• 44 questions

Economics Major Field Test Practice

Unofficial questions on microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics, weighted like ETS's Major Field Test in Economics.

A sample has four observations: 1, 3, 5 and 7. What is the sample variance?

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: A to D pick, Enter checks.

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Exam mode: 40 questions, 53 minutes.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with ETS. Bank checked October 12, 2026.

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All 44 questions

Introductory concepts 2

  • An economy on its production possibilities frontier can make 100 tractors and no computers, or 80 tractors and 40 computers. Over that range, what is the opportunity cost of one computer? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: I. Introductory Concepts (1–4%), B. Production possibilities, C. Opportunity cost. Saylor Academy open textbook Principles of Economics (v. 2.0), "The Production Possibilities Curve".
  • Which of these is a normative statement? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: I. Introductory Concepts (1–4%), F. Positive and normative statements. Wikipedia, "Normative economics".

Microeconomics 20

  • A competitive firm faces a price of $8. At the output where price equals marginal cost, its average total cost is $10 and its average variable cost is $7. What should it do in the short run? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), E. Market structures, perfect competition. Wikipedia, "Shutdown (economics)".
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Microeconomics, continued

  • A competitive firm sells its output for $5 a unit and pays a wage of $50 a day. The marginal products of its first five workers are 20, 16, 14, 12 and 9 units a day. How many workers does it hire? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), F. Factor markets, marginal revenue product and labor demand. Wikipedia, "Marginal revenue productivity theory of wages".
  • A consumer spends all her income on goods X and Y. At her present bundle the marginal utility of X is 20 and its price is $4; the marginal utility of Y is 30 and its price is $10. What should she do? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), C. Consumer theory, utility maximization. Saylor Academy open textbook Principles of Economics (v. 2.0), "Utility Maximization and Demand".
  • A firm's production function is Q = K^0.5 x L^0.7. What happens to output if the firm doubles both capital and labor? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), D. Production theory, long-run costs (returns to scale). Wikipedia, "Returns to scale".
  • A mining company is the only employer in a remote town. Compared with a competitive labor market, how do the wage and employment differ? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), F. Factor markets, labor markets (monopsony). Wikipedia, "Monopsony".
  • A monopolist faces the demand curve P = 100 - Q and has a constant marginal cost of 20. What price maximizes its profit? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), E. Market structures, monopoly. Wikipedia, "Monopoly".
  • A shop owner takes in revenue of $300,000 and pays explicit costs of $210,000. To run the shop she gave up a $60,000 salary and $10,000 of interest on her savings. What are her accounting profit and her economic profit? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), D. Production theory, accounting vs. economic costs. Wikipedia, "Profit (economics)".
  • A transit agency raises fares by 10% and ridership falls by 4%. What is the price elasticity of demand, in absolute value, and what happens to fare revenue? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), B. Elasticity, demand elasticity (price elasticity, marginal revenue and total revenue). Wikipedia, "Price elasticity of demand".
  • A worker in Country A can make 10 yards of cloth or 5 bottles of wine a day. A worker in Country B can make 6 yards of cloth or 2 bottles of wine. Which statement is true? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), I. International trade, absolute and comparative advantage. Wikipedia, "Comparative advantage".
  • After buying full collision insurance, a driver parks carelessly and speeds more often. What is this problem called? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), J. Information economics, asymmetric information. Wikipedia, "Moral hazard".
  • An allocation of goods between two consumers lies on the contract curve of an Edgeworth box. What is true of it? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), G. General equilibrium and welfare analysis (Edgeworth box; Pareto optimality). Wikipedia, "Contract curve".
  • Anyone near a town's fireworks display can watch it, and one person's watching takes nothing from another's. Why will a private market tend to supply too little of it? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), H. Market failure and government intervention, public goods. Wikipedia, "Public good".
  • At its current output a firm's marginal cost is $12 and its average total cost is $15. What happens to average total cost if the firm makes one more unit? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), D. Production theory, short-run costs. Wikipedia, "Cost curve".
  • Demand for a good is Qd = 200 - 4P and its market price is 30. What is consumer surplus? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), A. Supply and demand, consumer and producer surplus. Wikipedia, "Economic surplus".
  • Demand is Qd = 200 - 4P and supply is Qs = 6P - 100, so the market clears at a price of 30. The government sets a price ceiling of 24. What results? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), H. Market failure and government intervention, price ceilings. Saylor Academy open textbook Principles of Economics (v. 2.0), "Government Intervention in Market Prices: Price Floors and Price Ceilings".
  • Demand is Qd = 200 - 4P and supply is Qs = 6P - 100. What are the equilibrium price and quantity? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), A. Supply and demand, market equilibrium. Wikipedia, "Economic equilibrium".
  • Each ton of a chemical does $15 of harm to people who neither make nor buy it. Which policy leads the market to the efficient output? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), H. Market failure and government intervention, externalities. Wikipedia, "Pigouvian tax".
  • The price of a staple food rises and poor households buy more of it. What must be true of this Giffen good? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), C. Consumer theory, income and substitution effects. Wikipedia, "Giffen good".
  • The price of coffee rises by 10% and the quantity of tea demanded rises by 5%. What is the cross-price elasticity of demand for tea, and what are the two goods? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), B. Elasticity, demand elasticity (cross-price elasticity). Wikipedia, "Cross elasticity of demand".
  • Two identical firms choose their quantities at the same time (Cournot competition). Market demand is P = 100 - Q and each firm has a constant marginal cost of 10. How much does each firm produce in equilibrium? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: II. Microeconomics (42–47%), E. Market structures, oligopoly and game theory. Wikipedia, "Cournot competition".

