question
In economics, a firm that faces no competitors is referred to as ____
answer
monopoly
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The term _____ is used to describe the additional cost of producing one more unit
answer
marginal cost
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In microeconomics, the term _____ is synonymous with economies of scale
answer
increasing returns to scale
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Whatever the firm's quantity of production, _____________ must exceed total costs if it is to earn a profit.
answer
total revenue
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In order to calculate marginal cost, the change in ______ is divided by the amount of change in quantity.
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either total cost or variable cost
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A fixed input is an input whose quantity _____
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cannot be changed as output changes in the short run
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_____ help to explain why every economy, as it develops, has an increasing proportion of its population living in urban areas
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agglomeration factors
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Which of the following should typically be ignored because spending has already been made and cannot be changed?
answer
sunk costs
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T or F: Accounting profits and economic profits measure the same thing and are always equal
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False
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For economists, the short run is a period of time in which _____
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at least one input is fixed
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The term ______ is used to describe the additional cost of producing one more unit
answer
marginal cost
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The term ______ describes a situation where the quantity of output rises, but the average cost of production falls
answer
economies of scale
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In microeconomics, the term _____ is synonymous with decreasing returns of scale
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diseconomies of scale
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According to the definition of profit, if a profit-maximizing firm will always attempt to produce its desired level of output at the lowest possible cost, then it will _____
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do so regardless of what type of competition exists in a market
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Marcella operates a small, but very successful art gallery. All but one of the following can be classified as a variable cost arising from the physical inputs Marcella requires to operate her business. Which is it?
answer
physical space for the gallery
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The table below sets out cost information for the production of volley balls. Some values are missing. Which of the following statements is correct?
answer
A = 42, E = 12
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If the firm produces 5 units that it sells for $39.00 each, what will its profits or losses equal
answer
profits equal $30
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I'MABigCorp. produces and sells kitchen wares. Last year, it produced 7,000 can openers and sold each one for $6. To produce the 7,000 can openers, the company incurred variable costs of $28,000 and a total cost of $45,000. I'MABIGCorp.'s average fixed cost to produce the 7,000 can openers was
answer
$2.43
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The marginal cost curve is generally _____, because diminishing marginal returns implies that additional units are ______
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upward-sloping; more costly to produce
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Whatever the firm's quantity of production, ______ must exceed total costs if it is to earn a profit
answer
total revenue
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If a firm earns normal profit, then it has generated revenues
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equal to the sum of implicit and explicit costs
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In the long run, if inputs are increased by 10 percent and output increases by 20 percent, then _____ are said to exist
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economies of scale
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The term ____ refers to a firm operating in a perfectly competitive market that must take the prevailing market price for its product
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price taker
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T or F: A perfectly competitive firm is a price taker
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true
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The price charged by a perfectly competitive firm is determined by ______
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market demand and market supply, together
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If a firm is a price taker, its demand curve is
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perfectly elastic
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A "price taker" is a firm that
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does not have the ability to control the price of the product it sells
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The market demand curve in a perfectly competitive market is
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downward sloping
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T or F: Perfect competition is a market structure in which many firms provide an identical product
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True
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Profits are positive if at the profit maximizing quantity,
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P > ATC
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In the _____, the perfectly competitive firm will seek out _____
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short run, the quantity of output where profits are highest
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_____ refers to the additional revenue gained from selling one more unit
answer
marginal revenue
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If a firm's revenues do not cover its average variable costs, then that firm has reached its ________
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shutdown point
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When a business adopts a strategy of reducing and/or discontinuing production in response to a sustained pattern of losses, it is _____
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preparing to exit operations
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An _____ is calculated by subtracting the firm's costs from its total revenues, _____
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accounting profit, excluding opportunity cost
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In a free market economy, firms operating in a perfectly competitive industry are said to have only one major choice to make. Which of the following correctly sets out that choice?
answer
what quantity to produce
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In economic terms, a practical approach to maximizing profits requires an examination of how changes in production affect _____ and _____.
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marginal revenue, marginal cost
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If the price that a firm charges is higher than its _____ cost of production for that quantity produced, then the firm will earn profits.
answer
average
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Kate's 24-Hour Breakfast Diner menu offers one item, a $5.00 breakfast special. Kate's costs for servers, cooks, electricity, food, etc. average out to $3.95 per meal. Her costs for rent, insurance cleaning supplies and business license average out to $1.25 per meal. Since the market is highly competitive, Kate should
answer
keep the business open in the short run, but plan to go out of business in the long run
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In order to produce 100 oatmeal cookies, GoodieCookieCo incurs an average total cost of $0.25 per cookie. The company's marginal cost is constant at $0.10 for all oatmeal cookies produced. The total cost to produce 50 oatmeal cookies is
answer
$20
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T or F: In a long-run competitive equilibrium, no form has an incentive to change its plant size
answer
True
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If MR > MC, then
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the firm can increase its profits (or minimize its losses) by increasing output
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A constant-cost industry has a long-run (industry) supply curve that is _____
answer
horizontal
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Intellectual property law is a body of law that includes _____
answer
copyright legislation, as well as all of the above (right of inventors to produce, right of inventors to sell, trademark/patent/trade)
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In the United States, a pharmaceutical company's exclusive patent rights last for
answer
20 years
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Which one of the following is the most accurate description of a monopolist?
