Multiple Choice
Identify the
letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
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1.
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If
official U.S. poverty statistics included in-kind transfer payments, A) | the poverty rate
would be close to zero | B) | the poverty rate would be lower | C) | the government
deficit would be lower | D) | the inflation rate would be higher | E) | the top 10
percent of those in the income distribution would be wealthier | | |
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2.
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Transfer programs that do not tie benefits to contributions are
called A) | social insurance
programs | B) | income assistance programs | C) | health aid
programs | D) | bonus programs | E) | compensation
programs | | |
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3.
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The
Food Stamp program provides A) | quality labels on food | B) | cash transfers
to the poor | C) | cash transfers to the elderly | D) | vouchers that
can be redeemed for food | E) | food deliveries to the elderly | | |
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4.
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The
U.S. poverty rate is higher among households headed by black married couples than those headed by
white females.
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5.
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Of
the following, which group has the fastest-growing population in the United States? A) | female heads of
households | B) | male heads of households | C) | white heads of
households | D) | black heads of households | E) | single
people | | |
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6.
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Since
1970, the number of black professionals (e.g., doctors, lawyers and the like) in the labor force has
increased dramatically.
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7.
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Which
of the following would not account for the observed wage differential between blacks and whites in
the United States? A) | differences in the quantity of on-the-job
training | B) | differences in the quality of
education | C) | discrimination by employers | D) | differences in
job experience | E) | differences in access to public assistance
programs | | |
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8.
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The
requirement that firms doing business with the federal government set numerical hiring, promotion,
and training goals to reduce discrimination was A) | included in the Civil Rights Act of
1964 | B) | signed by
President Johnson | C) | first proposed in the Nixon
administration | D) | first proposed in the Carter
administration | E) | first proposed in the Equal Rights
Amendment | | |
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9.
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The Lorenz
curve shows the A) | functional distribution
of income | B) | personal distribution of income | C) | relative percentage of income going to each of the
resources | D) | demand for unskilled versus unskilled labor | E) | cumulative percentage of income received by
cumulative percentages of households | | |
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10.
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When
family incomes are ranked from lowest to highest, the middle income is known as the A) | median
income | B) | mean income | C) | means-tested
income | D) | official poverty level | E) | transfer
income | | |
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11.
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A
problem with official U.S. poverty data is that they A) | omit the rural
poor | B) | do not account
for inflation | C) | omit in-kind transfers such as food
stamps | D) | do not reflect changes in the cost of
living | E) | omit dividends and interest | | |
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12.
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A
major difference between social insurance and income assistance programs is that A) | social insurance
programs are run by the states and income assistance programs are run by the federal
government | B) | funding for social insurance programs comes exclusively from
the federal government, whereas income assistance programs are funded both at the state and federal
levels | C) | benefits from social insurance programs are related to a
worker's contributions to the programs, whereas benefits from income assistance programs are
not | D) | social insurance
programs are available only to households with children | E) | income
assistance programs are available only to households without children | | |
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13.
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Measured in dollar terms, the two largest U.S. antipoverty programs
are A) | cash transfers
and medical care | B) | cash transfers and food assistance | C) | food and housing
assistance | D) | medical care and food assistance | E) | medical care and
housing assistance | | |
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14.
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The
decline of the poverty rate for the elderly can be attributed to A) | AFDC | B) | tax increases | C) | Medicaid | D) | the political power of the elderly | E) | increased
resource earnings | | |
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15.
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In
the U.S., the poverty rate is lowest among young families with a head of household under
25.
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16.
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Over
time, poverty in the United States, as measured by the number of poor, has increased the
most A) | among women
because of discrimination | B) | among women because of an increasing divorce
rate | C) | among households
headed by women | D) | among the elderly because of cutbacks in the Social Security
program | E) | for men because there are more of
them | | |
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17.
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One
effect of the work requirements of welfare reform has been A) | to make the
demand curve for welfare upward sloping | B) | to lower the "price" of welfare to
recipients | C) | to make the supply curve of welfare upward
sloping | D) | to reduce the amount of hassle involved with going on
welfare | E) | to raise the "price" of welfare to the
recipients | | |
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18.
