Deck 28: Population, Health, and Labor

Question 1

The U.S.economy is not a perfectly competitive market.There are costs associated with negotiating contracts,enforcing agreements,taxes and less than perfectly competitive firms.Nevertheless,according to Wallis and North (1986),the U.S.economy has grown in the presence of these transaction costs and these costs have risen sharply as a percentage of GDP between 1890 and 1970.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The rise of the tertiary sector is positively associated with modernization and economic ?development.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In the 20th century,tertiary employment accounted for roughly

A) fifty percent of the total job increases.
B) ninety percent of the total job increases.
C) thirty percent of the total job increases.
D) seventy percent of the total job increases.

Answer 3

fifty percent of the total job increases.

Question 4

Goldin (2001)gives the U.S.investment in public education credit for boosting the U.S.labor ?force participation rates and helping the U.S.economy develop.

Question 5

Goldin (2001)refers to the 20th century as the "human capital" century and credits education for the rise in overall income.

Question 6

The U.S.transfer system takes funds from the rich and distributes them to the poor.This transfer has significantly impacted income equality in the U.S.

Question 7

The transformation in labor has dramatically impacted the distribution of income in the U.S.

Question 8

The increase in the proportion of tertiary employment over time at the expense of both primary and secondary employment

A) is peculiar to the western industrial countries.
B) is strictly an American phenomenon.
C) is present generally in all industrial countries.
D) is restricted to countries with relatively small ?government sectors.

Question 9

Adam Smith (1776)is primarily associated with the theory that industrialization proceeds at the expense of the working class.

Question 10

By the end of the 20th century,the countries of origin of the new U.S.immigrants shifted away from its European majority.A smaller percentage of total immigrants arrived from Europe,and more and more came from Asia,Canada and Mexico.

Question 11

The tertiary sector of the economy employs housecleaners,restaurant help and hotel employees;?it does not employ private consultants,accountants,nanotechnologists,managers and other professionals.

Question 12

Today,about one out of four legal immigrants arrives in the U.S with experience in a professional occupation.

Question 13

According to Hughes and Cain (2011),today's growth in white-collar jobs is fueled by investments in education and does not depend on apprentice-style training or land holdings.

Question 14

Individuals rationally choosing career paths should weigh the preparation costs to the potential incomes generated within those careers.

Question 15

The unemployment rate of today is significantly lower than that rate one hundred years ago.

Question 16

The amount earned by the tertiary laborer is determined by labor productivity in the primary and secondary sectors of the U.S.economy.

Question 17

During the 20th century,the percentage of unskilled laborers in the U.S.rose steadily.

Question 18

The immigration rates of the 20th century returned to the high rates of the 19th century.

Question 19

Union membership is likely to fall as growth in tertiary employment occurs in the private sector.

Question 20

Which of the following economists is/are considered the leader(s)in the theory of market behavior?

A) Alfred Marshall
B) Adam Smith
C) David Ricardo
D) All of the above

Question 21

U.S.demand for tertiary labor increases when

A) the wage rate rises.
B) urbanization proceeds.
C) demand for goods and services decreases.
D) price of output declines.

Question 22

The premium on a college education increases when

A) the market demand for knowledge and skilled workers decreases, and all else is held constant.
B) the market supply of knowledge and skilled workers increases, and all else is held constant.
C) the growth in the demand for knowledge and skilled workers outpaces the growth in supply.
D) the growth in the supply of knowledge and skilled workers outpaces the growth in demand.

Question 23

Easterlin (1968,1987)argues that as the relative price of children rises,

A) the average household demands fewer of them.
B) society, at large, demands fewer of them.
C) society, at large, demands more of them.
D) nothing happens since the demand for children is not influenced by price.

Question 24

Laborers of which sector work in the tertiary or service sector?

A) Teachers, doctors, lawyers, nanotechnologists, musicians and athletes
B) Farmers, fisher people and foresters
C) Manufacturers and processors of raw materials
D) All of the above

Question 25

Which statement holds true in the post-World War II era?

A) There was a permanent increase in the percentage of working adult women with children.
B) Firms found it most profitable to treat women as individuals rather than groups.
C) Marriage bars returned.
D) Female participation in farming, common labor and craft work in the U.S. increased significantly.

Question 26

Employment in the tertiary sector in the 20th century showed

A) a marked cyclical tendency in harmony with the business cycle.
B) a leveling off in times of recession.
C) a downturn during cyclical expansions.
D) a steady increase since 1900.

Question 27

What does the demand for labor depend on,directly or indirectly?

A) The wage rate
B) Productivity of labor
C) Demand for the goods and services produced by the labor
D) All of the above

Question 28

Compared to the 19th century,the population of the 20th century

A) was largely urbanized.
B) was 3.7 times larger in number.
C) experienced a 63 percent increase in life expectancy at birth.
D) can be described by all of the above.

Question 29

During the 20th century,U.S.death rates

A) exhibited the same cyclical waves as birth rates.
B) fell with advancements in healthcare and medicine.
C) exhibited an upward trend.
D) generally stayed flat.

Question 30

Research indicates that which one of the following factors likely gave rise to increased obesity ?in the U.S.?

