Ch.14 Poverty And Income Support Policies Exam Questions 2e

Chapter 14 Multiple Choice Questions

1. In general Americans are more likely than Europeans to support the view that the poor are responsible for their plight. This view is referred to in the text as
2. The big brother view
3. The flawed character view
4. The exploitation view
5. The restricted opportunity view

1. Absolute poverty is
2. Based on a comparison of income to need
3. Based on a comparison of income to a national average
4. Based on the Gini coefficient
5. Based on a measure of access to basic necessities
6. The region which has seen the biggest drop in extreme poverty over the last 35 years is
7. South Asia
8. South America
9. North America
10. East Asia
11. Africa
12. The group with the highest official poverty rate in the U.S. is
13. African-Americans
14. Hispanic Americans
15. Single parent families
16. The elderly
17. White-Anglo Americans
18. The 2014 poverty line in the U.S.
19. Is about $16,000
20. Is nearly $18,000 for a 2 parent family of 4
21. Is over $25,000
22. None of the above. It varies with the size and nature of the family
23. All of the following are reasons why the official U.S. poverty line might be too low EXCEPT:
24. The original estimate of the percentage of income spent on food was too high
25. The official poverty measure doesn’t include some government benefits as income
26. The poverty line doesn’t account for the increasing cost of work,
27. The absolute poverty measure doesn’t keep up with the average household income.
28. All of the above are true
29. All of the following are reasons why the official U.S. poverty line might be too high EXCEPT:
30. Inequality is not included in our measure of poverty
31. Income is often understated on surveys
32. Inflation is overestimated
33. Some government programs are not included as income

1. If A in Figure 14-1 has an area of .15, the corresponding Gini coefficient will equal
2. .15
3. .30
4. .35
5. .65
6. U.S. public assistance programs perform poorly with regard to horizontal equity because
7. Many programs have very different benefits across states
8. Social programs in the U.S. do relatively little to reduce poverty
9. Social programs and the tax system in the U.S. do very little to decrease inequality
10. None of these
11. For a cash assistance program with a base payment of $100 and an implicit tax rate of –½, a person who works 10 hours for $10 per hour will have a total cash assistance payment of ___ and total income of _____
12. $100, $150
13. $100, $200
14. $0, $100
15. $50, $150
16. For a person with a positive marginal utility of leisure, a cash assistance program with an implicit tax rate of -1 will lead to the following effect on work
17. The person may choose to work more or less hours depending on the income and substitution effects
18. The person will definitely work, but will work fewer hours than with a wage alone
19. The person will not choose to work
20. There is not enough information to answer the question
21. The TANF program of 1996 included all of the following EXCEPT
22. A federal requirement that all recipients work at least 20-30 hours after 2 years
23. A federal requirement that benefits provide a minimally adequate level of income
24. A 5 year lifetime time limit for federal benefits
25. Increased flexibility for states to design their own programs
26. According to the “food stamp” problem, in-kind benefits such as housing vouchers or food assistance are
27. More efficient at increasing the utility of the recipient than cash
28. Based on the proven preferences of low income people
29. Less efficient at increasing the utility of the recipient than cash
30. Less preferred by tax payers and politicians than cash