Chapter 21 Test Bank KEY
1. Over the last 50 years, the rich have:
2. Over the last 50 years, poverty has been:
3. Over the last 50 years, the poor have:
4. According to economist Emmanuel Saez, between 1993 and 2010, the incomes of the richest 1
percent grew by ________, and the other 99 percent grew by ________ on average.
5. When a society is more equal:
6. To understand how poverty, inequality, and discrimination affect the economy, __________ analysis is
used, and _________ analysis is used to address whether the government should try to reduce inequality
in the name of social justice.
7. An absolute poverty line is usually set based on:
8. In the United States, the official poverty line is based on:
9. In the United States, the official poverty line is calculated by multiplying:
10. Critics of the U.S. definition of poverty claim that:
11. Critics of the U.S. definition of poverty claim it is an inaccurate measure of our poor because:
12. In 2011, the Census Bureau introduced an alternate poverty measure that is based on:
13. The relative poverty line defines poverty:
14. Median income is the:
15. The poverty rate is defined as:
16. The absolute poverty line looks at _____________, and the relative poverty line captures
____________
17. In 2014, what percent of the population lived under the official poverty line in the United States?
18. Since 1970, the poverty rate has largely fluctuated between:
19. The US government began tracking poverty in the late:
20. Because the U.S. poverty line is an absolute measure rather than a relative one, the official U.S.
poverty rate:
21. When the U.S. experiences economic growth, the poverty rate will:
22. Between 1960 and 1995, Social Security benefits:
23. Between 1960 and 1995, Social Security benefits:
24. Today black and Hispanic Americans have poverty rates:
25. Today the greatest number of poor are _________ Americans, but the poverty rate for __________
Americans is higher.
26. U.S. households headed by __________ are the most likely to be poor.
27. In the United States today, households headed by single women are more likely to be poor than:
28. Those who are chronically poor are defined as those who spend:
29. Those who are considered the transient poor are defined as those who spend:
30. More than a quarter of the population experiences ________ poverty at some point in their lives,
perhaps due to losing a job or experiencing sickness or injury.
31. The percent of population that experiences transient poverty at some point in their lives is:
32. Research suggests that about ______ percent of people living under the poverty line in any given
year are chronically poor.
33. Research shows programs like unemployment insurance, disability or health insurance, and job
training can be effective in fighting:
34. An effective program used to fight transient poverty is:
35. A program likely to make a big dent in chronic poverty is:
36. The most common international poverty measure is:
37. In 2012, the number of people living in the world on less than $1.90 a day was:
38. The region with the highest percentage of people who live on less than $1.90 a day is:
39. The greatest number of people who live on $1.90 a day live in:
40. The PPP index:
41. Economists collect data on prices in every country and develop an index that describes the overall
difference in prices between countries called the:
42. The international poverty line at $1.90 a day at purchasing power parity means that in each country
43. The $1.90 (PPP) per day line was chosen by averaging the national poverty lines of 15 poor countries
to represent:
44. Overall, rapid economic growth between 1981 and 2012 has ______ the global poverty rate from
__________________.
45. The poverty rate dropped from 84 percent in 1981 to 11.2 percent in 2010 in what country?
21–10
46. Which of the following areas of the world experienced virtually no change in its poverty rate from 1981
to 2010?
47. The World Bank estimates that about ____ of the planet lives below $1.90 a day per person, and
____ lives on less than $3.10:
48. By monitoring financial diaries of several of the world’s poorest families, economists found that a
challenge facing the poor was:
49. A key to creating effective policy to fight poverty is to understand:
50. The set of skills, knowledge, experience, and talent that determine people’s productivity as workers is
called:
51. The more human capital you have, the more likely you will:
52. You acquire human capital by:
53. Evidence shows that children from poor communities typically have:
54. Does low human capital cause poverty or does poverty cause low human capital?
55. Self- reinforcing mechanisms that cause the poor to stay poor are called:
56. Bad health is an example of:
57. A credit constraint is:
58. Community-wide poverty:
59. Long-term solutions to communitywide poverty must involve:
60. In the last few decades, the poverty rate in the US has
61. In the last few decades, income inequality in the United States has ___________ mostly because of
the ____________
62. Those who believe that overall economic growth is more important than the distribution of income
would say that:
63. If the population is split up into quintiles by income, the bottom quintile would include:
64. If the U.S. population were split into quintiles based on income, with the lowest quintile representing
the poorest 20 percent, then those who earned the median income for the United States would be in the:
65. Members of the top quintile of income earners in every country today:
66. In the United States, the top 20 percent of income earners earn:
67. Which curve summarizes inequality visually?
68. The Lorenz curve demonstrates:
69. A perfectly straight Lorenz curve would mean:
70. The _________ bowed inward the Lorenz curve is, the __________ inequality exists.