Question 1

Three persons,A,B,and C,will use a simple majority vote to determine whether some good will be purchased.Each person's "tax share" of the purchase price of the good will be $25.Person A receives $30 worth of benefits from the good,person B receives $26 worth of benefits from the good,and person C receives $2 worth of benefits from the good.It follows that __________ person(s)will vote for the good,__________ person(s)will vote against it,and that the outcome is __________.

Accepted Answer

A)  one; two; inefficient 
B)  two; one; efficient 
C)  one; two; efficient 
D)  two; one; inefficient

Question 2

Simple majority rule can generate inefficient outcomes because

Accepted Answer

A)  it does not register the intensity of voters' preferences. 
B)  it cannot adjust for special interest lobbying efforts. 
C)  it does not adjust for the costs of rational ignorance. 
D)  people are often misinformed on what it is they are voting on. 
E)  none of the above

Question 3

-Refer to Exhibit 32-4.If producers of this good engage in rent seeking which results in the government imposing a price floor of P2,then consumers' surplus ends up being area

Accepted Answer

A)  D + E 
B)  A + B + C + D + E 
C)  A + B + C 
D)  C + E 
E)  A

Question 4

Which of the following is a prediction of the median voter model for a two person political race?

Accepted Answer

A)  Candidates will try to present themselves as extremists. 
B)  Candidates who are behind in the polls will try to move closer to the position of their opponents. 
C)  Candidates will try to label their opponents as "too middle-of-the-road." 
D)  Candidates will try to be specific and clear about their own programs and the means of achieving them.

Question 5

Suppose that a federal election is coming soon and the government has been running persistent large budget deficits.Constitutional economists would most likely urge ___________________ in order to eliminate future budget deficits.

Accepted Answer

A)  voters to vote for liberal candidates 
B)  voters to vote for conservative candidates 
C)  Congress to pass a law constraining them to spend no more than what they are receiving in tax revenues 
D)  Congress to remove all constraints on spending and taxes.

Question 6

Rational ignorance is

Accepted Answer

A)  a result of our educational system. 
B)  the curtain,or wall,of knowledge between the persons that are educated and those that are not. 
C)  the curtain behind which people choose to hide to avoid knowledge about poverty and,in general,the unequal distribution of income. 
D)  the curtain separating educated voters from uneducated voters. 
E)  none of the above

Question 7

The model predicting victory in a two-person race for the candidate closer to occupying the center of the voter distribution is built on the assumption that

Accepted Answer

A)  people always vote for the Democratic candidate if they are Democrats and for the Republican candidate if they are Republicans. 
B)  people vote for the candidate who comes closer to matching their own views. 
C)  most people don't vote unless the election is predicted to be close. 
D)  none of the above

Question 8

-Refer to Exhibit 32-4.Suppose that producers of this good engage in rent seeking which results in the government imposing a price floor of P2.The gain in producers' surplus that occurs due to the price floor is

Accepted Answer

A)  B + C 
B)  A + B + C + D + E 
C)  A + B + C 
D)  C + E 
E)  B

Question 9

During an election,a candidate who is not doing as well in the polls as his or her opponent will

Accepted Answer

A)  modify his or her position so that it is more like that of his or her opponent. 
B)  modify his or her position so that it is less like that of his or her opponent. 
C)  become more specific in discussing the issues. 
D)  label his or her opponent as a middle-of-the-roader.

Question 10

Candidate X and Candidate Y have a debate.X's advisers believe that one result of the debate is that Y will appear to the voters as further to the left than before.This is good news for X

Accepted Answer

A)  if Y was already left-of-center before the debate. 
B)  if Y was right-of-center before the debate. 
C)  no matter what Y's previous position was. 
D)  under no circumstances.

Question 11

People will be more likely to vote if they believe that their vote will determine the outcome of the election.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 12

When it comes to voting in a presidential election,we would expect,ceteris paribus,

Accepted Answer

A)  a lower percentage of eligible voters will vote if the weather is bad and this makes it harder to get to the polls on election day (than would have voted if the weather was good). 
B)  a higher percentage of eligible voters will vote if the weather is bad on election day (than would have voted if the weather was good). 
C)  many people to vote who are rationally ignorant. 
D)  a higher voter turnout in the North than in the South. 
E)  a and c

Question 13

Public choice is concerned with

Accepted Answer

A)  relative prices. 
B)  government decision making. 
C)  marketing techniques. 
D)  consumer surveying.

Question 14

Rational ignorance exists primarily because

Accepted Answer

A)  voters are apathetic. 
B)  politicians tend to voice the same general views,so there is no reason to learn more about the issues. 
C)  the costs of becoming informed outweigh the benefits of doing so. 
D)  any of the above

Question 15

Which of the following predictions is consistent with public choice theory?

Accepted Answer

A)  Voters will sometimes cast votes based on whether they like a candidate's personality,not on hard facts. 
B)  Many voters will be uninformed on political and government issues. 
C)  Much legislation will be special interest legislation. 
D)  b and c 
E)  a,b,and c

Question 16

Grown children fawning over an elderly parent in order to try to secure a larger inheritance is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  rent seeking. 
B)  logrolling. 
C)  rational ignorance. 
D)  public choice.

Question 17

One U.S.Senator promises to vote for a measure that another U.S.Senator wants only if the favor is returned in kind.This is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  rational ignorance. 
B)  median voter politics. 
C)  logrolling. 
D)  public interest talk. 
E)  none of the above

Question 18

A politician running for political office does not speak in general terms,does not try to move to the middle of the political spectrum,and does not take polls,therefore it follows that

Accepted Answer

A)  the median voter model is wrong. 
B)  rational ignorance does not exist. 
C)  the free-rider problem does not exist. 
D)  voter turnout is likely to rise. 
E)  none of the above

Question 19

One implication of the median voter model is that a candidate is likely to label himself __________ and his or her opponent as __________.

Accepted Answer

A)  moderate; too far right or too far left (whichever makes more sense) 
B)  a member of one of the political wings; moderate or mainstream 
C)  as a member of the political right; moderate 
D)  as a member of the political left; moderate 
E)  none of the above

Question 20

It has often been remarked that Democratic candidates are more liberal in the Democratic primaries and Republican candidates are more conservative in the Republican primaries than either is in the general election.The explanation for this is most probably that

Accepted Answer

A)  they are facing politically different opponents in the two elections. 
B)  the median voter preferences are more to the left (right)in the primaries than in the general election. 
C)  more people vote in the general election than in the primaries. 
D)  candidates are not as likely to locate the position of the median voter in the (earlier)primaries as they are in the (later)general election.

Exam 19: Building Theories to Explain Everyday Life: From Observations to Questions to Theories to Predictions