Macroeconomics 17

  • A bond pays $1,050 one year from now and nothing before then. The market interest rate is 5%. What is the bond's price today, and what happens to that price if the interest rate rises? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), D. Money and financial markets, interest rates and present value. Wikipedia, "Present value".
  • A country has 152 million people employed, 8 million without a job and looking for one, and 90 million adults who neither work nor look for work. What is the unemployment rate? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), B. Economic measurement, labor force and unemployment. Wikipedia, "Unemployment".
  • A country runs a current account deficit of $80 billion. Leaving errors and omissions aside, what must be true of its capital and financial account? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), H. International finance, balance of payments accounts. Wikipedia, "Balance of payments".
  • A one-year deposit pays 5% interest while prices rise by 3% over the year. About what real interest rate does the saver earn? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), B. Economic measurement, price indices and inflation, real and nominal values. Wikipedia, "Real interest rate".
  • A small open economy has a floating exchange rate and perfect capital mobility. In the Mundell-Fleming model, which policy cannot change its output? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), F. Macroeconomic policy analysis, economic policy in an open economy. Wikipedia, "Mundell-Fleming model".
  • An economy is at full employment when aggregate demand rises. In the model with a vertical long-run aggregate supply curve, what is the long-run result? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), C. Aggregate demand and aggregate supply analysis, macroeconomic equilibrium (short- and long-run equilibrium). Wikipedia, "AD-AS model".
  • Banks hold 20% of deposits as reserves and no more, and the public holds no extra currency. The central bank buys $10 million of bonds from the banks. By how much can the money supply rise at most? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), D. Money and financial markets, supply of money (deposit creation). Wikipedia, "Money multiplier".
  • By the natural-rate hypothesis, what does the Phillips curve look like in the long run? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), C. Aggregate demand and aggregate supply analysis, short- and long-run Phillips curves. Wikipedia, "Phillips curve".
  • The central bank buys government bonds on the open market. What happens to the money supply and to interest rates? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), F. Macroeconomic policy analysis, monetary policy. Saylor Academy open textbook Principles of Economics (v. 2.0), "Monetary Policy in the United States".
  • The government runs a larger budget deficit and borrows to cover it. In the loanable funds model of a closed economy, what happens? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), D. Money and financial markets, loanable funds market. Saylor Academy open textbook Principles of Economics (v. 2.0), "Issues in Fiscal Policy".
  • In billions: consumption is 900, gross private investment 250, government purchases 300, government transfer payments 120, exports 200 and imports 150. What is GDP by the expenditure approach? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), B. Economic measurement, GDP (accounting methods). Wikipedia, "Gross domestic product".
  • In the IS-LM model the government raises its spending while the money supply is held fixed. What happens to income and to the interest rate? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), E. IS/LM analysis. Wikipedia, "IS-LM model".
  • In the Solow growth model, an economy raises its saving rate for good. What is the long-run effect? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), G. Economic growth and development, Solow model. Wikipedia, "Solow-Swan model".
  • The marginal propensity to consume is 0.75. In the simple Keynesian model with no taxes and no trade, by how much does equilibrium income rise when government purchases rise by $50 billion? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), C. Aggregate demand and aggregate supply analysis, aggregate demand. Wikipedia, "Fiscal multiplier".
  • The money supply grows by 7% a year, real output grows by 3% a year and the velocity of money is constant. By the quantity theory of money, about what is the inflation rate? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), D. Money and financial markets, quantity theory of money. Wikipedia, "Quantity theory of money".
  • Nominal GDP is $1,320 billion and the GDP deflator is 110, with the base year at 100. What is real GDP? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), B. Economic measurement, real and nominal values. Wikipedia, "GDP deflator".
  • The price of one euro goes from $1.10 to $1.21. What has happened to the dollar, and what follows for U.S. goods sold in Europe? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: III. Macroeconomics (38–43%), H. International finance, exchange rates and capital flows. Wikipedia, "Currency appreciation and depreciation".

