question
The marginal cost curve intersects the average cost curve:
answer
at its minimum point.
question
Price equals marginal revenue for a competitive firm because:
answer
the price does not change when the firm changes output.
question
The demand curve for oil from OPEC is:
answer
downward-sloping.
question
Price times quantity minus total cost equals:
answer
profit
question
Because only greater quantities of oil can be produced by using more expensive production methods, the industry is:
answer
an increasing cost industry.
question
Which of the following is TRUE?
answer
Profit equals (price minus average cost) times quantity.
question
When opportunity cost is positive, economic profit ______ accounting profit.
answer
is less than
question
Any industry that buys a large fraction of the output of an increasing cost industry:
answer
must be an increasing cost industry.
question
To maximize profits, a firm in a highly competitive industry should set its price:
answer
at the market price.
question
The supply curve for oil slopes upward because additional quantities of oil can only be produced at higher cost.
answer
True
question
Economic profits are:
answer
total revenue less total costs, including explicit and implicit costs.
question
Average cost is equal to total cost divided by quantity.
answer
True
question
If marginal cost is less than average cost, average cost is rising.
answer
False
question
Which of the following statements is FALSE?
answer
When marginal cost is below average cost, average cost is rising.
question
The electricity industry is an example of:
answer
an increasing cost industry.
question
In competitive markets, the demand curve faced by the individual firm is:
answer
perfectly elastic.
question
Julius builds dining chairs that he sells for $200 a chair. His fixed costs are $1,000 (for workshop equipment). Each chair costs him $50 in materials to produce plus an extra $25 for each previous chair made that day, which reflects Julius's increasing exhaustion. (Thus, the first chair cost $50, the second costs $75, the third cost $100, etc.) Assume time requirements in producing a chair are not a factor. How many chairs should Julius produce each day?
answer
7
question
An example of an implicit cost is:
answer
salary that could have been earned working for someone else.
question
What condition is necessary in a constant cost industry?
answer
Prices of the industry's inputs do not change as the industry expands.
question
The short run is the period after all exit and entry has occurred.
answer
False
question
The short run is defined as:
answer
the period before entry or exit can occur.
question
According to the elimination principle, above-normal profits will never occur.
answer
False
question
In a free market, if the profit rate in the car industry were higher than in the computer industry, this is a signal that:
answer
entrepreneurs should move resources from the computer industry to the car industry.
question
For a competitive firm, which of the following conditions describes the profit maximization condition?
I. P = MC
II. MR = MCI
II. TR = TC
I. P = MC
II. MR = MCI
II. TR = TC
answer
I and II only
question
Suppose that you own two farms on which to grow corn. In order to lower the cost of production, you determine to increase production on Farm 1 and reduce it on Farm 2. This implies that the marginal cost of production on Farm 1 is:
answer
less than the marginal cost of production on Farm 2.
question
Suppose that Sandy owns a farm in North Carolina and Pat owns a farm in Iowa, and Sandy's farm is generally more productive than Pat's. If both Sandy and Pat sell their corn in the same market, Sandy should produce the output at the marginal cost that is:
answer
equal to the marginal cost of Pat's production.
question
In the long run, firms will exit industries where price is:
answer
less than average cost.
question
There is a tendency for economic profit in all competitive industries to go to zero.
answer
True
question
A student trying to maximize her semester GPA already studies as many hours as possible but can perhaps use that time more efficiently. A marginal hour spent studying economics will raise her GPA by 0.05. A marginal hour spent studying literature will raise her GPA by 0.02. Should she reallocate her time?
answer
She should spend more time studying economics and less time studying literature.
question
Consider two farms. Farm 1 produces unlimited bushels for a cost of $5 each. Farm 2 produces unlimited bushels for a cost of $7 each. How should production be allocated between these two farms?
answer
Produce all bushels on Farm 1.
question
The following are marginal cost curves for selling chicken in a mom-and-pop (MCM) store and in a big-box retailer (MCB).
MCM = 2 + 2QM
MCB = 4 + QB
If there are 6 total chickens being sold, how many chickens does each firm sell?
