Deck 15: Segregation and Discrimination

Question 1

The sorting and separation of people by various characteristics, including race, ethnicity, religion, and gender is called

A) affirmative action.
B) discrimination.
C) segregation.
D) demographic manipulation.

Answer 1

segregation.

Question 2

In the checkerboard model, the board eventually returned to equilibrium, but the equilibrium result was extreme segregation. This extreme segregation resulted from

A) an outright hatred of neighbors.
B) an extreme dislike of neighbors.
C) a mild preference of neighbors not to be outnumbered.
D) government affirmative action policies.

Answer 2

a mild preference of neighbors not to be outnumbered.

Question 3

Based on the results of the checkerboard model, segregation in the United States appears to be the ________ outcome of a genuine collective action problem, where individuals, in pursuing their own interests, create an outcome that most people agree is ________.

A) avoidable; ideal
B) avoidable; less than ideal
C) unavoidable; ideal
D) unavoidable; less than ideal

Answer 3

unavoidable; less than ideal

Question 4

In Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, the Supreme Court established that

A) "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
B) "educational facilities must remain segregated for the good of the majority."
C) "educational facilities in the United States are not sufficiently segregated to require any government action."
D) "individual states have the right to segregate educational facilities as they see fit."

Question 5

Thomas Schelling's most notable work dealt with ________, which lead to his advising role for the film Dr. Strangelove.

A) neighborhood segregation
B) nuclear annihilation
C) medical malpractice
D) psychotherapy

Question 6

Segregation can result from government policies, social pressures, and individual choices.

Question 7

The checkerboard model shows that if involuntary segregation disappeared from society, people would likely no longer segregate themselves.

Question 8

What does the checkerboard model suggest the cause of segregation to be?

Question 9

The mutual relationship between two events is known as ________, and when one event is responsible for the other even happening, this is known as ________.

A) causation; correlation
B) correlation; causation
C) symbiosis; correlation
D) causation; symbiosis

Question 10

What is the name of the 1994 U.S. Housing and Urban Development program which randomly assigned families who applied into three groups and gave families the chance to leave their old neighborhoods?

A) the Neighborhood Gentrification Program
B) Choose It or Lose It
C) the Housing Choice Voucher Program
D) Moving to Opportunity

Question 11

The families that applied for the Moving to Opportunity program wee assigned into three groups. Which of the following does not describe one of those groups?

A) People in one group received nothing but were able to live in public housing with their rents fixed at 30% of their household incomes.
B) People in one group were moved to housing in neighborhoods with poverty rates of less than 10%, and those people received vouchers to pay for 100% of their rent.
C) People in one group received a voucher they could use to help pay for private housing, with the voucher paying any rent beyond 30% of their household incomes.
D) People in one group received a voucher they could use to help pay for private housing, with the voucher paying any rent beyond 30% of their household incomes, but the voucher was good only if the family moved to a neighborhood with a poverty rate of less than 10%.

Question 12

Results of research conducted regarding the Moving to Opportunity program found that

A) adults who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods had a lower prevalence of obesity.
B) adults who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods suffered less from depression.
C) girls who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods had a lower incidence of psychological distress.
D) all of the above

Question 13

Results of research conducted regarding the Moving to Opportunity program found all of the following except

A) boys and girls who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods were less likely to be arrested.
B) boys who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods displayed less cruel or mean behavior.
C) girls who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods had fewer behavioral difficulties.
D) boys and girls who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods were less likely to be victims of crimes.

Question 14

Results of research conducted regarding the Moving to Opportunity program found that

A) living in a good neighborhood helps keep people out of jail.
B) people who live in wealthier neighborhoods are safer than people who live in poorer neighborhoods.
C) living in a good neighborhood improves test scores in schools.
D) living in a good neighborhood guarantees economic self-sufficiency.

Question 15

There seems to be a correlation between the neighborhood in which people grow up and their economic prospects.

Question 16

Results of research conducted regarding the Moving to Opportunity program found that the program had little effect on opening up employment opportunities.

Question 17

Results of research conducted regarding the Moving to Opportunity program found that the neighborhood you live in does matter, as it determines your destiny.

Question 18

What were the results of the Moving to opportunity program in terms of the following:
a. employment opportunities
b. better educational opportunities
c. overall health
d. child behavior

Question 19

Of the following U.S. demographic groups, which tends to have the lowest rate of unemployment?

A) whites
B) blacks
C) white teenagers
D) black teenagers

Question 20

Of the following U.S. demographic groups, which tends to have the highest rate of unemployment?

A) whites
B) blacks
C) white teenagers
D) black teenagers

Question 21

In the United States, the unemployment rate for women is typically ________ than it is for men, and the typical woman earns ________ than typical man earns.

A) higher; more
B) higher; less
C) lower; more
D) lower; less

Question 22

In the United States, the typical woman earns about ________ of what the typical man earns.

A) 90%
B) 80%
C) 70%
D) 50%

Question 23

In the United States for people age 16 to 24, the typical woman earns about ________ of what the typical man earns.