Statistics and econometrics 5

  • A firm has a 30% chance of winning contract A and a 50% chance of winning contract B, and the two outcomes are independent. What is the probability that it wins at least one of them? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: IV. Statistics and Econometrics (10–15%), A. Concepts of probability. Wikipedia, "Independence (probability theory)".
  • A researcher tests the null hypothesis that a slope coefficient is zero at the 5% significance level. The p-value is 0.03. What is the right conclusion? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: IV. Statistics and Econometrics (10–15%), C. Hypothesis testing. Wikipedia, "P-value".
  • A sample has four observations: 1, 3, 5 and 7. What is the sample variance? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: IV. Statistics and Econometrics (10–15%), B. Descriptive statistics. Wikipedia, "Variance".
  • An estimated consumption function is C = 50 + 0.8Y, with C and Y in dollars. What does the slope coefficient say? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: IV. Statistics and Econometrics (10–15%), D. Classic linear regression model (interpretations of estimators). Wikipedia, "Linear regression".
  • Under the classical linear regression assumptions, with errors of zero mean and constant variance that are uncorrelated with each other, what does the Gauss-Markov theorem say of the ordinary least squares estimator? ETS, Major Field Test in Economics test description: IV. Statistics and Econometrics (10–15%), D. Classic linear regression model (assumptions and properties of estimators). Wikipedia, "Gauss-Markov theorem".

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the test description ETS publishes for the Major Field Test in Economics (https://www.ets.org/content/dam/ets-org/pdfs/mft/economics-test-description.pdf, read 2026-10-12): Introductory Concepts 1–4%, Microeconomics 42–47%, Macroeconomics 38–43%, Statistics and Econometrics 10–15%, with Quantitative Analysis at 25–35% across all areas. The bank holds 2, 20, 17 and 5 questions. Each fact was read on 2026-10-12 in the public page named under its question: Wikipedia and Saylor Academy's open textbook Principles of Economics (v. 2.0). Answers that are arithmetic were worked out a second time. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

This practice test for the Major Field Test in Economics has 44 questions of our own, weighted like the real one: microeconomics and macroeconomics first, then statistics. It is unofficial and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by ETS.

Read the full guide

The four categories

ETS's test description, read October 12, 2026: introductory concepts 1 to 4%, microeconomics 42 to 47%, macroeconomics 38 to 43%, statistics and econometrics 10 to 15%. This bank holds 2, 20, 17 and 5 questions.

Numbers in most answers

ETS counts 25 to 35% of the real questions as quantitative analysis, across every category. Here 24 of the 44 are worked: an equilibrium, an elasticity, a multiplier, a sample variance.

The real pace

The real test has 90 multiple-choice questions in two hours. The timed exam here draws 40 of ours in 53 minutes, the same 80 seconds each.

  • Practice reading demand and supply written as equations, which is how the questions here give them.

Questions and answers

Is there a Major Field Test economics study guide?

ETS's own study material is a test description, which carries the whole content outline, and a set of sample questions, both on its Major Field Tests site. The questions here are written to the outline and are not the samples.

Are there Major Field Test economics flash cards?

ETS's test content page lists none for economics. Here every question shows a short reason and its source once answered.

What is on the Major Field Test in Economics?

Multiple-choice questions on introductory concepts, microeconomics, macroeconomics, and statistics and econometrics. Some are grouped in sets based on diagrams, paragraphs, sets of equations or tables of data.

How is the Major Field Test in Economics scored?

Each student gets a total score and two subscores, microeconomics and macroeconomics. Quantitative analysis and international issues are reported for the group only, when at least five students test.

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