Economics (MindTap Course List)
13th Edition
ISBN: 9781337617383
Author: Roger A. Arnold
Publisher: Cengage Learning
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Chapter 25, Problem 12QP
To determine
Explain the electric companies that have the nature of monopolies.
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The figure to the right shows the market demand for electricity and the average total cost and
marginal cost of producing electricity for a utility company.
Suppose the utility company is a regulated natural monopoly. If government regulators want to
achieve economic efficiency, then they will regulate a price of $ per kilowatt hour. (Enter a
numeric response using a real number rounded to two decimal places)
Now suppose instead that government regulators want to eat the lowest price such that the utility
company will not suffer a loss so that it will continue to produce in the long run. If so, then i
government regulators will set a price of $ per kilowatt hour.
Price and cost (dollars per kilowatt hour)
0.52
048
044-
040-
0.36
0324
0.26
0.24
0.20
0.16
0.12
0.06
004
0.00+
ATC
MC
4
8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
Quantity of kilowatt hours (in billions)
The three graphs below illustrate the market for electricity. The distribution of electricity is a natural monopoly; therefore, to take advantage of lower production costs, it is efficient to have only one firm in the market. Unfortunately, if a monopoly were allowed to provide electricity, it would charge a higher price and provide a smaller amount of electricity than would be desirable. In other words, the unregulated monopoly would charge the monopoly's profit-maximizing price. To avoid this, the government will allow a single firm to provide electricity, but the government will regulate the price. Let’s compare possible regulatory solutions.
1) A firm is considering buying a patent that would give it a monopoly over sale of a new drug. If it buys the patent, the demand curve is it would face for its product is P = 10 – q, and it would have zero marginal costs of production and no other fixed costs. If the firm anticipates setting a single price to all consumers, what is the most that it would be willing to pay for the patent?
2) A firm is considering buying a patent that would give it a monopoly over sale of a new drug. If it buys the patent, the monopolist’s demand curve would be P = 10 – q, and it would have zero marginal costs of production and no other fixed costs. The firm also anticipates that the government will regulate the market in the following way: the government will set a maximum price of $4 per unit. In addition, the government will provide a subsidy to the monopolist equal to the increase in consumer surplus between the outcome in which the monopolist sets its profit-maximising price and in the market with…
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Economics (MindTap Course List)
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- How much is total surplus if the market is perfectly competitive?How much is total surplus if the market is controlled by a single price monopolist?Suppose the single price monopolist started charging all customers the maximum price they are willing to pay. How much additional surplus is created?arrow_forwardA monopoly, unlike a perfectly competitive firm, has some market power. Thus, it can raise its price, within limits, without quantity demanded falling to zero. The main way monopolies retain their market power is through barriers to entry, which prevent other companies from entering monopolized markets and competing for customers. Consider the market for public water. In this industry, low average total costs are obtained only through large-scale production. In other words, the initial cost of setting up all the necessary pipes and treatment plants makes it risky and most likely unprofitable for a competitor to enter the market. Which of the following best explains the barriers to entry that exist in this scenario? O Legal barriers O Control over an important input O Increasing returns to scalearrow_forwardThe graph depicts the market for cable where there is one natural monopoly; AC represents average (total) cost, D represents market demand, and MR represents marginal revenue. Assume that the marginal cost is equal to 0. Suppose that before the cable company lays any cable, the government decides to regulate the monopoly by setting the price. What is the lowest price that regulators can impose while ensuring that the cable company enters the market? 2 What will a monopolist charge in the absence of any regulation? 4 Price $10 9 8 7 6 5 4- 3- تیا 2 1 0 1 AC 2 MR نیا D 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Households (in millions)arrow_forward