answer
a sole producer of a product for which good substitutes are lacking in a market with high barriers to entry
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T or F: Monopolists are guaranteed to earn a positive economic profit because they are the only seller in their industry
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False
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Which of the following is an assumption of the theory of monopoly?
answer
There are extremely high barriers to entry
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For the monopoly firm, its demand curve is
answer
the market demand curve
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Marginal revenue is equal to _____ divided by _____
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the change in total revenue, the change in quantity of output
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An assumption of a Monopoly includes
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a single seller of the good or service, a firm that sells a product with no close substitutes, high barriers to entry
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Monopolies are inefficient because they result in
answer
a quantity lower than what is produced in a competitive market
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One reason a Natural Monopoly can exist is _____
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the company controls a scarce physical resource
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A _____ exists when the quantity demanded in the market is less than the quantity at the bottom of the long-run average cost curve
answer
natural monopoly
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The use of sharp, temporary price cuts as a form of ______ would enable traditional US automakers to discourage new competition from smaller electric car manufacturers.
answer
predatory pricing
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A firm that holds a monopoly position in the market place is _____
answer
a price maker
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In the United States, a pharmaceutical company's exclusive patent rights last for
answer
20 years
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Which of the following is the most accurate description of a monopolist?
answer
a sole producer of a product for which good substitutes are lacking in a market with high barriers to entry
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The marginal revenue curve for a monopolist _____ the market demand curve
answer
always lies beneath
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In the event that Only1Corp obtains control of all the natural gas producers in the US, it would most likely
answer
raise prices, cut production, and realize positive economic profits
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_____ law implies ownership over an idea or concept or image
answer
intellectual property
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T or F: Monopolists are guaranteed to earn a positive economic profit because they are the only seller in their industry
answer
False
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T or F: The single-price monopolist produces the quantity of output at which marginal cost equals marginal revenue and charges a price that is greater than marginal revenue
answer
True
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Which of the following is an example of a legal barrier to entry?
answer
a public franchise, a patent
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In maximizing profits, a monopolist will charge a price that is
answer
greater than marginal cost
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In order for a monopolist to be earning a profit, price must be greater than
answer
average cost
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Compared to the perfectly competitive firm, the monopolist faces a demand curve that is ______ elastic because there are _____ substitutes for the product produced by the monopolist
answer
less, fewer
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_____ occurs when circumstances have allowed several large firms to have all or most of the sales in an industry
answer
An oligopoly
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The branch of mathematics that analyzes situations in which players must make decisions and then receive payoffs most often used by economists is
answer
game theory
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What role can advertising play with respect to differentiated products?
answer
shapes consumers intangible preferences
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The demand curve as perceived by a monopolistic competitor is
answer
downward sloping
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T or F: In the prisoner's dilemma, each prisoner would be better off if neither one confesses
answer
True
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T or F: the profit-maximizing monopolistic competitive firm produces a level of output at which marginal revenue equals marginal cost
answer
True
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T or F: Concentration ratios are often used to determine the degree of oligopoly in an industry
answer
True
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In a monopolistic competitive industry, _____
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each firm in the industry produces a slightly differentiated product
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A concentration ratio indicates the
answer
percentage of total sales accounted for by the (for example) four largest firms
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The theory of oligopoly assumes
answer
a few sellers and many buyers, significant barriers to entry
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In a monopolistic competitive industry, firms can try to differentiate their products by
answer
enhancing product's physical aspects, creating optimal perceptions, choosing optimal locations, enhancing the intangible aspects of the product
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In a monopoly or a monopolistic competitor raises their prices, the quantity demanded
answer
will decline
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Would raising the price for a product create a larger decline in quantity demanded for a monopolistic competitor's than it would for a monopoly?
answer
yes --> consumers will buy from competitors offering lower priced substitutes
question
If a monopolistic competitor raises its price, it _____ customers than a perfectly competitive firm, but _____ customers compared to the number that a monopoly that raised its prices would
answer
will lose fewer, it will lose more
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If the firm is producing at a quantity of output where marginal revenue exceeds marginal costs, then
answer
the firm should keep expanding production
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Monopolistic competitors can make a ______ in the short-run, but in the long-run, _____ will drive these firms toward ______
answer
profit or loss, entry and exit, a zero-profit outcome
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Perfect competition displays _____ because the social benefits of additional production, as measured by the price that people are willing to pay, are in balance with the ____ to society of that production
answer
allocative efficiency, marginal costs
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How can parties who find themselves in a prisoner's dilemma situation avoid the undesired outcome and cooperate with each other?
