Advanced Labor Economics
Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Advanced Labor Economics delves into the theoretical and empirical analysis of labor markets, focusing on how labor supply and demand, human capital investments, wage determination, and labor market institutions shape employment outcomes. The course explores topics such as wage inequality, discrimination, unemployment, job search theory, labor mobility, and the impacts of globalization and technological change on labor markets. Students engage with the latest research methodologies, data analysis techniques, and policy discussions, enabling them to critically evaluate current labor market issues and contribute to policy debates with an advanced understanding of labor economic theories and evidence.
Recommended Textbook
Contemporary Labor Economics 10th Edition by Campbell McConnell
Available Study Resources on Quizplus
18 Chapters
829 Verified Questions
829 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/3090
Page 2
Chapter 1: Labor Economics: Introduction and Overview
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
13 Verified Questions
13 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61255
Sample Questions
Q1) As distinct from product market transactions,labor market transactions are unique in that:
A)to the seller,the nonmonetary characteristics of the sale can be as important as the price
B)labor demand curves slope upward
C)the price of labor is not determined by supply and demand factors
D)they are less complex
Answer: A
Q2) Because scarcity forces people to make purposeful choices,labor market participants:
A)work as many hours as possible
B)respond to changes in perceived costs and benefits
C)make choices that cannot be predicted
D)must have perfect information
Answer: B
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
3
Chapter 2: The Theory of Individual Labor Supply
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
54 Verified Questions
54 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61254
Sample Questions
Q1) Consider the impact of a general increase in real wages.Empirical evidence suggests that men will tend to work _____ hours and women will tend to work _____ hours.
A)more; fewer
B)more; about the same
C)fewer; fewer
D)about the same; more
Answer: D
Q2) If this person's wage rate falls as illustrated in the diagram,then:
A)the substitution effect is stronger than the income effect
B)the income effect is stronger than the substitution effect
C)this person's non-wage income will fall as well
D)the substitution effect causes desired work hours to increase
Answer: B
Q3) An increase in the wage rate will increase desired hours of work if:
A)the income effect and substitution effect cancel one another
B)the income effect dominates the substitution effect
C)the substitution effect dominates the income effect
D)accompanied by an increase in nonwage income
Answer: C
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 4
Chapter 3: Population, Participation Rates, and Hours of Work
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
44 Verified Questions
44 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61253
Sample Questions
Q1) "For married women,the substitution effect of rising wage rates has apparently outweighed the income effect." Empirical evidence suggests this statement is:
A)true because the labor force participation rate of women has been increasing
B)true because married women have had to work to maintain household living standards
C)not true because the labor force participation rate of women has been increasing
D)not true because the labor force participation rate of women has been declining
Answer: A
Q2) According to Census Bureau predictions:
A)immigration will not significantly affect the U.S.population between 2000 and 2050
B)the ratio of paid workers to Social Security recipients will fall more than had been predicted earlier
C)the racial composition of the labor force will remain essentially unchanged for the next 50 years
D)the projected slowdown in labor force growth will be only temporary
Answer: D
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
5
Chapter 4: Labor Quality: Investing in Human Capital
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
49 Verified Questions
49 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61252
Sample Questions
Q1) The private rate of return on human capital may _____ the social rate because
A)understate; schooling is subsidized
B)understate; schooling provides external benefits
C)overstate; schooling provides external benefits
D)overstate; schooling and ability are positively correlated
Q2) Which one of the following would indicate a profitable human capital investment?
A)The net present value is -$12,000
B)The interest rate on borrowed funds is 4% and the rate of return is 3%
C)The interest rate exceeds the net present value
D)The rate of return exceeds the interest rate on borrowed funds
Q3) The demand for human capital curves slope downward and to the right because:
A)education is a screening device
B)as the interest rate rises,the net present value of education rises
C)the benefits of increased education diminish as schooling continues
D)investment in education is subject to increasing marginal returns
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 5: The Demand for Labor
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
64 Verified Questions
64 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61251
Sample Questions
Q1) Suppose the firm's product demand is given by the column labeled D<sub>1</sub>.The value of the marginal product of the fourth worker is:
A)$10
B)$54
C)$120
D)$540
Q2) The contingent work force:
A)has grown about 4 times as fast as the rest of the work force over the last two decades
B)includes only temporary workers
C)includes only workers who are involuntarily employed part-time D)has shrunk relative to the "core" labor force
Q3) Rather than the product demand schedule shown in the table,suppose this firm sold its output competitively for a price of $2.00.In this case,how many workers will this profit-maximizing firm choose to employ at a wage of $25.00?
A)2
B)3.
C)4
D)5
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 7
Chapter 6: Wage Determination and the Allocation of Labor
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
38 Verified Questions
38 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61250
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a true statement?
A)Monopolists employ too many labor resources,because the value of the marginal product exceeds the marginal opportunity cost of labor
B)For a monopolist,the marginal revenue product of labor exceeds marginal wage at the profit maximizing level of employment
C)Monopolists pay a lower wage than competitors for the same type of labor
D)The monopolist's demand for labor curve is less elastic than if it were a competitor in the sale of its output.
