The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (also known as the Wagner Act) was
significant because it
A. curtailed union power by permitting states to pass right-to-work laws.
B. granted firms the right to break unions.
C. outlawed yellow-dog contracts.
D. created the National Labor Relations Board.
E. granted union rank and file the right to decertify its leadership via election.
Standard economic theory suggests which of the following in terms of labor migration
across states in the U.S.?
A. Workers migrate randomly.
B. Workers migrate at most twice per lifetime.
C. Workers are likely to migrate from low-wage states to high-wage states.
D. Workers are likely to migrate from high-wage states to low-wage states.
E. Older workers are more likely to migrate than are younger workers.
_______ are most closely associated with creating a pool of workers who are
involuntarily unemployed.
A. Piece rates
B. Incentive pay schemes
C. Time rates
D. Efficiency wages
E. Profit sharing schemes
When a firm pays higher wages, it is likely that doing so will
A. increase turnover.
B. lower the firms ability to attract high-skill workers.
C. encourage workers to stay on the job for a long time.
D. decrease worker utility.
E. decrease the quality of the potential worker pool.
In the U.S. labor market, it is typically the case that:
A. If job creation is high, then job destruction is low.
B. If job creation is low, then job destruction is high.
C. There is relatively little job destruction during economic up-turns.
D. There is relatively little job creation during economic down-turns.
E. There is a large amount of job creation and job destruction happening at the same
time, during both expansions and contractions.
Human capital refers to
A. the amount of financial capital owned by firm owners.
B. the amount of financial capital owned by workers.
C. the amount of physical capital a firm owns (per worker it employs).
D. the unique set of abilities and skills embedded in workers.
E. the amount of physical capital produced by labor.
The standard cobweb model makes the following two assumptions:
A. Workers are forward-looking, and job adjustments take time.
B. Workers are myopic, and job adjustments take time.
C. Workers are forward-looking, and job adjustments are instantaneous.
D. Workers are myopic, and job adjustments are instantaneous.
E. Workers are myopic, and retraining of ones skills happens instantaneously.
An approximate Lorenz curve shows
A. the maximum and minimum wage gaps.
B. the relationship between income and tax revenue.
C. the share of income received by age group.
D. the relationship between income and earnings potential.
E. the cumulative share of income earned by quintiles of households.
In Probability of Injury (x-axis) versus Wage (y-axis) space, isoprofit curves slope
upward because
A. profits increase with the number of workers the firm employs.
B. workers are willing to accept a lower wage in exchange for a riskier work
environment.
C. the firm does not like to pay higher wages.
D. in order to keep profits constant, a higher wage must be offset by the firm saving
money by not investing as much in preventing on-the-job injuries.
E. profits are constant with respect to risk.
Ability bias can arise when estimating compensating wage differentials associated with
various job characteristics. What is ability bias in this context?
A. Low-skilled workers are likely to have low wages but good job amenities.
B. High-skilled workers are likely to have high wages but poor job amenities.
C. High-skilled workers are likely to have lower wages than unskilled workers but to
have better job amenities.
D. High-skilled workers are likely to have higher wages than unskilled workers but to
have worse job amenities.
E. High-skilled workers are likely to have higher wages than unskilled workers, but
they are also likely to trade some of their higher wages for better job amenities.
In order to get rid of ability bias when estimating the compensating differential
associated with various jobs, one should look at
A. wages for particular workers who never change jobs over time.
B. wages for particular workers who change jobs over time.
C. wages for particular industries over time.
D. wages for particular industries over various jobs within the industry.
E. the average wages paid by different firms within the same industry.
According to the substitution effect, in response to an increase in her wage a person will
A. reduce hours worked because she wants to substitute leisure for work.
B. reduce hours worked because she wants to substitute work for leisure.
C. increase hours worked because leisure has become relatively more expensive than
consumption.
D. increase hours worked because leisure has become relatively less expensive than
consumption.
E. increase both consumption and hours of leisure.
Suppose a law firm negotiates a very low price for each of its 1,000 employees to be
members at the athletic club that is located next to the law firm. Which of the following
is not likely to be true?
A. The law firm can pay its workers less than a comparable law firm that does not offer
the gym benefit.
B. The firm can likely negotiate a lower per person price at the gym than each
employee could negotiate alone.
C. Some employees will take advantage of the gym benefit, while others will not.
D. In the long run, the law firm will probably attract workers who value the gym benefit
the most.
E. If the typical individual gym membership costs $50 per month, the law firm should
expect to save $50,000 per month in wages.
Compared to hiring a white worker, an employer is $5 less happy when he hires a black
worker and is $6 less happy when he hires a Hispanic worker. The firm faces hourly
wage rates of $20 for whites, $16 for blacks, and $14 for Hispanics. Which of the
following describes the firms hiring decision?
A. The firm hires all white workers.
B. The firm hires all black workers.
C. The firm hires all Hispanic workers.
D. The firm hires a mixture of white and black workers.
E. The firm hires a mixture of white and Hispanic workers.
The Earned Income Tax Credit is a federal program that
A. increases the wages of minorities.
B. provides cash assistance to the non-working poor.
C. provides cash assistance to firms that hire single mothers living in poverty.
D. increases wages for the working poor.
E. provides in-kind assistance to minimum wage workers.
Having the government regulate work-place safety would most likely improve
economic efficiency if
A. the cost of introducing safety equipment is high.
B. workers value safe work environments.
C. workers are unable to correctly judge the risk associated with a particular job.
D. firms are unable to attract workers to safe jobs.
E. firms and workers differ on the value they place on safe versus risky jobs.
What is the stopping rule for choosing ones years of schooling?
A. End ones schooling when the return from more schooling is zero.
B. End ones schooling when the cost of one more year of schooling is zero.
C. End ones schooling after college.
D. End ones schooling when the rate of return to one more year of schooling equals the
workers rate of discount.
E. End ones schooling when the workers rate of discount equals zero.