Professional Documents
Culture Documents
14. a. Accounting costs equal $145,000 per year in overhead and operating expenses. Her
implicit cost is the $75,000 salary that must be given up to start the new business. Her opportunity
cost includes both implicit and explicit costs: $145,000 + $75,000 = $220,000.
b. To earn positive accounting profits, the revenues per year should greater than $145,000.
To earn positive economic profits, the revenues per year must be greater than $220,000.
22. Online price comparison sites are generally markets of intense producer‐producer rivalry. Using
the five forces framework, one would expect that profits in this industry would be low. Given that
there are many sellers, products are identical across sellers, and that the main basis for competition
is price, the industry rivalry would be very high and prices would be expected to be close to cost.
Furthermore, barriers to entry are low, so that any profits would be competed away by new firms
entering the market. Also, consumers have a variety of substitutes available, both for the products
and the retail outlets from which they purchase. For these reasons, economic profits would likely be
close to zero for The Local Electronics Shop.
23. While the incentive plan has been effective in increasing the sales for the dealership, it has not
increased profitability. This is because the manager, who must approve all sales, gets paid a
commission regardless of whether the sale is profitable for the dealership or not; she has an
incentive to increase sales, not profits. A better incentive system would pay the manager a
commission based on the amount of the profit on each sale. Doing this would give the sales
manager an incentive to sell more cars and maintain high profit margins. In this way, the incentives
of the manager are better aligned with the incentives of the dealership’s owners. Many car
dealerships pay the manager 20‐30% of the gross profit, the difference between the selling price and
the cost to the dealership.
Chapter 2:
11. Rising input prices that increase production costs will lead to a leftward shift in the supply curve
for RAM chips, resulting in a higher equilibrium price of RAM chips. If in addition, income falls, the
demand for RAM chips will decrease since they are a normal good. This decrease in demand would
tend to decrease the price of RAM chips. The ultimate effect of both of these changes in supply and
demand on the equilibrium price of RAM chips is indeterminate. Depending on the relative
magnitude of the decreases in supply and demand, the price you will pay for chips may rise or fall.
12. The tariff reduces the supply of raw sugar, resulting in a higher equilibrium price of sugar. Since
sugar is an input in making generic soft drinks, this increase in input prices will decrease the supply
of generic soft drinks (putting upward pressure on the price of generic soft drinks and tend to reduce
quantity). Coke and Pepsi’s advertising campaign will decrease the demand for generic soft drinks
(putting downward pressure on the price of generic soft drinks and further reducing the quantity).
For these reasons, the equilibrium quantity of generic soft drinks sold will decrease. However, the
equilibrium price may rise or fall, depending on the relative shifts in demand and supply.
13. No. this confuses a change in demand with a change in quantity demanded. Higher cigarette
prices will not reduce (shift to the left) the demand for cigarettes.
14. To find the equilibrium price and quantity, equate quantity demanded and quantity supplied to
obtain 210 – 1.5P = 2.5P – 150. Solving yields the new equilibrium price of $90 per pint. The
equilibrium quantity is 75 units (since Qd = 210 – 1.5 × 90 = 75 units at that price). Consumer surplus
is $140 $90 75 $1,875. Producer surplus is $90 $60 75 $1,125. See the figure
below.
160
140
120
Supply
Consumer Surplus
100
Price
80Producer Surplus
60 Demand
40
20
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Quantity
19. The unusually cold temperatures have caused a decrease in the supply of grapes used to produce
Chilean wine, resulting in higher prices. These grapes are an input in making wine, so the supply of
Chilean wine decreases and its price increases. Since California and Chilean wines are substitutes, an
increase in the price of Chilean wine will increase the demand for Californian wines causing an
increase in both the price and quantity of Californian wines.
Chapter 3:
c. At the given prices, quantity demanded is 750 units, as shown in part a. Substituting the relevant
information into the elasticity formula gives: , 0.1 0.1 0.04. Since this
number is negative, goods X and Z are complements.
13. Based on this information, the own price elasticity of demand for Big G cereal is ,
1.25. Thus, demand for Big G cereal is elastic (since this number is greater than one in absolute
value). Since Lucky Charms is one particular brand of cereal for which even more substitutes exist,
you would expect the demand for Lucky Charms to be even more elastic than the demand for Big G
cereal. Thus, since the demand for Lucky Charms is elastic, one would predict that the increase in
price of Lucky Charms resulted in a reduction in revenues on sales of Lucky Charms.
15. To maximize revenue, Toyota should charge the price that makes demand unit elastic. Using the
own price elasticity of demand formula, , 1.5 1. Solving this equation
, .
for P implies that the revenue maximizing price is P = $50,000.