- #7. Your company sells widgets. There is only one other firm in the market: Bear Widgets. Demand for your product depends upon your price, your quantity, and the price that Bear Widgets charges (Pgear). You think that Bear Widgets will either charge $10 or $20. What should you do if their price will be $20? Demand: P = 50 – Q + 0.5P3ear Marginal costs: MC = 2Q %3D a. Produce Q = 20 b. Produce Q = 18.33 c. Produce Q = 16.67 d. Produce Q = 15 %3D e. Produce Q = 13.75arrow_forwardQuestion 4: The Baxter brothers - Bob, Bill, Ben and Brad – have just made a documentary movie about their basketball team. They are thinking about making the movie available for download on the internet. They can act as a monopolist if they choose to do so. Each time the movie is downloaded, their Internet Service Provider charges them a fee of $4. The Baxter brothers are arguing about which price to charge the customer per download. Here is the demand schedule for their film: Quantity of Downloads Denanded Price of Download $10 4 6. 2 10 15 a) Calculate the total revenue and marginal revenue per download. Price Quantity TR MR $10 6. 3 10 15 b) Bill is proud of the film and wants as many people as possible to download it. What price would he choose? How many downloads would be sold? c) Bob wants as much total revenue as possible. What price would he choose? How many downloads would be sold? d) Ben wants to maximize profits. What price would he choose? How many downloads would be sold?…arrow_forwardThe accompanying graph depicts the marginal revenue (MR), demand (D), and marginal cost (MC) curves for a monopoly. a. Place point P1 at the profit maximizing price and quantity assuming that the monopolist can only charge a single price. b. What are the profits of the firm if it charges a single price? $ 1225 Suppose the monopolist able to successfully price discriminate between two groups by charging one group $75 and charging $35 to the other group. c. What are the firm's profits if it charges the two prices as mentioned above? Price and Costs($) 100 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 $ 1625 D MR D MC 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95100 Quantityarrow_forward
- Place the black point (plus symbol) on the following graph to indicate the profit-maximizing price and quantity for BYOB. If BYOB is making a profit, use the green rectangle (triangle symbols) to shade in the area representing its profit. On the other hand, if BYOB is suffering a loss, use the purple rectangle (diamond symbols) to shade in the area representing the loss. 4.00 3.50 Monopoly Outcome 3.00 2.50 Profit 2.00 1.50 Loss ATC 1.00 0.50 MC D MR 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 QUANTITY (Thousands of cans of beer) PRICE (Dollars per unit)arrow_forwardConsider a lake found in the town of Center Barnstead, and then answer the questions that follow. The town has a water park whose visitors use the lake for recreation. The town also has a ketchup factory that dumps industrial waste into the lake. This pollutes the lake and makes it a less desirable vacation destination. That is, the ketchup factory's waste decreases the water park's economic profit. Suppose that the ketchup factory could use a different production method that involves recycling water. This would reduce the pollution in the lake to levels safe for recreation, and the water park would no longer be affected. If the ketchup factory uses the recycling method, then the ketchup factory's economic profit is $900 per week, and the water park's economic profit is $2,600 per week. If the ketchup factory does not use the recycling method, then the ketchup factory's economic profit is $1,600 per week, and the water park's economic profit is $1,500 per week. These figures are…arrow_forwardIn many areas (including sections of New York City) cable TV service is provided by a single producer. The graph below depicts the demand for monthly cable TV in one such town, Little Apple. BurnU Cable is the sole provider of cable services in Little Apple. Its monthly costs of providing services to a household are constant at $10 per household. In addition, the annual cost of maintaining the overall system of cables is $2,000. 110 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 Households A. How many households will purchase cable TV services and at what price? Quantity: Price: В. The mayor of Little Apple is interested in lowering the cost of cable TV and has proposed regulating the price at $30. His summer intern (all the way from Wagner) recalls that regulation causes inefficiency and argues against this strategy. Is the intern correct? O Yes O No What are the efficiency consequences of imposing the price regulation of $30…arrow_forward
- do I have the graph right? plus how do I answer the questionsarrow_forwardThe following graph shows the demand (D) for cable services in the imaginary town of Utilityburg. The graph also shows the marginal revenue (MR) curve, the marginal cost (MC) curve, and the average total cost (ATC) curve for the local cable company, a natural monopolist. On the following graph, use the black point (plus symbol) to indicate the profit-maximizing price and quantity for this natural monopolist. Which of the following statements are true about this natural monopoly? Check all that apply. It is more efficient on the cost side for one producer to exist in this market rather than a large number of producers. The cable company is experiencing economies of scale. The cable company must own a scarce resource. The cable company is experiencing diseconomies of scale. True or False: Without government regulation, natural monopolies never earn zero profit in the long run. True Falsearrow_forwardWhat is the quantity that maximizes social surplus? Explain. How much worse off is society as a result of this industry being monopolized? Show this on a graph and calculate the amount. Info needed in image belowarrow_forward
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