Exam 11: Poverty: Old and New Approaches to a Persistent Problem

Establishment of the Child Support Enforcement program created a bureaucracy to enforce private child-support obligations for all AFDC recipients. To this end, the 1984 legislation require the states:

Suppose the benefit is $200, the benefit reduction rate is 50 percent, and net income is $50. What is the basic benefit?

Some feel that raising the minimum wage in order to help the working poor is undesirable because:

Suppose the benefit is $400, the basic benefit is $600, and the benefit reduction rate is 20 percent. What is net income?

If a family's money income is less than its relevant poverty threshold, only the children in the family are counted as poor.

Which of the following statements is incorrect?

The core anti-poverty programs (Food Stamp, TANF, and EITC):

Many economists feel that the official measure of poverty overstates the number of poor because it does not include relevant and important sources of income.

Extending Medicaid to all families whose income is below the poverty line would:

Evidence shows that public assistance programs have contributed significantly to the formation of female-headed households.

Which program would be the most target efficient?

A tax on earned income will:

The income level at which the benefit falls to zero is referred to as:

The official poverty threshold:

Janice receives a benefit payment of $175 per month. The benefit reduction rate is 75 percent. Carefully explain the effect of this benefit on Janice's work effort.

Suppose the basic benefit is $300 and the break-even net income is $2000. What is the benefit reduction rate?

Suppose the basic benefit is $100, the benefit reduction rate is 50 percent, and net income is zero. What is the benefit?

A household is considered poor if:

Each state is allowed to design and implement its own TANF program, including benefit levels and criteria for eligibility, however, they must spend at least 75 percent of the amount they were spending from their own funds on AFDC in 1994.

A package of means-tested transfers would not include which of the following?