Suppose Half of Workers Have High Productivity and Half of Workers

question 41

Multiple Choice

Suppose half of workers have high productivity and half of workers have low productivity. High-productivity workers are valued at $100,000 a year and low-productivity workers are valued at $40,000 a year. Because of asymmetric information, employers cannot tell them apart, so all workers are paid according to the average economy-wide value of productivity. If high-productivity workers found a method to signal their productivity to employers, high-productivity pay would _____ by $30,000, and low-productivity pay would _____.

• A) increase; increase by $30,000
• B) increase; decrease by $30,000
• C) decrease; increase by $30,000
• D) increase; remain unchanged

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Definitions:

Regression Analysis

A statistical method for estimating the relationships among variables, often used to determine how the typical value of the dependent variable changes when one of the independent variables is varied.

Intercept

The point where a line, curve, or surface intersects a coordinate axis.

Alpha

Alpha is a measure used in finance to describe an investment strategy's ability to beat the market, or its "excess return" relative to the return of the benchmark index.

Index Model

A model of stock returns using a market index such as the S&P 500 to represent common or systematic risk factors.