A) 90%
B) 80%
C) 70%
D) 50%

Question 24

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Right-handed people typically earn more than left-handed people.
B) People who drink alcohol typically earn more than people who do not drink.
C) People who played sports in high school typically earn less than people who did not play sports.
D) People regarded as beautiful typically earn no more than people who are ordinary looking.

Question 25

Rewarding or penalizing personal characteristics of a worker that are unrelated to his or her productivity is a description of

A) a negative externality.
B) a labor quota.
C) labor market discrimination.
D) a non-income fringe benefit.

Question 26

Discrimination that occurs because the discriminator dislikes another person's gender, race, or some other personal characteristic is known as

A) taste-based discrimination.
B) indirect discrimination.
C) justifying discrimination.
D) statistical discrimination.

Question 27

Which of the following least resembles a case of taste-based discrimination?

A) Julian does not like redheads because they remind him of the clowns that terrified him at the circus when he was young, so he refuses to hire any redheads to work for him.
B) Alyssa will not hire anyone under the age of 30 because she believes young people are basically lazy and irresponsible.
C) Martin hates Scandinavians so he refuses to hire anyone who has blond hair and blue eyes.
D) Lorena does not like a single thing about men, she does not want to be around men, and refuses to even acknowledge their existence. It comes as no surprise that she will not hire any men to work at her restaurant.

Question 28

Which of the following most resembles a case of taste-based discrimination?

A) Katelyn prefers not to hire women under the age of 35 because she is afraid they will eventually want to take maternity leave.
B) Rodrigo will only hire bilingual people because a majority of his customers speak either English or Spanish.
C) Tatiana only hires men as bartenders and women as cocktail servers at her upscale bar.
D) Austin has a deep-seeded hatred of bald-headed men and refuses to hire any to work at his car wash.

Question 29

Discrimination that occurs when someone assigns the properties of a group to a particular individual who is a member of that group is known as

A) taste-based discrimination.
B) indirect discrimination.
C) justifying discrimination.
D) statistical discrimination.

Question 30

Which of the following least resembles a case of statistical discrimination?

A) Alphonso prefers not to hire anyone over the age of 55 because they tend to not have the technical computer skills he believes are necessary for his employees.
B) Juliana hires only what she considers fit, healthy employees because she read that overweight employees miss more days of work due to health-related issues than do employees of average weight.
C) Colleen, who is 6'2" in height, dislikes people under 6 feet tall and therefore only hires people who are at least as tall as she is.
D) Tyrone believes that the Dutch have the best work ethic of all nationalities and therefore will hire someone of Dutch heritage over someone of any other nationality.

Question 31

Which of the following most resembles a case of statistical discrimination?

A) Judy only hires military veterans because she believes it is her patriotic duty to do so.
B) Due to the consequences of his behavior as a teenager, Marcel now hates police officers and refuses to hire any retired cops as security guards for his legal marijuana co-op in Denver.
C) Barney thinks that people who attended public high schools have better social skills than people who were home schooled, so he tends to hire those with public school educations as telemarketers.
D) Penelope believes her customers would be frightened away by salespeople with tattoos, so she only hires people with no visible body art.

Question 32

From a social standpoint, the immediate effect of discrimination is that society ________ the talents and abilities at its disposal, and this makes everybody ________, on average.

A) overuses; richer
B) overuses; poorer
C) fails to use; richer
D) fails to use; poorer

Question 33

Discrimination occurs when an employer hires a member of one group when another applicant, who is a member of a different group with different characteristics, has better qualifications and is likely to be more productive.

Question 34

If hiring a minority would drive away customers, then discriminating against that minority might increase profits for the business that is doing the hiring.

Question 35

Compared to a firm that does not statistically discriminate but has equally poor information about the true qualifications of potential employees, the firm that does statistically discriminate is likely to be less profitable rather than more profitable.

Question 36

Discrimination that occurs because someone does not like a personal characteristic of another person is called ________, and discrimination that occurs because someone assigns the properties of a group to an individual who is a member of that group is called ________.

Question 37

Explain how a business owner who continually practices taste-based discrimination may eventually pay for his decision to discriminate in terms of declining productivity and profits, especially if he is in a highly competitive industry.

Question 38

Explain the negative long-term effects that statistical discrimination in the labor market can have on the incentives to invest in education and skills.

Question 39

A method of detecting discrimination that involves researchers faking identities for people who are essentially alike but but differ in race, gender, or some other characteristic is called

A) the audit method.
B) regression analysis.
C) statistical discrimination.
D) taste-based discrimination.

Question 40

In the research that used the audit method to send 38 people to purchase new cars from car dealers in Chicago, the lowest prices were quoted to

A) black women.
B) white women.
C) black men.
D) white men.

Question 41

In the research that used the audit method to send 38 people to purchase new cars from car dealers in Chicago, the highest prices were quoted to

A) black women.
B) white women.
C) black men.
D) white men.

Question 42

In the research that used the audit method to send out 5,000 realistic-looking resumes for advertised jobs in Boston and Chicago, which of the following was one of the results?

A) White names received roughly the same number of interview requests as black names.
B) High-quality resumes with black names received no more interview requests than low-quality resumes with black names.
C) High-quality resumes with white names received roughly the same number of interview requests as low-quality resumes with white names.
D) All of the above reflect the results of the research.