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Using the
Lorenz curve, the degree of income inequality is measured by A) | The line connecting all points for which a given
percentage of families receives exactly tha cumulative percentage of income | B) | the distance of the Lorenz curve from the line of
perfect equality | C) | the flat diagonal line that applies to a perfectly elastic demand
curve | D) | the number of times the Lorenz curve crosses the line of perfect
equality | E) | is derived by dividing the number of people below the poverty line by
the total population | | |
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19.
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If
the poorest tenth of the population receives 1 percent of the income and the richest one-hundredth
receives 10 percent of the income, A) | then income is evenly distributed | B) | then the poorest
tenth of the population is as rich as the richest tenth | C) | then each family
in the poorest tenth of the population is as rich as each family in the richest
one-hundredth | D) | then each family in the poorest tenth of the population is
poorer than each family in the richest one-hundredth | | |
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20.
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In
less developed economies (e.g., India, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, and the Philippines), the distribution
of income is A) | more
concentrated (i.e., distributed less evenly) than in developed economies | B) | less
concentrated than in developed economies | C) | such that the bottom 20 percent of households define the
poverty threshold | D) | such that the top 20 percent of households define the poverty
threshold | E) | completely even | | |
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21.
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Data
show that the poorest U.S. demographic group is A) | the elderly because Social Security payments have not kept pace
with inflation | B) | the elderly because they have no steady
income | C) | the elderly because poverty increases with
age | D) | households
headed by someone under 18 years of age | E) | households headed by someone between 40 and 50 years
old | | |
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22.
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Which
of the following contributed most to the large increases in poverty since 1960? A) | both d and
e | B) | all of the
following | C) | the increase in the number of elderly
individuals | D) | rising poverty rates among households headed by
females | E) | the increase in the number of households headed by
females | | |
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23.
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The
income distribution in a market economy is primarily determined by differences in A) | effort and
sacrifice and intelligence with the most important factor being intelligence since human capital is a
resource | B) | the level of needs of the average or median income individual
when selling her labor | C) | resource ownership and the value that resources buyers place on
the resources that are sold in the marketplace | D) | the level of
government intervention in the economy as it relates to job openings | E) | the amount of
time that an individual spends working and the intensity of this effort | | |
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24.
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After
adjusting for factors such as education and work experience, research indicates the gap between the
earnings of whites and blacks A) | has steadily increased since the
1940s | B) | has steadily decreased since the
1940s | C) | has remained approximately the same since the
1940s | D) | decreased from the 1940s until the mid 1970s and then started
increasing | E) | increased from the 1940s until the mid 1970s and then started
decreasing | | |
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25.
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Welfare data show that in the United States A) | most welfare
recipients receive benefits only for a short time | B) | welfare
encourages young women to have children | C) | children brought up on welfare tend to remain on welfare as
adults | D) | having poor parents does not increase the chances of a child's
being on welfare as an adult | E) | children of poor parents have a 50 percent chance of being
middle-income adults | | |
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26.
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Which
of the following is not an example of a "workfare" component in a welfare
program? A) | job skill
training | B) | required job searches | C) | tougher child
support laws | D) | required work in paid or unpaid jobs | E) | required
participation in training programs | | |
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27.
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The
distribution of income in the United States is A) | more concentrated than the distribution of income in other
developed countries throughout the world | B) | significantly more even than the distribution of income in
other developed countries throughout the world | C) | quite similar to
the distribution of income in other developed countries throughout the
world | D) | significantly less even than the distribution of income in most
developing countries | E) | quite similar to the distribution of income in most developing
countries | | |
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28.
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In
2000, the official poverty level for a family of four was approximately A) | $1,000 | B) | $5,000 | C) | $16,400 | D) | $24,000 | E) | $33,000 | | |
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29.
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The
poverty rate of the elderly in the United States has A) | been constant
since 1959 | B) | risen since 1959 because people are living
longer | C) | fallen since 1959 because of the growth in social insurance and
income transfer programs | D) | fallen since 1959 because of the growth in private retirement
plans | E) | fallen since 1959, mainly because of
inflation | | |
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30.
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One
reason the U.S. government is sensitive to demands by the elderly is that the elderly have higher
voter participation rates than members of other age groups.
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