23. The owner is confusing the demand for gasoline for the entire U.S. with demand for the gasoline
for individual gasoline stations. There are not a great number of substitutes for gasoline, but in large
towns there are usually a very high number of substitutes for gasoline from an individual station. In
order to make an informed decision, the owner needs to know the own price elasticity of demand
for gasoline from his stations. Since gas prices are posted on big billboards, and gas stations in cities
are generally close together, demand for gas from a small group of individual stations tends to be
fairly elastic.
Chapter 4:
7. a. Consumption of good X will increase and consumption of good Y will decrease.
b. Consumption of good X will increase and consumption of good Y will decrease.
c. Nothing will happen to the consumption of either good.
d. Consumption of good X will decrease and consumption of good Y will increase.
13. The offer expands the consumer’s budget set and allows her to purchase more tires.
Budget Set with and without Buy 3, Get 4th Free Offer
400 Budget line with “Buy 3,
350 get the 4th Free Offer”
300
Income 250
Spent on
200
Other
Goods 150
100
Initial budget line
50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Tires
18. Yes. Since pizza is an inferior good, if the consumer is given $50 in cash she will definitely spend it
entirely on downloads from iTunes – just as she would if given a $50 gift certificate for music
downloads.
19. Consumer’s budget line when a firm offers a “quantity discount” is illustrated below. A consumer
will never purchase exactly 8 bottles of wine, since at this kink in the opportunity set the consumer
would always be better off by buying more or less wine.
Budget Line with Quantity Discount
250
200
Quantity150
of Other
Goods 100
50
0
0 5 10 15 20
Quantity of Wine
Chapter 5:
3. The law of diminishing marginal returns is the decline in marginal productivity experienced when
input usage increases, holding all other inputs constant. In contrast, the law of diminishing marginal
rate of technical substitution is a property of a production function stating that as less of one input is
used, increasing amounts of another input must be employed to produce the same level of output.
5. Since , the firm is not using the cost minimizing combination of labor and capital. To
minimize costs, the firm should increase capital (and decrease labor) since the marginal product per
dollar spent is greater for capital: .
11. An investment tax credit would increase the relative price of labor to capital ( ), thereby making
the isocost line more steep. This means that the cost‐minimizing input mix will now involve more
capital and less labor. Labor unions are likely to oppose the investment tax credit since it will
translate into lost jobs. You might counter this argument by noting that, while some jobs will be lost
due to substituting capital for labor, many workers will retain their jobs. Absent the plan,
automakers have an incentive to substitute cheaper foreign labor for U.S. labor. The result of this
substitution would be a movement of plants abroad, resulting in the complete loss of U.S. jobs.
21. Given the tightly woven marine engine and shipbuilding divisions, economies of scope and cost
complementarities are likely to exist. Eliminating the unprofitable marine engine division may
actually raise the shipbuilding division’s costs and cause that division to become unprofitable. For
this argument to withstand criticism, you must show the CEO that the quadratic multi‐product cost
function exhibits cost complementarities and economies of scope, which occurs when a 0 and
f aQ1Q2 0 , respectively, and compare profitability under the different scenarios.
Chapter 7:
4. a. $116.28. To see this, solve the Lerner index formula for P to obtain:
$50 $116.28.
.
b. Since , it follows that the markup factor is 2.33. That is, the price
.
charged by the firm is 2.33 times the marginal cost of producing the product.
c. The above calculations suggest price competition is not very rigorous and that the firm
enjoys market power.
6. To the extent that the HHIs are based on too narrow a definition of the product (or geographic)
market or the impact of foreign competition, the merger might be allowed. It might also be allowed
if one of the firms is in financial trouble, or if significant economies of scale exist in the industry.
Chapter 8:
7. a. The inverse linear demand function is P = 9 – .25Q.
b. MR = 9 – .5Q and MC = 4 + 2Q. Setting MR = MC yields 9 – .5Q = 4 + 2Q.
Solving for Q yields Q = 2 units. The optimal price is P = 9 – .25(2) = $8.50.
c. Revenues are R = ($8.50)(2) = $17. Costs are C = 4 + 4(2) + (2)2 = $16. Thus the firm earns $1.
d. In the long run entry will occur and the demand for this firm’s product will decrease until it
earns zero economic profits.
12. Since you are a perfectly competitive firm, the price you charge is determined in a competitive
market. The two events summarized will result in a decrease in market supply and an increase in the
market demand, resulting in a higher market price (from P0 to P1 in the graphs below). Your profit‐
maximizing response to this higher price is to increase output. This is because you are a price taker
(hence P = MR = the demand for our product) and the increase in price from P0 to P1 means that
MR > MC at your old output. It is profitable to increase output from q0 to q1, as shown below.
P r ice
M ark e t P ric e MC
S1 P1
P1 S0
P0
P0 D1
D0
M ark et Q u a n tity q0 q1 F ir m ’ s O u tp u t