Exam 19: Earnings and Discrimination

Both Jake and Bill are police officers.Jake is a patrolman,and Bill is a detective.Jake's job is inherently more dangerous than Bill's.Bill has passed a difficult exam in order to be promoted to detective.Bill earns more than Jake.This is likely because

The demand for workers with excellent problem-solving skills is increasing,as are the wages for those workers.

Which of the following theories would suggest that attending school does not improve productivity but that high-ability people are more likely to stay in school?

In general,the higher a person's education level,

Evidence from a 1988 study of the market for professional basketball players

List the productivity factors that may explain the differences in pay between men and women in similar occupations.Do any of these factors arise as a result of cultural or social traditions? If so,describe how changes in social relationships will affect the pay gap over time.

Empirical work that does not account for differences in the productivities of workers

Suppose that an employer hires workers with blue eyes and workers with brown eyes.Each type of worker has the same productivity.Which of the following is correct if the employer discriminates by offering blue-eyed workers lower wages than brown-eyed workers?

Scenario 19-3 In the small town of Hamilton, Montana, there is a local hardware store called Eddy's Hardware. There are only two types of workers who apply for jobs at Eddy's Hardware: cowboys and farm boys. Local politicians have received numerous complaints that Eddy's Hardware is practicing wage discrimination against cowboys. Eddy's Hardware denies the complaint and says the store is only trying to maximize profit. -Refer to Scenario 19-3.Which of the following statements would weaken the discrimination complaint against Eddy's Hardware?

Politicians often point to wage differentials as evidence of labor market discrimination against ethnic minorities and women.Economists,however,argue against this approach because (i) they don't believe the wage differential really exists. (ii) they can't agree on a definition of the term "discrimination." (iii) different people may have different wages for reasons unrelated to discrimination.

Of the theories listed below,which do the best job of explaining why educated people are paid more than uneducated people?

Working in a slaughterhouse is much riskier and more unpleasant than working in a bookstore.As a result,we'd expect a difference in wages between the two jobs.The difference is known as

Economists generally agree that

A "technology" hypothesis has been advanced as an explanation for the widening earnings gap between skilled and unskilled workers in the United States.This hypothesis emphasizes the likelihood that technological advances have

The time spent by students in college

A natural antidote to employer discrimination in market economies is the

Consumers are often a primary source of discrimination in labor markets.

Higher levels of human capital are correlated with higher earnings because firms are willing to pay more for better-educated workers who have higher marginal productivities.

The job of night watchman at the Punxsutawny Phil Groundhog museum is known to have a high wage.This can be partially explained by the fact that the job is likely to

Taxi cab drivers in large cities are likely to earn more than taxi cab drivers in rural areas.One reason for this wage differential could be that