Exam 15: Income Inequality and Poverty

Suppose you had the choice of attending two universities. University A pays all of its professors the same wage and awards the same raises. University B pays each professor according to market wages and productivity. Which university would you rather attend and why?

Which of the following contributed to the increase in income inequality among families in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s?

In 2007, the poorest 20 percent of families in the United States population earned approximately ____ percent of the before-tax total income. (Fill in the blank.)

During 1959 through 2009, the percent of poor families headed by an elderly person

Which one of the following groups has a below-average incidence of poverty?

Which of the following is accurate regarding income statistics?

Even if lifetime incomes were equal, there still might be substantial inequality in annual income data because

Income supplements large enough to significantly increase the economic status of poor people will

Some people inherit money and wealth that they did nothing to earn. Why don't we tax inheritance at 100 percent?

Compared to low-income families, high-income families tend to

Assume that Jill is a single parent who is in poverty. She receives food stamps and Medicaid. For every $100 that she earns, Jill loses $20 of her food stamp benefits and $15 in her Medicaid benefits. Jill's implicit marginal tax rate from these two programs is

Why don't we divide the economic pie evenly so that each person receives the same income?

Which of the following statements regarding poverty in the United States is correct?

"There is considerable movement up and down the economic ladder. Relative income positions often change over time." This statement is

Figure 15-3 -As shown in Figure 15-3, 20 percent of families earned a cumulative share of about ____ percent of income.

Which of the following is true?

If the marginal productivity of labor was the sole determinant of household income in the U.S., then

The Samaritan's dilemma describes the problem that exists when transfer programs, designed to help the poor, encourage choices that can promote or perpetuate

If a family earned an additional $6,000 and, as a consequence, sustained a reduction of $3,600 in government benefits, the implicit marginal tax rate for this family would be

Over the past two decades, the earnings gap between college graduates and those with only a high school education has