Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Among monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, and perfect competition, how would you
classify the markets for each of the following drinks?
a. tap water
b. bottled water
c. cola
d. beer
2. A large share of the world supply of diamonds comes from Russia and South Africa. Suppose that
the marginal cost of mining diamonds is constant at $1,000 per diamond, and the demand for
diamonds is described by the following schedule:
Price $8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000
Quantity 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000 11,000 12,000
a. If there were many suppliers of diamonds, what would be the price and quantity?
b. If there were only one supplier of diamonds, what would be the price and quantity?
c. If Russia and South Africa formed a cartel, what would be the price and quantity? If the
countries split the market evenly, what would be South Africa’s production and profit?
What would happen to South Africa’s profit if it increased its production by 1,000 while
Russia stuck to the cartel agreement?
d. Use your answer to part (c) to explain why cartel agreements are often not successful.
3. Consider trade relations between the United States and Mexico. Assume that the leaders of the
two countries believe the payoffs to alternative trade policies are as follows:
United States’ decision
a. What is the dominant strategy for the United States? For Mexico? Explain.
b. Define Nash equilibrium. What is the Nash equilibrium for trade policy?
c. In 1993, the U.S. Congress ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement, in which
the United States and Mexico agreed to reduce trade barriers simultaneously. Do the
perceived payoffs shown here justify this approach to trade policy?
d. Based on your understanding of the gains from trade, do you think these payoffs
actually reflect a nation’s welfare under the four possible outcomes?
4. For each of the following, say whether it describes a perfectly competitive firm, a
monopolistically competitive firm, both, or neither.
a. Charges a price equal to marginal cost.
b. Has marginal revenue equal to price.
c. Faces barriers to entry.
d. Produces a product that is identical to that of its competitors.
e. Earns zero economic profit in the long run.
f. Produces where marginal revenue is greater than marginal cost.
5. For each of the following characteristics, say whether it describes a monopoly firm, a
monopolistically competitive firm, both, or neither.
a. Faces a downward-sloping demand curve.
b. Has marginal revenue less than price.
c. Faces the entry of new firms selling similar products.
d. Earns economic profit in the long run.
e. Equates marginal revenue and marginal cost.
f. Produces the socially efficient quantity of output.
6. Sparkle is one firm of many in the market for toothpaste, which is in long-run equilibrium.
a. Draw a diagram showing Sparkle’s demand curve, marginal-revenue curve, average-
total-cost curve, and marginal-cost curve. Label Sparkle’s profit maximizing output and
price.
b. What is Sparkle’s profit? Explain.
c. On your diagram, show the consumer surplus derived from the purchase of Sparkle
toothpaste. Also show the deadweight loss relative to the efficient level of output.
d. If the government forced Sparkle to produce the efficient level of output, what would
happen to the firm? What would happen to Sparkle’s customers?
1.
a. Tap water is a perfectly competitive market because there are many taps and
the product does not differ across sellers.
b. Bottled water is a monopolistically competitive market. There are many sellers
of bottled water, but each firm tries to differentiate its own brand from the
rest.
c. The cola market is an oligopoly. There are only a few firms that control a large
portion of the market.
d. The beer market is an oligopoly. There are only a few firms that control a large
portion of the market.
2.
a. If there were many suppliers of diamonds, price would equal marginal cost
($1,000), so the quantity would be 12,000.
b. With only one supplier of diamonds, quantity would be set where marginal cost
equals marginal revenue. The following table derives marginal revenue:
Marginal
Price Quantity Total revenue
revenue
(,000 of $) (,000) (,000,000 of $)
(,000,000 of $)
8 5 40 ----
7 6 42 2
6 7 42 0
5 8 40 –2
4 9 36 –4
3 10 30 –6
2 11 22 –8
1 12 12 –10
Figure 1.
b. Sparkle’s profit is zero, because at quantity QM, price equals average total
cost.
c. The consumer surplus from the purchase of Sparkle toothpaste is areas A + B.
The efficient level of output occurs where the demand curve intersects the
marginal-cost curve, at QC. The deadweight loss is area C, the area above
marginal cost and below demand, from QM to QC.
d. If the government forced Sparkle to produce the efficient level of output, the
firm would lose money because average total cost would exceed price, so the
firm would shut down. If that happened, Sparkle’s customers would earn no
consumer surplus.