Question 43

In the research that used the audit method to send out 5,000 realistic-looking resumes for advertised jobs in Boston and Chicago, the results show that improving your resume by acquiring new skills and job experience appears to

A) matter for whites and for blacks.
B) not matter for whites or blacks.
C) matter for whites but not for blacks.
D) matter for blacks but not for whites.

Question 44

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among workers ages 45 to 54, the median job tenure is

A) longer for men than it is for women.
B) longer for women than it is for men.
C) roughly equal for all men and women.
D) roughly equal for men and women closer to age 45, but longer for women closer to age 54 than men closer to age 54.

Question 45

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the time spent working on days worked is

A) longer for men than it is for women.
B) longer for women than it is for men.
C) roughly equal for all men and women.
D) roughly equal for men and women closer to age 45, but longer for women closer to retirement age than for men closer to retirement age.

Question 46

Statistics show that 77% of all education majors are ________ and 81% of all social workers are ________.

A) men; men
B) men; women
C) women; men
D) women; women

Question 47

Statistics show that 88% of all computer science majors are ________ and 86% of all architects and engineers are ________.

A) men; men
B) men; women
C) women; men
D) women; women

Question 48

A statistical technique used to isolate the individual effects of a number of factors on a single outcome is called

A) the audit method.
B) regression analysis.
C) statistical discrimination.
D) taste-based discrimination.

Question 49

Regression analysis splits people into groups, with each group containing identical people who

A) have different qualifications.
B) do different work.
C) are all of the same gender.
D) None of the above are correct.

Question 50

Regression analysis is designed to show any systematic pay differences between men and women

A) that are based only on gender difference.
B) that are based on differences in education levels and majors.
C) that are based on differences in career choices.
D) that are based on differences in job experience.

Question 51

Based on labor-market studies using regression analysis, once productivity-related characteristics are accounted for, the remaining wage gap between women and men is approximately

A) 2%.
B) 5%.
C) 15%.
D) 20%.

Question 52

Based on labor-market studies using regression analysis, once productivity-related characteristics are accounted for, the remaining wage gap between young and educated women and men is approximately

A) 2%.
B) 5%.
C) 15%.
D) 20%.

Question 53

Based on labor-market studies using regression analysis, once educational attainment is accounted for with college graduates, the wage gap between Asians and whites ________ and the wage gap between whites and blacks ________.

A) disappears; greatly narrows
B) grows; grows
C) grows; disappears
D) greatly narrows; grows significantly

Question 54

Discrimination is generally easy to detect on a case-by-case basis because the circumstances surrounding the decision to discriminate are rarely subjective.

Question 55

Economists use regression analysis to separate the effects of productivity-related characteristics from the effect of gender alone.

Question 56

Research conducted by Roland Fryer shows that the "blackness"of a mother's name plays a significant role in terms of the woman's overall life outcomes.

Question 57

Researchers have found that there is no measurable difference between the earnings of men and the earnings of women who never married and never had children.

Question 58

Describe the audit method of detecting discrimination.

Question 59

Regression analysis indicates that there are job-related characteristics that may explain some, if not all, of the wage gap between men and women, including hours worked, job tenure, career choice, and choice of college major. Briefly discuss the differences between men and women with respect to these four characteristics.

Question 60

Which anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government?

A) the Civil Rights Act of 1964
B) the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972
C) the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
D) the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Question 61

The practice of governments or firms actively improving the educational and job opportunities of members of groups that have not been treated fairly in the past is called

A) segregation.
B) subsidization.
C) resource allocation.
D) affirmative action.

Question 62

A numerical target that companies must meet for the hiring of minorities is called a(n)

A) subsidy.
B) quota.
C) audit.
D) allotment.

Question 63

The most restrictive form of affirmative action

A) makes potentially qualified workers aware of a particular job opening.
B) suggests that jobs be offered to the equally qualified but disadvantaged candidate.
C) is a quota.
D) suggests that the labor pool be representative of the community of qualified applicants.

Question 64

Which of the following is a benefit of affirmative action programs?

A) They ensure that qualified minorities are not being passed over in favor of less-qualified applicants.
B) They ensure a fundamental sense of fairness in hiring and promotion.
C) They can provide a means and an incentive for members of historically underperforming groups to intentionally change their characteristics, such as investing in education and acquiring experience.
D) All of the above are benefits of affirmative action programs.

Question 65

The more restrictive affirmative action programs are,

A) the greater the likelihood of the economic pie shrinking.
B) the lower the administrative costs of administering the program.
C) the larger the wage gap tends to get.
D) the greater the amount of labor market discrimination.

Question 66

Audit studies suggest that there may be stark differences in the opportunities available to minorities and women, yet regression analyses suggest that people of every color and gender earn what they can expect to earn, given their characteristics.

Question 67

Federal affirmative action programs are mandatory for all public and private workplaces.

Question 68

Quotas are generally against the law and are only used when mandated by a court to remedy long-standing discrimination by a particular entity.

Question 69

Explain how affirmative action programs can produce both desirable incentives as well as disincentives when it comes to investing in education.