MCM = 2 + 2QM
MCB = 4 + QB
If there are 6 total chickens being sold, how many chickens does each firm sell?
answer
mom-and-pop: 2; big-box: 4
question
A perfectly competitive firm with lower marginal costs will produce ______ a competitor with higher marginal costs.
answer
more units than
question
Outcomes that people neither intend nor design:
answer
can be desirable with the right institutions.
question
The greatest use of our limited resources occurs when:
answer
profits in every industry are the same.
question
Consider two farms. Farm 1 produces the first bushel for $5 each, but the marginal cost rises gradually as the quantity increases. Farm 2 produces the first bushel for $7, but marginal cost also rises gradually as the quantity increases. With a market price of $10 a bushel, how should production be allocated between these two farms?
answer
Produce on both farms until the marginal cost on each farm rises to $10.
question
High profits mean that inputs of high value produce outputs of low value.
answer
False
question
If a firm has revenues of $125, explicit costs of $25, and implicit costs of $50, then its economic profit is:
answer
$50.
question
If P > AC in a given industry, then:
answer
there are too few resources in that industry.
question
If P < AC in a given industry, then:
answer
there are too many resources in that industry.
question
What is the Invisible Hand Property 1?
answer
In a free market, the total costs of producing output are minimized because each firm produces up to the point where P = MC.
question
A free market can allocate production across two farms to minimize total costs even when an ideal central planner could not.
answer
True
question
When resources move from a low-profit industry into a high-profit industry:
answer
the profits of the low-profit industry rise and the profits of the high-profit industry fall.
question
Above-normal profits are eliminated by ______, and below-normal profits are eliminated by ______.
answer
entry; exit
question
"[I]n capitalist reality as distinguished from its textbook picture, it is not that kind of competition which counts but the competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organization . . . competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives." This process is called:
answer
creative destruction.
question
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
I. A free market minimizes the total costs of producing output.
II. In a free market, P = MC1 = MC2 = . . . MCN.
III. Every firm faces the same price in a competitive market.
I. A free market minimizes the total costs of producing output.
II. In a free market, P = MC1 = MC2 = . . . MCN.
III. Every firm faces the same price in a competitive market.
answer
I, II, and III
question
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
I. To maximize profit, a monopolist produces where P = MC.
II. Economies of scale are likely important for subways and cable TV.
III. Since producer surplus includes large monopoly profits, total surplus is higher in monopoly markets.
I. To maximize profit, a monopolist produces where P = MC.
II. Economies of scale are likely important for subways and cable TV.
III. Since producer surplus includes large monopoly profits, total surplus is higher in monopoly markets.
answer
II only
question
A firm with no competitors:
answer
still faces a downward-sloping demand curve.
question
One source of monopoly power is a patent granted by government.
answer
True
question
If a monopolist faces a straight-line negatively sloped demand curve, the price of the units it sells is always:
answer
greater than marginal revenue.
question
California deregulated:
answer
wholesale electricity prices in 1998.
question
Software development has high fixed costs and marginal costs that are close to zero. What would happen if software firms sold their product for marginal cost?
answer
They would not be able to afford their fixed costs and would go out of business.
question
When demand is relatively elastic, monopolists will charge:
answer
a lower markup.
question
For a monopoly, the entire consumer surplus is transferred to the monopolist as profit.
answer
False
question
Apple's iPod provides an example that market power may arise from:
answer
innovation
question
Competitive markets channel the self-interest of business leaders toward social prosperity, whereas poor institutions that limit competition channel the self-interest of business leaders toward social destruction.
answer
True
question
A monopoly is a firm:
answer
that sets price above marginal cost without concern that other firms will enter the industry.
question
The economic inefficiency of a monopolist can be measured by the:
answer
deadweight loss involved relative to a competitive firm.
question
A firm can sell 1 unit at $9 or 2 units at $8 or 3 units at $7, and so on. What is the marginal revenue from the sale of the fifth unit?
answer
$1
question
Monopolies will have more market power when one firm owns an input that is difficult to duplicate and the:
answer
demand for the product is inelastic.
