
• Electricity is now available almost anywhere
• Internet means fast communication is possible
• Cheaper labour

Question 16

What can change the location of tertiary and quaternary industry?

Answer 16

This economic actifity is increasingly located in greenfield sites

• More open space for expansion and car parking
• Land is cheaper
• More accessable
• located near subberbs and comuter villages
• A process called decentralisation

Question 17

What is informal employment?

Answer 17

Informal employment is any employment which is unregulated and unofficial

Question 18

What sector is most informal employment?

Answer 18

Tertiary sector

Question 19

What are examples of informal economic activities?

Answer 19

• Shoe shining
• Rubbish collecting
• Selling products on the streets
• Para-transit including rickshaws and tuk tuks

Question 20

What dictates the rate of energy and resource usage?

Answer 20

The poulation and the rate of development

Question 21

What results in the highest standard of living?

Answer 21

The optimum population
- There are not too many people or too few resources that the standard of living falls
- There are enough people to develop the resources of the country

Question 22

Define underpopulation

Answer 22

When the population is too small to develop the resources effectively

Question 23

Define overpopulation

Answer 23

When there are too many people or too few resources to ensure a high standard of living

Question 24

What is population pressure?

Answer 24

Population pressure occours when the population is higher than the carrying capacity

Question 25

What did Thomas Malthus predict?

Answer 25

• Population growth is increasing at a faster rate than food supply
• There will be time when there is not enough food to sustain the population
• As a result, population growth will stop as a result of a Malthusiancatastrophe - famine, disease or war

Question 26

How have the Neo-Malthusians changed his prediction?

Answer 26

They argue that:
- We have used most of our available agricultural land
- The amount of fertile land is declining
- Food prices are increasing
- The population continues to increase