Q2) Compared to a monopsonist that sells its output in a competitive product market,an otherwise identical monopsonist with monopoly power in the product market will pay: A)a lower wage
B)a higher wage
C)the same wage
D)more information is needed
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 7: Alternative Pay Schemes and Labor Efficiency
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
49 Verified Questions
49 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61249
Sample Questions
Q1) Efficiency wage models are often criticized because:
A)other pay-for-performance plans could serve as a substitute for an efficiency wage
B)employees could be required to post a forfeitable bond instead
C)shirking could be reduced by deferred compensation plans
D)all of the above
Q2) Which of the following best exemplifies a piece-rate compensation scheme?
A)Jose's pay is proportional to the number of wiring harnesses he assembles each day
B)Carla's pay is proportional to the value of her sales at the dress shop each month
C)Stan's pay is proportional to the number of his textbooks sold each year
D)Louise's pay is proportional to the number of hours she works each month
Q3) In 1914 Ford Motor Company doubled the wage it paid its employees,resulting in:
A)unusually high quit rates and absenteeism
B)no change in the number of job applicants,because the offer only applied to persons employed at Ford more than six months
C)lower quit rates and less absenteeism but no change in worker productivity
D)an increase in worker productivity of more than 50%
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 9
Chapter 8: The Wage Structure
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
44 Verified Questions
44 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61248
Sample Questions
Q1) Consider a worker who faces a tradeoff between wages on the vertical axis and job safety on the horizontal axis.The less averse a worker is to risk of injury on the job,the:
A)lower is the wage earned by the worker
B)steeper is this worker's indifference curves
C)flatter is this worker's indifference curves
D)lower are the profits of this worker's employer
Q2) Consider a worker who faces a trade-off between higher wages and a more relaxed work environment as shown in the diagram.A worker whose indifference curves are relatively steep:
A)places a relatively high value on additional informality on the job
B)will tend to work at a firm with a relatively informal environment,like firm X
C)will not willingly sacrifice informality for higher wages
D)does not place a relatively high value on additional informality on the job
Q3) Fringe benefit packages differ substantially from one firm to the next because:
A)labor market information is costless
B)adjustment periods tend to be short
C)worker mobility costs are low
D)firms may structure their fringe benefit packages to attract specific types of workers
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 10
Chapter 9: Mobility,Migration,and Efficiency
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
50 Verified Questions
50 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61247
Sample Questions
Q1) Early empirical evidence reported by Barry Chiswick indicated that foreign-born persons migrating to the U.S.,all else constant:
A)tended to earn more than natives from the time they arrived at the destination
B)initially tended to earn less than natives,caught up after 10-15 years,and eventually surpassed natives
C)typically did not catch up to the earnings of native-born workers,even after several years
D)had little or no variance in their earnings
Q2) If an economics professor moves from the University of California at Berkeley to the University of Texas at Austin,that is an example of:
A)job change/no change in residence
B)occupational change/no change in residence
C)geographic change/no change in occupation
D)geographic change/change in occupation
Q3) Migration causes the value of output in Country M to:
A)fall by area bgc
B)fall by area ebcf
C)fall by area W<sub>M</sub>bcW<sub>e</sub>
D)rise by W<sub>M</sub> - W<sub>e</sub>
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 11
Chapter 10: Labor Unions and Collective Bargaining
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
53 Verified Questions
53 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61246
Sample Questions
Q1) The more elastic the demand for labor,the:
A)higher the UR curve
B)lower the UR curve
C)higher the EC curve
D)lower the EC curve
Q2) The level of union organization that is most likely to "organize the unorganized" is the:
A)federation
B)national union
C)state union
D)local union
Q3) Unions are most prevalent in the:
A)urban north
B)nonindustrial southwest
C)urban south
D)suburban east
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 12
Chapter 11: The Economic Impact of Unions
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
50 Verified Questions
50 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61245
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes the events following the deregulation of the trucking and airline industries by 1980?
A)Wages in both industries fell,although the decline was much more rapid in the trucking industry
B)Wages in both industries fell,although the decline was much more rapid in the airline industry
C)The unionization rate in the trucking industry rose,although it fell in the airline industry
D)employment fell in both industries while wages increased
Q2) If W<sub>u</sub> is the union wage and W<sub>n</sub> is the nonunion wage,the pure union wage advantage is:
A)\[\frac { W _ { n } - W _ { u } } { W _ { u } } \times 100\]
B)\[\frac { W _ { n } } { W _ { u } } \times 100\]
C)\[\frac { W _ { u } - W _ { n } } { W _ { n } } \times 100\]
D)\[W _ { n } - W _ { u }\]
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 13
Chapter 12: Government and the Labor Market:
Employment, Expenditures, and Taxation
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
45 Verified Questions
45 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61244
Sample Questions
Q1) Ignoring the tax consequences of its provision,what might we conclude if people work more hours in response to the provision of a public good?
A)The good is complementary with leisure
B)The good is complementary with work
C)The substitution effect exceeds the income effect
D)The substitution effect and income effect cancel each other
Q2) Which of the following best describes the impact of government transfers on human capital investment decisions?
