MicroEcon Chapter 12

9 October 2022
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"No firm is completely sheltered from rivals; all firms compete for consumer dollars. If that is so, then pure monopoly does not exist." A monopoly is more likely to persist if the cross price elasticity of demand is
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positive and less than one
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Which of the following is not a major barrier to entry into an industry? Which of the following is true?
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diminishing marginal returns Unfair competition is a barrier with no social justification.
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The demand curve faced by a purely monopolistic seller
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is downward sloping, whereas that facing the purely competitive firm is perfectly elastic
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The demand curve facing a
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purely competitive firm is perfectly elastic because the purely competitive firm may sell all that it wishes at the equilibrium price.
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The pure monopolist's demand curve is not
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perfectly inelastic because MR is negative when demand is inelastic, so MR = MC < 0.
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Assume that a pure monopolist and a purely competitive firm have the same unit costs. In this case, determine what is true with respect to (a) price, (b) output, and (c) profits. Which of the combinations above are accurate?
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1, 5 an 7
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Assume that a pure monopolist and a purely competitive firm have the same unit costs. In this case, resources will be allocated
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inefficiently because the monopolist does not produce at the point of minimum ATC and does not equate price and MC.
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Even though both monopolists and competitive firms follow the MC = MR rule in maximizing profits, there are differences in the economic outcomes because the
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pure competitor is small with no market power.
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The costs of a purely competitive firm and a monopoly could be different because
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the monopoly might experience economies of scale not available to the competitive firm.
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If a monopoly can experience economies of scale,
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the monopolist can reduce the price below a pure competitor and improve resource allocation.
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Indicate whether the statement is true or false a. Because they can control product price, monopolists are always assured of profitable production by simply charging the highest price consumers will pay. b. The pure monopolist seeks the output that will yield the greatest per-unit profit. c. An excess of price over marginal cost is the market's way of signaling the need for more production of a good. d. The more profitable a firm, the greater its monopoly power. e. The monopolist has a pricing policy; the competitive producer does not. f. With respect to resource allocation, the interests of the seller and of society coincide in a purely competitive market but conflict in a monopolized market.
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a. false b. false c. true d. cannot be determined e. true f. true
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Assume a monopolistic publisher agrees to pay an author 15 percent of the total revenue from text sales. Which of the following statements is true?
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The author would prefer a lower price than the publisher
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U.S. pharmaceutical companies charge different prices for prescription drugs to buyers in different nations, depending on elasticity of demand and government-imposed price ceilings. U.S. pharmaceutical companies, for profit reasons, oppose laws allowing re-importation of drugs to the United States because re importation would
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make it much more difficult to maintain the differing prices
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It has been proposed that natural monopolists should be allowed to determine their profit-maximizing outputs and prices and then government should tax their profits away and distribute them to consumers in proportion to their purchases from the monopoly. This proposal
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does not consider that the output of the natural monopolist would still be at the sub optimal level where P > MC.
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Which of the following could explain why a firm is a monopoly?
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Patents, Economies of Scale and Government Licenses
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How often do perfectly competitive firms engage in price discrimination?
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never
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The MR curve of a perfectly competitive firm is horizontal. The MR curve of a monopoly firm is:
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downsloping
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Suppose that a monopolist can segregate his buyers into two different groups to which he can charge two different prices. In order to maximize profit, the monopolist should charge a higher price to the group that has:
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the lower elasticity of demand
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The socially optimal price (P = MC) is socially optimal because:
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it achieves allocative efficiency
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The main problem with imposing the socially optimal price (P = MC) on a monopoly is that the socially optimal price:
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May be so low that the regulated monopoly can't break even.