Answer:
37.9%; and it is Lower than the share of Income received by the Highest Quintile of the US Income distribution in 2005
Step-by-step explanation:
A Quintile is 1/5 or 20% of a whole population and should not be mistaken for a Quartile which is 1/4th or 25% of a population.
The lowest quintile is the first quintile of 1/5 and the highest quintile is the fifth quintile or 5/5.
The required step in this question is to calculate the Quintile, then calculate the percentage of the whole income represented by the 5th or the highest quintile and then compare with data available on the highest quintile of the 2005 US income distribution.
Step 1: Arrange from lowest to highest and Group into 5
8,000, 14,000, 22,000- First Quintile
26,000, 38,000, 46,000 - Second Quintile
52,000, 54,000, 62,000 - Third Quintile
80,000, 92,000 96,000 - Fourth Quintile
110,000, 118,000, 132,000 - 5th Quintile
Step 2: Calculate the Total of the 5th Quintile and divide by the total of the 15 incomes for Paddy's cousins
5th Quintile= 110000+118000+132000= $360,000
8000+14000+22000+26000+38000+46000+80000+54000+62000+80000+92000+96000+110000+118000+132000= $950,000
5th Quintile Percentage of Income for Paddy's Cousins= 360,000/950,000= 37.9%
Step 3: Investigate the Percentage the 5th Quintile took of the United States total income for the Year 2005.
Although it is quite difficult to get the total income for the US in 2005, Principles of Economics, Chapter 14 on Poverty and Economic Inequality among other documents have carried out the survey and already divided the Income of the United States from 1967-2015 into Five Quintiles.
This same study has also calculated the percentage of the total income that the 5th Quintile accounts for which is 50.4%
Therefore,
5th Quintile Income Proportion for Paddy's Cousins= 37.9%
5th Quintile Income Proportion for the United States in 2005= 50.4%
The share of income received by the highest quintile of Paddy's Cousins is lower than that for the highest quintile of the U.S income distribution in 2005