🏷️ LIMITED TIME OFFER: GET 20% OFF GRADE+ YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION →
Log in
HomeStudy Guides420,000CA160,000

ECON-2006EG Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Economic Surplus, Perfect Competition, Physical Capital

12 views11 pages
School
Laurentian
Department
Economics / Science Èconomique
Course
ECON-2006EG
Professor
Byron Eastman

For unlimited access to Study Guides, a Grade+ subscription is required.

Document Summary

Chapter outline: sellers in a perfectly competitive market, the seller"s problem, from the seller"s problem to the supply curve, producer surplus, from the short run to the long run, from the firm to the market: long-run competitive equilibrium. 3 conditions of a perfectly competitive market: no buyer or seller is big enough to influence the market price, sellers in the market produce identical goods, there is free entry and exit in the market. The seller"s problem = how do i decide what and how much to produce? . Economists identify 3 ingredients of the seller"s problem: making the goods how inputs are turned into outputs: A firm is any business entity that produces and sells goods or services. Production is the process by which the transformation of inputs to outputs occurs. Physical capital is any good, including machines and buildings used for production. The short run is a period of time when only some of a firm"s inputs can varied.

Get access

Grade+20% off
$8 USD/m$10 USD/m
Billed $96 USD annually
Grade+
Homework Help
Study Guides
Textbook Solutions
Class Notes
Textbook Notes
Booster Class
40 Verified Answers

Related Documents

ECON-2006EG
Final Exam
Study Guide
ECON-2006EG Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Perfect Competition, Marginal Product, Production Function
ceruleanraccoon367
ECON-2006EG
Final Exam
Study Guide
ECON-2006EG Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Opportunity Cost, Average Cost, Economic Equilibrium
ceruleanraccoon367
ECON-2006EG
Final Exam
Study Guide
ECON-2006EG Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Takers, Marginal Product, Decision Rule
ceruleanraccoon367

Related Questions


1.
If firms in a monopolistically competitive market are earningpositive profits,
A) firms will likely be subject to regulation.
B) barriers to entry will be strengthened.
C) some firms must exit the market.
D) new firms will enter the market.
2.

Panel c in the set of figures shown is consistent with a firm in amonopolistically competitive market that is


A) earning profit and is in both short-run and long-runequilibrium.
B) earning economic profit and is in short-run equilibrium, but notlong-run equilibrium.
C) earning profit and is in long-run equilibrium, but not short-runequilibrium.
D) earning a negative profit and is not in equilibrium.
3.
When a profit-maximizing firm in a monopolistically competitivemarket is producing the long-run equilibrium quantity,
A) its marginal revenue will exceed its marginal cost.
B) its average revenue will equal its marginal cost.
C) it will be earning positive economic profits.
D) its demand curve will be tangent to its average-total-costcurve.
4.
Monopolistic competition differs from perfect competition becausein monopolistically competitive markets
A) each of the sellers offers a somewhat different product.
B) strategic interactions between firms is vitally important.
C) there are barriers to entry.
D) all firms can eventually earn economic profits.
5.
The free entry and exit of firms in a monopolistically competitivemarket guarantees that
A) economic losses can persist into the long run, but not economicprofits.
B) both economic profits and economic losses can persist into thelong run.
C) economic profits can persist into the long run, but not economiclosses.
D) both economic profits and economic losses disappear in the longrun.
6.


