Resource Problems: Sample Quiz

Choose the most correct answer. Either click on a button or enter your answer in the box to the left of the question. When you have answered them all, click the Check-My-Answers button and you will see how well you know this material.


1. The curve that shows the income distribution among households is called the:

Phillips Curve.
Lorenz Curve.
Misery Index.
Bell Curve.

2. Which of the following would you most expect to hear from an advocate of laissez-faire?

Those who are most productive deserve to have more than average income.
Because men are created equal, their incomes should be equal.
Persons with high incomes have more economic power than those with low incomes, which is unjust.
Persons with high incomes derive them from the exploitation of the poor.
People should produce according to their ability and receive according to their needs.

3. The additional revenue that a firm earns by hiring another unit of a resource is called marginal:

benefit.
revenue
product.
revenue product.
utility.

4. John is a self-employed consultant and earns $40,000 per year. He has just turned down a job that would have paid $50,000 per year. The job he turned down would have had him working for a large corporation in an office. He thought the stress of commuting, the loss of flexibility in his work schedule, and his dislike of office work were not worth the extra money. How would an economist explain John's decision to reject this job offer?

John has nonexcludable preferences.
Compared to office work, his present work gives him psychic income of at least $10,000.
John's supply curve for labor is negatively sloped rather than positively sloped.
People often make irrational or quasi-rational decisions when it comes to work and leisure.

5. People migrate from Central America to the United States in order to earn more money. Why do they earn more money in the U.S.?

The U.S. has a higher minimum wage law.
The culture of the U.S. encourages people to work harder.
The capital and technology of the U.S. work environment gives labor higher marginal productivity.
People gain human capital in making the move.

6. According to economic theory, the major reason that wages of teachers have risen during the past fifty years is that:

the productivity of teachers has increased dramatically during that time.
the opportunity cost of being a teacher has risen.
sex discrimination has decreased.
the external effects of the teaching profession have been internalized.

7. According to economic theory, the supply schedule of workers that Bigg Biznes, Inc. faces depends on the:

extra revenue which the firm can obtain if it adds the worker.
extra value of another unit of output.
opportunity cost of the worker, that is, what the worker could earn elsewhere.
total number of people in the labor force.

8. According to economic theory, the demand that Bigg Biznes, Inc. has for another worker depends on the:

extra revenue which the firm can obtain if it adds the worker.
extra value of another unit of output.
opportunity cost of the worker, that is, what the worker could earn elsewhere.
total number of people in the labor force.


Return to Back to Overview Table of Contents


Copyright Robert Schenk