question
When a regulated monopolist maximizes consumer surplus, it produces at an optimal Q where:
answer
P = MC.
question
If the economies of scale are large enough, average cost for a natural monopoly can be:
answer
lower than the average cost under competition.
question
Other things being equal, the markup above marginal cost that a monopolist charges will be:
answer
lower when there are more substitutes for the monopolist's product.
question
A profit-maximizing monopolist chooses the output level where MR = MC and chooses the corresponding price from the marginal revenue curve.
answer
False
question
If the monopolist's demand is given by P = 100 - Q, marginal revenue is given by:
answer
MR = 100 - 2Q.
question
One of the great lessons of economics is that:
answer
good institutions channel self-interest toward social prosperity, whereas poor institutions channel self-interest toward social destruction.
question
When a monopolist faces downward-sloping demand, marginal revenue is less than the price.
answer
True
question
Saudi Arabia has market power in the world's oil markets because:
answer
it controls a significant fraction of the world's oil supply.
question
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
answer
Monopolies create incentives for additional research and development.
question
If the demand curve for a firm is a straight line with negative slope, which of the following is the shortcut to finding the MR?
answer
The marginal revenue curve starts at the same point as the demand curve and has twice the slope of the demand curve.
question
If these were monopolistic markets, which one would clearly have a greater markup than a monopolized banana industry?
answer
organic bananas
question
Counterfeit brands carry labels from companies that did not actually make the product in question (e.g., a purse not made by Gucci but carrying a Gucci label). With what kind of monopoly are the makers of these items trying to compete?
answer
one with hard-to-duplicate products
question
To determine the production level, the monopolist sets marginal cost equal to price.
answer
False
question
Graphically, a firm's marginal revenue curve is:
answer
downward-sloping, but with twice the slope of the market demand curve.
question
Today anything beyond the most basic tier cable service is predominantly free of regulation, and cable companies are free to charge a market rate for their services. As a result:
answer
prices have risen since deregulation, but so have the number of channels and the quality of programming.
question
For a linear demand curve, the marginal revenue curve has:
answer
twice the slope.
question
In which of the following scenarios will automobile prices be the lowest?
answer
A competitive automobile company buys its steel from a competitive steel producer.
question
Which of the following statements about monopoly power is correct?
answer
Monopoly power is the power to raise prices above average cost without facing new entry of firms.
question
Deadweight loss occurs because some consumers are willing to pay at least the marginal cost for the good, even if they are not willing to pay the monopolist's price. If monopolies were able to charge these consumers a lower price without lowering prices to consumers willing to pay more, deadweight loss would ______, some consumers would be ______ off, and the monopolist would be ______ off.
answer
decrease; better; better
question
When a monopolist decreases the price of its good, consumers:
answer
buy more
question
To maximize profit, the monopolist increases output:
answer
until marginal cost is equal to marginal revenue.
question
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
answer
Monopolized economies tend to have more poverty and less economic growth.
question
Deregulation of cable TV rates led to:
answer
higher prices for cable TV.
question
With health insurance, medical treatments are often paid by someone other than the patient, which will make consumers with serious diseases relatively:
answer
insensitive to the price of pharmaceuticals.
question
When goods produced in monopolistic markets become inputs to produce other goods,
answer
prices rise by more than if the input was competitively priced.
question
A monopoly is a firm with market power, and market power may arise from economies of scale, patent protection, and innovation.
answer
True
question
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
I. Government ownership is a potential solution to the natural monopoly problem, but it stifles innovation.
II. Regulated monopolies have little incentive to reduce costs, as they simply pass the higher costs on to consumers.
III. Government ownership of utilities worked well for several decades.
I. Government ownership is a potential solution to the natural monopoly problem, but it stifles innovation.
II. Regulated monopolies have little incentive to reduce costs, as they simply pass the higher costs on to consumers.
III. Government ownership of utilities worked well for several decades.
answer
I, II, and III
question
The "you can't take it with you" and "other people's money" effects give rise to an inelastic demand for pharmaceutical drugs.
answer
True
question
In a purely monopolized environment where each monopolist succeeds at raising its price, the result is:
answer
higher prices spread throughout the economy.