Exam 20: Earnings, Unions and Discrimination

It is increasingly clear that technological change, rather than international trade, has been largely responsible for an expanding wage gap between high-skill and low-skill workers.

Which theory would support the idea that education does not enhance productivity, and raising workers' educational levels would not affect wages?

Restricting some jobs to only union members is likely to:

Economists have proposed which of the following as contributing to the rising wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers?

The signalling theory of education is similar to the signalling theory of advertising.

Why is a plumber never likely to be as rich as a movie star?

Efficiency wages that create above-equilibrium wages will most likely result in which of the following:

Without government intervention in competitive markets:

In a study done by Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle, physically attractive individuals were found to command a 'beauty premium' in the labour market.Based on your experience with university lecturers, do you think there is likely to be a beauty premium for lecturers? Explain your answer with appropriate examples.

Some economists suggest that international trade has led to an expanding wage gap between high-skill and low-skill workers.

Explain the role of job experience in explaining the difference between the average wages of men and women.

Workers with more human capital will always earn more than those with less human capital.

If an employer believes in the theory of efficiency wages, he will raise wages in effort to do which of the following?

Politicians often point to wage differentials as evidence of labour market discrimination against ethnic minorities and women; however, economists argue against this approach because people differ in the kinds of work they are willing and able to do.

Expenditure on human capital:

Forestry worker wages are often higher than other low-skilled work because of the higher risks of injury or death.

Which of the following statements accurately reflects changes in the level of education among women? (i) women are receiving a larger percentage of all bachelor's degrees than they used to (ii) women are receiving a larger percentage of professional qualifications than they used to (iii) relative earnings of women workers are falling despite educational advances

Even if markets are competitive, discriminatory hiring practices can persist because of:

Research engineers at GE (General Electric) cannot publish their results nor claim credit for any discoveries they makes.Suppose GE has a change of policy and now allows their employees to publish academic articles and claim credit for their findings.This will lead to a shift in:

The rising gap in wages between unskilled and skilled workers is most likely related to a larger increase in demand for skilled occupations relative to unskilled occupations.