answer
find effective ways to penalize firms who do not cooperate
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T or F: In long-run equilibrium, a monopolistic competitive firm will most likely produce a level of output for which price equals average total cost
answer
True
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T or F: Cartels are easy to form and maintain
answer
False
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Compared to a monopolistic competitor, a monopolist produces a good with _____ substitutes and so has a _____ elastic demand curve
answer
fewer, less
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The excess capacity theorem states that a monopolistic competitor
answer
will produce an output level smaller than the one that would minimize its unit costs
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In the long run equilibrium, the monopolistic competitor will most likely
answer
be earning zero economic profit
question
If you were to rank the four market structures in terms of lowest concentration ratio to highest concentration ratio, which of the following rankings would be correct?
answer
perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly
question
The monopolistic competitive firm will most likely earn a normal profit in the long run because of
answer
easy entry and exit
question
In which market structure can the good being produced be either homogeneous or differentiated?
answer
oligopoly
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_____ include all of the costs of production that increase with the quantity produced
answer
variable costs
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In order to determine _____, the firm's total costs must be divided by the quantity of its output
answer
average cost
question
The term ______ describes a situation where the quantity of output rises, but the average cost of production fails
answer
economies of scale
question
Whatever the firm's quantity of production, _____ must exceed total costs if it is to earn a profit
answer
total revenue
question
In order to calculate marginal cost, the change in _____ is divided by the amount of change in quantity
answer
either total cost or variable cost
question
The economies-of-scale curve is a long-run average cost curve, because
answer
it allows all factors of production to change
question
A situation where the level of output, scale and average costs are all rising is called
answer
decreasing returns to scale
question
Which of the following cost curves is never U-shaped?
answer
the average fixed cost curve
question
economic profit can be derived from calculating total revenues minus all of the firm's costs, _____
answer
including its opportunity costs
question
Firms operating in a market situation that creates _____, sell their product in a market with other firms who produce identical or extremely similar products
answer
perfect competition
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What happens in a perfectly competitive industry when economic profit is greater than zero?
answer
existing firms may expand their operations, new firms may enter the industry, there may be pressure on the market price to fall
question
T or F: For a perfectly competitive firm. the demand curve it faces is horizontal at the price determined in the market
answer
True
question
Why must profits be zero in long-run competitive equilibrium?
answer
if profits are not zero, firms will enter or exit the industry
question
Which of the following is a characteristic of perfect competition?
answer
buyers and sellers having all relevant information
question
If profits are positive if at the profit maximizing quantity then it must be true that at that quantity
answer
P > ATC
question
Which of the following is most unlikely to present a barrier to entry into a market?
answer
deregulation
question
A firm that holds a monopoly position in the market place is
answer
a price maker
question
Following the assumption that firms maximize profits, how will the price and output policy of an unregulated monopolist compare with ideal market efficiency?
answer
output will be too small and its price too high
question
The marginal revenue curve for a monopolist _______ the market demand curve
answer
always lies beneath
question
Once IMAPharmaCo has received confirmation of the registration for its latest drug patent application, it will have created a monopoly for that product by restricting
answer
entry into the market
question
T or F: Monopolists are guaranteed to earn a positive economic profit because they are the only seller in the industry
answer
False
question
A natural monopoly exists when
answer
economies of scale are so large that only one firm can survive and achieve low unit costs
question
For a monopolist, if price is above the average cost, the monopolist is
answer
earning an economic profit
question
"Rent seeking" is socially wasteful because
answer
resources devoted to transferring rents are not used to produce goods
question
Compared to the perfectly competitive firm, the monopolist faces a demand curve that is _____ elastic because there are ______ substitutes for the product produced by the monopolist.
answer
less, fewer
question
A ____ refers to a group of firms colluding with one another to produce at the monopoly output and sell at the monopoly price
answer
cartel
question
If the CEO of IMABigBank is playing prisoner's dilemma then, from his perspective, the gains to be had from cooperation are
answer
larger than the rewards from pursuing self-interest
question
Monopolistic competitors in the food industry will often include a recyclable symbol on packaging used for their product as a means to
answer
differentiate their product
question
If a perfectly competitive firm raises its price, the quantity demanded of its product ____
answer
falls to zero
question
If the firm is producing at a quantity of output where marginal revenue exceeds marginal cost, then,
answer
the firm should keep expanding production
question
A monopolistically competitive firms may earn abnormally high profits in the
answer
short term, but the process of entry will drive those profits to zero in the long run
question
Does the monopolistic competitive firm exhibit resource-allocative efficiency?
answer
No, because at its chosen quantity of output, price is greater than marginal cost
question
A firm in a monopolistic competitive market will produce a level of output at which
answer
P > MR