A)In-kind transfers reduce the incentive to invest in human capital,while cash transfers increase it
B)Some transfers reduce the incentive to invest in human capital because higher wages are accompanied by loss of benefits; other transfers increase investment by reducing the cost of investing
C)Transfers have a negative impact on short-run investment decisions but no impact on long-run investment decisions
D)Transfers have no impact on human capital investment decisions
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
14
Chapter 13: Government and the Labor Market: Legislation and Regulation
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
49 Verified Questions
49 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61243
Sample Questions
Q1) Examining evidence on the impacts of increases in state minimum wages in New Jersey and California,Card and Krueger found:
A)substantial reductions in employment,particularly among teens
B)no increases in wages of low-wage workers,because employers flouted the law
C)no evidence of reductions in employment
D)poor quality of the data collected by Neumark and Wascher
Q2) "Yellow-dog contracts":
A)were used by employers to restrict union membership
B)require workers to join a union as a condition of continued employment
C)were upheld by the Taft-Hartley Act
D)were outlawed by the Landrum-Griffin Act
Q3) Which of the following increased management's bargaining power?
A)Limiting the use of injunctions to enjoin a strike
B)Limiting the use of "hot-cargo" clauses
C)Limiting the use of "yellow-dog" contracts
D)Creation of the National Labor Relations Review Board
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 15
Chapter 14: Labor Market Discrimination
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61242
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following required equal treatment for all persons in hiring,firing,promotion and compensation decisions without regard to race,color,religion,sex,or nationality?
A)Equal Pay Act of 1963
B)Civil Rights Act of 1964
C)A 1968 Executive Order
D)Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959
Q2) The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was of little help to many women because:
A)it did not address occupational segregation
B)male employers ignored the act because it provided no enforcement power
C)the act addressed only racial discrimination,not discrimination based on gender
D)it was declared unconstitutional and later replaced by the Civil Rights Act
Q3) Assuming competitive labor markets,occupational segregation by sex:
A)increases the profits of firms that discriminate
B)is beneficial from society's standpoint,because the gains to male employees outweigh the losses to female employees
C)results in an inefficient allocation of labor and diminished output
D)cannot persist,as employers will find it in their best interest to hire only female employees
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 16
Chapter 15: Job Search: External and Internal
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
34 Verified Questions
34 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61241
Sample Questions
Q1) If Sally correctly anticipates an increase in the rate of inflation,then:
A)both the acceptance wage and the entire distribution will shift to the left,thereby leaving expected search duration unchanged
B)the acceptance wage will shift to the right,thereby reducing expected search duration
C)the entire distribution will shift to the right,but the acceptance wage will not,thereby reducing expected search duration
D)both the acceptance wage and the entire distribution will shift to the right,thereby leaving expected search duration unchanged
Q2) Because workers in internal labor markets are promoted on the basis of seniority:
A)such markets are allocatively inefficient because seniority takes precedence over ability
B)dynamic efficiency is enhanced by removing a disincentive for older workers to pass along skills to younger workers
C)static efficiency is enhanced by allocating the most able workers to each job
D)some other scheme must be introduced,such as tournament pay,to improve efficiency in such markets
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 16: The Distribution of Personal Earnings
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
39 Verified Questions
39 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61240
Sample Questions
Q1) If one were to draw a Lorenz curve from the data,what point would be plotted corresponding to "40%" on the horizontal axis?
A)11%
B)15%
C)40%
D)60%
Q2) Compared to the private sector,the public sector earnings distribution tends to be: A)more unequal because government workers tend to be employed in service occupations
B)more unequal because government pay scales are generally higher C)less unequal because of the relatively large number of management positions in government
D)less unequal because blue-collar employees are generally paid more and white-collar employees are generally paid less than their private-sector counterparts
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 18
Chapter 17: Labor Productivity: Wages,Prices,and Employment
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
42 Verified Questions
42 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61239
Sample Questions
Q1) An economy-wide increase in productivity caused by improved technology would most likely:
A)increase unemployment,because any given output could be produced with less labor
B)increase inflation,thereby decreasing profits and investment
C)increase output,but decrease employment
D)increase real incomes,thereby increasing aggregate demand and reducing unemployment
Q2) Compared to the 1948 - 1973 period,the annual rate of productivity growth from 1974 - 1995 was approximately:
A)one fourth as much
B)one half as much
C)the same
D)twice as much
Q3) Of the following,which country experienced the fastest rate of productivity growth over the period 2000 - 2010?
A)United States
B)Sweden
C)France
D)Germany
Page 19
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 18: Employment and Unemployment
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
52 Verified Questions
52 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/61238
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is not typically given as a reason the aggregate demand curve slopes downward and to the right?
A)The real balances effect
B)The foreign purchases effect
C)The interest rate effect
D)The substitution effect
Q2) Which of the following is a form of frictional unemployment?
A)Wait unemployment
B)Structural unemployment
C)Cyclical unemployment
D)Displaced workers
Q3) According to the text,the current consensus estimate of the natural rate of unemployment is approximately:
A)2% - 3%
B)3% - 4%
C)4% - 5%
D)5% - 6%
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 20