Chapter 25 and Chapter 26
Which of the following types of firms use the marginal revenue equals marginal cost approach to maximize profits?
Both perfectly competitive and monopolistically competitive
What trade-offs do consumers face when buying a product from a monopolistically competitive firm?
Consumers pay a price greater than marginal cost but also have a wider array of choices.
Another measure of industry concentration is the:
Herfindahl-Hirschman Index
What is a cartel?
It is an association of producers in an industry that agree to set common prices and output quotas to prevent competition.
Which of the following best describes the additional revenue associated with selling an additional unit of output?
Marginal revenue
Which type of efficiency is achieved by a monopolistically competitive firm in the long run?
Neither allocative nor productive efficiency
How can makers of flat-panel TVs earn economic profits during the first few months after the introduction of new models?
New models create product differentiation that increases demand and raises prices above average total cost. Thus, firms will earn positive economic profits in the short run.
One of the three shops on campus that sell university logo clothing has found that if it sells a sweatshirt for $30 or more, the other two shops keep their prices constant and the store loses revenues. If, however, the shop reduces its price below $30, the other stores react by lowering their prices. What kind of market structure does this store face?
Oligopoly
Which of the following terms is defined as a market structure in which a small number of interdependent firms compete?
Oligopoly
What economic forces result in the dissipation of economic profits earned by manufacturers of flat-panel TVs?
Positive profits induce new firms to enter the market causing existing firms' demand to fall, which lowers prices toward average total cost.
If the store's marginal costs fluctuate up and down very slightly, how should the store adjust its prices?
Prices should stay the same since the store expects lost revenue whether it raises or lowers the price
Which of the following best describes how the product differentiation of monopolistically competitive firms may benefit consumers?
Product differentiation can locate firms more conveniently to consumers and offer versions of a product or service that better fits their needs.
What happens when network externalities are present?
The usefulness of a product increases with the number of consumers who use it.
A network effect exists when
The willingness to purchase a good depends on how many others have purchased it.
Which of the following mergers would be the best example of a vertical merger?
Toyota acquiring Whitewall Tires
When firms agree to act as a monopoly and set prices they are called __________.
a cartel
Negative market feedback means that
a good loses popularity because other consumers have chosen not to buy it.
In this case, then, the low and constant marginal cost is _______ the average cost.
below
An agreement among firms to charge the same price or to otherwise not compete is __________.
collusion
Equilibrium in a game in which players cooperate to increase their mutual payoff is called a:
cooperative equilibrium
Consequently the average fixed cost and average total cost _____________ as the volume of output increases
decreases
The monopolistically competitive firm sells a __________ product and faces a __________ demand curve.
differentiated, downward-sloping
A strategy that is the best for a firm, no matter what strategies other firms use is known as:
dominate strategy
If the firm set the price, or average revenue, of the product equal to the marginal cost, the firm would have ____________ since the marginal cost is the average cost.
economic losses less than
Credence goods are goods that consumers
find difficult to assess properly.
The four-firm concentration ratio is the percentage of sales accounted for by the largest:
four firms in the industry
Which of the following goods would most likely be advertised using largely persuasive advertising?
hair salon
When a firm produces an information product the initial or fixed costs are
high
An oligopoly is a market structure with:
high barriers to entry
Information products use information-intensive inputs and are characterized by
high fixed costs but low marginal costs.
For what type of market structure is the demand curve the same as marginal revenue?
high, very small
Simply Soft Drinks acquires Real Cola. This is a __________ merger.
horizontal
Monopolistic competition is similar to perfect competition because
in both industry structures, there are no barriers to entry.
BigBox and CheapStore are the only two firms in a market. Each firm must decide whether to price high or price low. The payoffs from each strategy combination are shown to the right long dash in millions of dollars. The first number in each pair is BigBox's profit; the second is CheapStore's profit. For BigBox, the dominant strategy in this game is to price low . This is the dominant strategy because
it is the best action for BigBox, no matter what CheapStore does.
A monopolistically competitive firm in a long-run equilibrium produces where:
its demand curve is tangent to its average total cost curve
A monopolistically competitive firm is characterized by the existence of many firms in the market, differentiated products and:
low barriers to entry
Since most of the costs are the initial fixed costs of development, once the product is developed, the cost of producing more units of the product are typically low and
marginal ,constant
A monopolistically competitive firm produces where:
marginal revenue equals marginal cost
If a monopolistically competitive firm's demand curve is above its average total cost curve, then this firm is making:
positive economic profit
Critics argue that monopolistically competitive markets are wasteful because
price exceeds marginal cost and minimum average total cost.
Megabucks and CashCow are the only two firms in a market. Each firm must decide whether to price high or price low. The payoffs from each strategy combination are shown to the right long dash in millions of dollars. The first number in each pair is Megabucks' profit; the second is CashCow's profit. If the firms cooperate, the strategy that Megabucks will choose is and the strategy that CashCow will choose is . If the firms behave opportunistically, the strategy that Megabucks will choose is and the strategy that CashCow will choose is .
price high, price high, price low, price low
A game where pursuing dominant strategies results in noncooperation that leaves everyone worse off is called a:
prisoner's dilemma
A firm may opt to pay millions of dollars for celebrity endorsements in order to:
signal to consumers that the advertised product is appealing and likely to be popular
Which of the following is an example of a search good?
t shirt
Information goods can achieve significant economies of scale because __________.
the costs are almost all fixed costs
In the broadest sense, game theory studies the decisions of firms in industries where the profits of each firm depend on:
the firm's interactions with other firms
Monopolistically competitive firms have some control over price because:
the products they produce are differentiated
Cartels are more likely to fail when
there are no barriers to entry
Simply Soft Drinks acquires Louisiana Sugar Cane Inc. This is a __________ merger.
vertical
When information goods are distributed online the marginal cost of production is __________.
zero