(1)An important fact about the US economy is growing income inequality. You have now seen that there are large earnings gaps by educational attainment. But how have these gaps changed over time? The US Census Bureau presents historical CPS data which allows us to examine this question. Go to the US Census Bureau website: www.census.gov. Click on the "Browse by Topic" link at the top of the page, then click "Income and Poverty" and then click on "Income". Next, click on "Data Tables".Find the link for "Historical Income Tables: People." Open Table P-24 ("Educational Attainment-Full-Time, Year-Round Workers 25 Years Old and Over by Median Earnings and Sex"). We will focus on men (but the information in this table would allow you to see how gender earnings differentials are evolving, too).

a.From this table, get Median income (2018 dollars)[1] for Males with exactly a Bachelor's Degree and those who are High School Graduates (including equivalency) for the years 1991 to the present. Paste this info into an Excel spreadsheet.

b.You will notice that 2013 has two entries.The Census changed the way earnings were measured after 2013. For 2013, the CPS sample was split. For about 30% of the sample earnings are measured using the redesigned survey (reported in the row with the "39" footnotethe 39 in parentheses after the year in the first column). For 2013 use the row with the "38" footnote. Likewise, for 2017 use the row without the "40" footnote. Delete the extra rows for these years and then remove any other information in parentheses in the remaining cells for the years.

**c.In your Excel spreadsheet, calculate the ratio of median income of college graduates to median income of high school graduates for each year.

**d.Using the column of ratios you have calculated, make a time-series graph of these ratios.

e.What has been happening with this ratio over time?

[1] You will note that there are two columns: "current dollars" and "2018 dollars".The 2018 dollars adjusts income for inflation. For example, median income for a male high school graduate in 1991 was $26,218. But that is equivalent to $47,272 in 2018.

Struggling with C and D

Data for question can be found here -

• https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-people.html

• USE Table P-24. Educational AttainmentFull-Time, Year-Round Workers 25 Years Old and Over by Median Earnings and Sex