A) Advancements in modern cooking technology
B) Increased consumption of restaurant and fatty foods
C) A shift from exercise in leisure to labor
D) All of the above

Question 31

Which of the following best explains the closing gap between rural and urban mortality rates?

A) Relatively higher incomes in urban areas
B) Relatively lower prices in urban areas
C) Medical advancements, health education, and public health and sanitation involvement
D) All of the above.

Question 32

Richard Easterlin (1968,1987)maintains that the 20th century's pattern of births was

A) affected primarily by Real Gross National Product (Real GNP).
B) negatively affected by the U.S. population's materialistic desires and ?positively affected by its income.
C) explained by waves of discrimination.
D) explained solely by the wars.

Question 33

The number of highly skilled and knowledge workers entering the workforce increases when

A) firms substitute capital for high priced labor.
B) the market demands labor with advanced degrees.
C) the government cuts educational funding.
D) All of the above

Question 34

The Immigration Act of 1965

A) helped pick up the pace of immigration in the U.S., effectively increasing the supply ?of highly skilled laborers.
B) imposed country quotas on the number of U.S. immigrants.
C) encouraged immigration on the basis of skill, political asylum and family reunification.
D) can be characterized by all of the above.

Question 35

Differences in what can help explain the wage gap between U.S.born and foreign born workers employed in the U.S.?

A) Gender
B) Schooling
C) Immigration policy
D) All of the above

Question 36

Which of the following occurred during the 20th century?

A) The total U.S. population increased.
B) The percentage of foreign-born residents decreased, on average.
C) The median age fell.
D) All of the above occurred during the 20th century.

Question 37

Social Security provides incentive for individuals to

A) save more than they consume during their working years.
B) manage their assets privately in order to prepare to live on principal and interest during retirement.
C) rely on transfer payments made by the working class to them during retirement.
D) carefully manage their private retirement portfolios and use the income earned to consume and save during retirement.

Question 38

Differences in what can explain the wage gap between U.S.-born and foreign-born workers?

A) Culture
B) Schooling
C) Urbanization
D) All of the above

Question 39

Industrialization in advanced economies suggests that rising productivity is responsible for

A) a drop in the number of laborers employed in the primary sector.
B) a smaller percentage of the total labor force working in the secondary sector.
C) a significant rise in the number of people working in the tertiary sector.
D) all of the above.

Question 40

At the beginning of the twenty-first century,

A) many people returned to living in the Northeast and Midwest.
B) the majority of U.S. citizens lived in rural areas.
C) the majority of people resided in the South and West.
D) all of the above

Question 41

Discuss the economic costs of discrimination.Explain how rising incomes among blacks increased those costs.

Question 42

Describe the pattern of female participation in the labor force in the 20th century.Discuss the opportunity costs of gender discrimination.Historically,which factors account for discrimination against women in the U.S.? Why is this type of discrimination less of a problem today than it was ?100 years ago? Use the economic way of thinking to provide answers to these questions.Hold all other factors constant.

Question 43

Explain how urbanization has fueled increased demand for services using the concept of derived demand.

Question 44

Economic theory predicts that

A) market forces impose stiff penalties on profits whenever enterprises discriminate against individuals on any basis other than productivity.
B) government intervention is required to combat discrimination.
C) market mechanisms and government interventions are weak in addressing issues of discrimination. However, government is relatively stronger.
D) discrimination is a necessary part of life private and public life.

Question 45

Define the gender gap and discuss the forces that cause this gap to shrink and expand.Reference Goldin's (1990)research on this topic.

Question 46

Discuss the paradox of tertiary employment.

Question 47

Discuss the economic history behind the changes in the pattern of retirement over the course of the 20th century.What role has Social Security played?

Question 48

Discuss the key changes in the U.S.labor force during the 20th century.

Question 49

Describe the conditions imposed on a perfect economic world.Point out the evidence which suggests that we live in an imperfect economic world.What are the economic ramifications? Mention transaction costs.

Question 50

Compare and contrast the union movement of the beginning of the 20th century to the union movement at the end.Identify what the two movements have in common.Describe how they differ,using scholars' research to explain why these differences exist.

Question 51

Discuss the factors affecting the demand for and supply of tertiary labor.Over time,what has happened to the U.S.demand for and supply of tertiary labor?

Question 52

Compare and contrast the opportunity costs of going to medical school,choosing a trade as a profession and working at a grocery store after high school.

Question 53

Leo Troy termed the phrase "Old Unionism." What is it? How can it be used to explain the changes in union activity and membership over the course of the 20th century?

Question 54

Provide the five explanations that link health improvements to mortality.

Question 55

Discuss the challenges of the union movement at the close of the 20th century.

Question 56

Explain why neoclassical economists claim that economic growth is an effective redistributor of income.

Question 57

Discuss the key changes in the distribution of income over the 20th century.Use statistics to back the claim that the income distribution after transfers is about as unequal today as it was almost twenty years ago.

Question 58

Describe the pattern of African-American or black individuals' participation in the labor force in the 20th century.Discuss the opportunity costs of racial or minority discrimination.Historically,which factors account for discrimination against blacks in the U.S.? Why is discrimination of this type less of a problem today than it was 100 years ago? Use the economic way of thinking to provide answers to these questions.Hold all other factors constant.