Panel (a) shows a profit-maximizing monopolistically competitivefirm that is

A) All answers are correct
B) earning a zero profit.
C) charging a price that is equal to average total cost.
D) in long-run equilibrium.
7.
Since a firm in a monopolistically competitive market faces a
A) perfectly elastic demand curve, it will always operate withexcess capacity.
B) downward-sloping demand curve, it will always operate atefficient scale.
C) perfectly inelastic demand curve, it will always operate atefficient scale.
D) downward-sloping demand curve, it will always operate withexcess capacity.
8.
In a monopolistically competitive market,
A) firms can enter or exit the market without restriction.
B) each firm takes the price of its product as given.
C) each firm produces a product that is essentially identical tothe products of other firms in the market.
D) there are only a few sellers.
9.
The fact that there is a great deal of advertising of men’s shavingproducts indicates that
A) it costs firms very little to produce those products.
B) the market for those products is perfectly competitive.
C) those products are highly differentiated.
D) All answers are correct
10.
A profit-maximizing firm in a monopolistically competitive marketdiffers from a firm in a perfectly competitive market because thefirm in the monopolistically competitive market
A) has no barriers to entry.
B) faces a downward-sloping demand curve for its product.
C) faces a horizontal demand curve at the market clearingprice.
D) is characterized by market share maximization.

1. Characteristics of competitive markets

The model of competitive markets relies on these three core assumptions:

1. There must be many buyers and sellers a few players can't dominate the market.
2. Firms must produce identical products buyers must regard all sellers' products as equivalent.
3. Firms and resources must be fully mobile, allowing free entry into and exit from the industry.

The first two conditions imply that all consumers and firms are price takers. While the third is not necessary for price-taking behavior, assume for this problem that a market cannot maintain competition in the long run without free entry.

Identify whether or not each of the following scenarios describes a competitive market, along with the correct explanation of why or why not.

Scenario

Competitive?
The government has granted the U.S. Postal Service the exclusive right to deliver mail. ________________
Several stores in the mall sell hooded sweatshirts. Each store's sweatshirts reflect the style of that particular store. Additionally, some makers use higher-quality cotton than others, which is reflected in the apparel's prices.  
Two taxi companies serve most of the market in a big city. Consumers don't care about which taxi company they take if they decide it's worth taking a taxi, they flag down the nearest one. _________________
There are dozens of pasta producers that sell pasta to hundreds of Italian restaurants nationwide. The restaurant owners buy from the cheapest pasta producer available to

"Grocery stores and gasoline stations in a large city would appear to be examples of competitive markets: there are numerous relatively small sellers, each seller is a price-taker, and the products are quite similar."

Can someone explain the following three questions?

1) How could we argue that these markets are not competitive?

a. Most grocery stores and gas stations have a relatively small geographic range; they do not attract consumers from very far away, and thus do not compete with the grocery stores or gas stations across town.

b. The individual grocery stores or gas stations do not have the power to control the price of many items that they sell, so they are not able to compete on price.

c. They usually purchase products from the same distributor: i.e., all grocery stores and gas stations buy their Coke products from the same Coke distributor. Thus, individual grocery stores do not really compete with each other; the same for individual gas stations.

d. Each grocery store or gas station is so small relative to the size of the market that their actions do not affect the rest of the market, therefore they do not have to behave in a competitive way.

2) Could each firm face a demand curve that is not perfectly elastic?

a. No; since customers aren't willing to spend their morning visiting each grocery store or gas station in a large city to find the best deal, then each firm's demand curve will be perfectly elastic since consumers do not have full information.

b. No; the conditions mentioned (many small sellers, price-takers, homogeneous products) guarantee that each of these industries will be perfectly competitive. Demand will always be perfectly elastic.

c. Yes; if they have some degree of market power (e.g., they can charge slightly higher prices since consumers will not stop at every grocery store in town to find the cheapest beef jerky), then they will not face perfectly elastic demand.

d. Yes; if the individual firm demand curve is horizontal, then demand is not perfectly elastic. This will often be true for small sellers.

3) How profitable do you expect grocery stores and gasoline stations to be in the long-run?

a. Even with a small amount of market power, it is still relatively easy to enter and exit these industries. Long-run profits will likely be driven down close to zero.

b. Because of the rising prices of both food and gasoline, each of these industries is expected to suffer long-run losses for the foreseeable future.

c. Grocery stores would be expected to enjoy long-run positive profits since they sell a wider variety of products; gasoline stations would be expected to break even or take losses in the long run because of their more limited range of products.

d. Since these firms retain considerable market power (ability to set price), then they are expected to enjoy long-run positive profitability for the foreseeable future.