The two figures below show (on the left) the industry supply and demand for wheat and (on the right) the marginal cost (MC), average total cost (ATC), and average variable cost (AVC) for a single firm operating in the wheat market. Price per bushel (S) 925 0 a. The industry 0 b. A representative firm MC ATC AVC 10 12 13 15 Bushels of wheat Bushels of wheat Suppose the demand for wheat is D2 as depicted in the figure above. A profit-maximizing firm will produce O a. 15; $30 O b. 13; $91 O c. 7; $0 O d. 13; $0 units and earn a profit of.

Suppose that each firm in a competitive industry has the following costs: Total cost: TC = 50 + q2 Marginal cost: MC = q where q is an individual firms quantity produced. The market demand curve for this product is Demand:QD = 120 P where P is the price and Q is the total quantity of the good. Currently, there are 9 firms in the market. a. What is each firms fixed cost? What is its variable cost? Give the equation for average total cost. b. Graph average-total-cost curve and the marginal-cost curve for q from 5 to 15. At what quantity is average-total-cost curve at its minimum? What is marginal cost and average total cost at that quantity? c Give the equation for each firms supply curve. d. Give the equation for the market supply curve for the short run in which the number of firms is fixed. e. What is the equilibrium price and quantity for this market in the short run? f. In this equilibrium, how much does each firm produce? Calculate each firms profit or loss. Is there incentive for firms to enter or exit? g. In the long run with free entry and exit, what is the equilibrium price and quantity in this market? h. In this long-run equilibrium, how much does each firm produce? How many firms are in the market?

Explain in words why a profit-maximizing film will not choose to produce at a quantity where marginal cost exceeds marginal revenue.

Would you rather have efficiency or variety? That is, one opportunity cost of the variety of products we have is that each product costs more per unit than if there were only one kind of product of a given type, like shoes. Perhaps a better question is, What is the right amount of variety? Can there be too many varieties of shoes, for example?

A computer company produces affordable, easy-to-use home computer systems and has fixed costs of 250. The marginal cost of producing computers is 700 for the first computer, 250 for the second, 300 for the third, 350 for the fourth, 430 for the fifth, 450 for the sixth, and 500 for the seventh. Create a table that shows the companys output, total cost, marginal cost, average cost, variable cost, and average variable cost. At what price is the zero-profit point? At what price is the shutdown point? If the company sells the computers for 500, is it making a profit or a loss? How big is the profit or loss? Sketch a graph with AC, MC, and AVG curves to illustrate your answer and show the profit or loss. If the firm sells the computers for 300, is it making a profit or a loss? How big is the profit or loss? Sketch a graph with AC, MC, and AVG curves to illustrate your answer and show the profit or loss.

Since a perfectly competitive firm can sell as much as it wishes at the market price, why can the firm not simply increase its profits by selling an extremely high quantity?

Look at Table 8.13. What would happen to the films profits if the market price increases to 6 per pack of raspberries?

Productive efficiency and allocative efficiency are two concepts achieved in the long mm in a perfectly competitive market. These are the two reasons why we call them perfect. How would you use these two concepts to analyze other market structures and label them imperfect?

Return to Figure 9.2. Suppose P0 is 10 and P1 is 11. Suppose a new firm with the same LRAC curve as the incumbent tries to bleak into the market by selling 4,000 units of output. Estimate from the graph what the new firms average cost of producing output would be. If the incumbent continues. to produce 6,000 units, how much output would the two films supply to the market? Estimate what would happen to the market price as a result of the supply of both the incumbent firm and the new entrant. Approximately how much profit would each firm earn? Figure 9.2 Economics of Scale and Natural Monoploy

May and Raj me the only two growers who provide organically grown corn to a local grocery store. They know that if they cooperated and produced less corn, they could raise the price of the com. If they work independently, they will each earn 100. If they decide to work together and both lower their output, they call each earn 150. If one person lowers output and the other does not, the person who lowers output will earn $1 and the other person will capture the entire market and will earn 200. Table 10.6 represents the choices available to Mary and Raj. What is the best choice for Raj if he is sole that Mary will cooperate? If Mary thinks Raj will cheat, what should Mary do and why? What is the prisoners dilemma result? What is the preferred choice if they could ensure cooperation? A = Work independently; B = Cooperate and Lower Output. (Each results entry lists Rajs earnings first, and Marys earnings second.)