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The law of demand indicates that as the cost of an activity
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rises, less of the activity will occur.
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According to economists, the satisfaction people get from their consumption activities is called
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Utility
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resources; satisfaction
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The goal of utility maximization is to allocate your ______ in order to maximize your ______.
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The additional utility gained from consuming an additional unit of a good is called
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marginal utility.
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total utility; 1
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The term marginal utility denotes the amount by which ______ changes when consumption changes by ______ unit(s).
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law of diminishing marginal utility
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he tendency for marginal utility to decline as consumption increases beyond some point is called
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optimal
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The ______ combination of goods is the combination that yields the highest total utility given a consumer's income.
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If a consumer buys two different goods, the rational spending rule requires that the
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ratio of marginal utility to price be equal for the two goods.
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maximize utility
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The rational spending rule is derived from the consumer's desire to
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real price.
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The dollar price of a good relative to the average dollar price of all other goods is the good's
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Consumer Surplus
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the difference between the most a buyer would be willing to pay for a product and the price actually paid
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A rational seller will sell another unit of output
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if the cost of making another unit is less than the revenue gained from selling another unit.
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The primary objective of most private firms is to
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maximize profit
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The most important challenge facing a firm in a perfectly competitive market is deciding
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how much to produce.
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profit
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Total revenue minus both explicit and implicit costs defines a firm's
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Which of the following is a defining characteristic of all perfectly competitive markets?
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All firms sell the same standardized product.
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A price-taker faces a demand curve that is
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horizontal at the market price
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An imperfectly competitive firm is one that
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has at least some influence over the market price.
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A profit-maximizing perfectly competitive firm must decide
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only how much to produce, taking price as fixed.
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The short run is best defined as
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a period of time sufficiently short that at least one factor of production is fixed.
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A fixed factor of production
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is fixed only in the short run
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A variable factor of production
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is variable in both the short run and the long run.
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Marginal cost is calculated as
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the change in total cost divided by the change in output.
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Average variable cost is defined as
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variable cost divided by total output
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Average total cost is defined as
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total cost divided by total output
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In general, perfectly competitive firms maximize their profit by producing the level of output at which
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marginal cost equals price.
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The difference between the price a seller actually receives for a good and the seller's reservation price is
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producer surplus.
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Economic theory assumes that a firm's goal is to
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maximize its economic profit.
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Explicit costs
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measure the payments made to the firm's factors of production.
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Accounting profit is equal to
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total revenue minus explicit costs.
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Economic profit is equal to
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total revenue minus the sum of explicit and implicit costs.
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The role that prices play in distributing scarce goods and services to those consumers who value them the most highly is known as the ______ function of price.
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rationing
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The role that prices play in directing resources away from overcrowded markets and towards markets that are underserved is known as the ______ function of price.
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allocative
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Generally, ______ motivates firms to enter an industry, while ______ motivates firms to exit an industry.
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economic profit; economic loss
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Free entry and exit of firms is a characteristic of
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perfectly competitive industries.
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Barriers to entry are forces that
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limit new firms from joining an industry.
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total surplus
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the sum of producer surplus and consumer surplus
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Consumer surplus is the cumulative difference between
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the amount consumers are willing to pay and the price they actually pay.
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A price setter is a firm that
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has some degree of control over its price.
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A pure monopoly exists when:
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a single firm produces a good with no close substitutes
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If a firm operates in an oligopoly, it is
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one of a small number of firms that produce goods that are either close or perfect substitutes.
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A monopolistically competitive firm is one
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of many firms that sell products that are close but not perfect substitutes.
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A good is characterized by network economies if it
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becomes more valuable as more people own it.
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Patents, which confer market power, are intended to
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encourage innovation by helping firms recoup the costs of research and development.
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Economies of scale exist when
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the average cost of production falls as output rises.
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A natural monopoly is a monopoly that arises from
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economies of scale
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The primary objective of an imperfectly competitive firm is to
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maximize profit.
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Both a perfectly competitive firm and a monopolist find that
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it is best to expand production until the benefit and the cost of the last unit produced are equal.
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The monopolist will maximize profits at the output level for which
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marginal revenue equals marginal cost.
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Price discrimination means charging
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different prices to different buyers for essentially the same good or service.