Test 2: Taxes + Movie Assignment

Question 1

regressive

Answer 1

• tax rate is the same for people regardless of their income.
• when you buy a chair, HST is 15 percent regardless of your income

Question 2

progressive

Answer 2

if the tax rate is higher for people with higher income.
-when paying income tax, people might pay X percent on their first $A,000 of taxable income, X+Y percent on their next $B,000 of taxable income, and X+Y+Z percent in their next $C,000 of income.

Question 3

marginal tax rate

Answer 3

rate paid on the last block of taxable income

Question 4

wealthier people tend to earn more of their income from sources that are taxed at lower rates

Answer 4

• salary 100% taxed
• dividends 83% taxed
• capital gains 50% taxed
• offshore tax havens 0%
• inheritance 0%

Question 5

RRSP Benefits Increase with Income

Answer 5

low: $0 taxable income, 0% marginal tax rate, 0 deposit, 0 reduction in taxable income, 0 tax savings
middle: $20K taxable income, 25% marginal tax rate, 1K deposit, 1K reduction in taxable income, 250 tax savings
low: $100K taxable income, 50% marginal tax rate, 1K deposit, 1K reduction in taxable income, $500 tax savings

Question 6

Taxes and Transfers Redistribute Family Income

Answer 6

• Taxes + transfers cause the market income of the top quintile to fall about 20 percent
• Taxes and transfers cause the market income of the bottom quintile to rise about 80 percent.
• Before taxes and transfers, the top quintile earns about 10 times more than the bottom quintile does.
• After taxes and transfers, the top quintile earns about 5 times more than the bottom quintile does.

Question 7

How Tax Laws Reinforce Inequality

Answer 7

• 1/2 of Canadian taxes are progressive + half regressive, so only modest redistribution of income taxes place.
• no inheritance tax so the wealthy can pass advantages from generation to generation
• Diff. income sources taxed at different rates, income sources of the wealthy taxed at lower rates
• tax benefits more advantageous to the wealthy

Question 8

Data Collection: Coding

Answer 8

• systematic organization of your observations into various categories (those categories are dictated by the operationalized variables of your research question)
• process by which you categorize various pieces of information as relevant to your operationalized variables

Question 9

Data Collection: Decisions

Answer 9

-making many decisions of what counts as instances of different aspects of your variables. decisions need to be clearly explained in methodology + need to be justified
Quantitative (you will count the frequency of various things happening, words used, actions performed, etc)
Qualitative (you will track the presence or absence of particular things, words, or actions, etc)

Question 10

Data Collection: Flexibility

Answer 10

• researcher has to choose how much flexibility she allows herself when coding.
• pre-defined set of criterias/add relevant criterias not included at first based on the data collection itself
• Determining a certain number of clear set criterias allows a researcher to examine a movie for very specific things, keeping researcher on task
• coding flexibility allows new, important material to be incorporated into the coding process that could have significant bearings on one’s results.

Question 11

Data Collection: Consistency

Answer 11

coding for exactly what he wants to code for.
set of rules helps the researcher insure coding things consistently throughout the movie, in the same way every time
researcher is not engaging in selective observations, noticing only information that fits in researcher’s pre-conceived ideas of what they expected to find. must be open to find inconsistent information that does not “fit” their expectations or theories.
Good operationalization will help the researcher distinguish between relevant and irrelevant info

Question 12

Data Analysis

Answer 12

researcher examines the data and attempts to draw out what patterns have been found and whatever conclusions one can offer
What answer can you provide to your research question? Is it a straight-forward answer/nuanced conclusion? Were any of the relevant data you accumulated inconsistent with this answer or with your conclusions?
discussion of your findings should demonstrate alignment betw. research question, operationalization, data collection, + conclusions
lack of alignment: explain why that is the case and how that could be remedied in the future.