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Question
Edward Lazear analyzed data provided by the Safelite Group, the nation's largest installer of auto glass, after the company changed the way it paid its glass installers beginning in the mid-1990s. Instead of paying workers hourly wages, Safelite began to pay workers on the basis of how many windows they installed. Which of the following describes what Lazear concluded from his analysis of Safelite's data?A) Although workers installed more windows under the new system, Lazear found that there was also an increase in the number of workmanship-related defects. Lazear attributed this to workers taking short-cuts in order to earn higher wages. As a result, productivity did not improve and Safelite went back to paying hourly wages.
B) Lazear found that worker productivity increased with the new system; about half of the increase in productivity was due to workers who continued with the company and half was due to new workers being more productive than those who left the company.
C) Although worker productivity improved, the increase in hourly wages resulted in a significant decline in Safelite's profits.
D) Because of a principal-agent problem, worker productivity was not affected by the new compensation system. However, Lazear attributed this to management problems that had nothing to do with Safelite's compensation system.
Answer
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Related questions
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Perfectly competitive industries tend to produce low-priced, low-technology products.
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The market demand curve for a perfectly competitive industry is the horizontal summation of each individual firm's demand curve.
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Firms in perfect competition produce the allocatively efficient output in the short run and in the long run.
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If a firm in a perfectly competitive industry introduces a lower-cost way of producing an existing product, the firm will be able to earn economic profits in the long run.
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Which of the following describes a difference between allocative efficiency and productive efficiency in a perfectly competitive market?
A) Allocative efficiency is achieved only in the long run. Productive efficiency is achieved only in the short run.
B) Allocative efficiency is achieved only in the long run. Productive efficiency is achieved in the short run and the long run.
C) Allocative efficiency is achieved only in the short run. Productive efficiency is achieved only in the long run.
D) Allocative efficiency is achieved in the short run and the long run. Productive efficiency is achieved only in the long run.
Q:
New York Times writer Michael Lewis wrote that "The sad truth, for investors, seems to be that most of the benefits....are passed through to consumers free of charge." To which of the following did Lewis refer?
A) apple farming in New York state
B) the Enron accounting scandal
C) the medical screening industry
D) new technologies developed in the 1990s
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If a perfectly competitive firm raises the price it charges to consumers, which of the following is the most likely outcome?
A) The firm's revenue will not change because some consumers will refuse to pay the higher price.
B) The firm will not sell any output.
C) The firm's total revenue will increase only if the demand for its product is inelastic.
D) The firm's total revenue will increase only if the demand for its product is elastic.
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In early 2007, Pioneer and JVC, two Japanese electronics firms, each announced that their profits were going to be lower than expected because they both had to cut prices for LCD and plasma television sets. Which of the following could explain why these firms did not simply raise their prices and increase their profits?
A) The move to cut prices is probably just a temporary one to gain market share. In the long run the firms will raise prices and be able to increase their profits.
B) Most likely, intense competition between these two major producers probably pushed prices down. Thereafter, each feared that it would lose its customers to the other if it raised its prices.
C) In perfect competition, prices are determined by the market and firms will keep lowering prices until there are no profits to be earned.
D) The firms are still making profits, just not as high as expected so there is room to lower prices until one can force the other out of business.
Q:
A perfectly competitive industry achieves allocative efficiency because
A) goods and services are produced at the lowest possible cost.
B) goods and services are produced up to the point where the last unit provides a marginal benefit to consumers equal to the marginal cost of producing it.
C) it produces where market price equals marginal production cost.
D) firms carry production surpluses.
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If the long-run average cost curve is U-shaped, the optimal scale of production from society's viewpoint is
A) the minimum efficient scale.
B) where maximum economic profit is earned by producers.
C) where firm profit is large enough to finance research and development.
D) one which guarantees economic profit.
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The demand curve for an individual seller's product in perfect competition is
A) the same as market demand.
B) downward sloping.
C) vertical.
D) horizontal.
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Jason, a high-school student, mows lawns for families in his neighborhood. The going rate is $12 for each lawn-mowing service. Jason would like to charge $20 because he believes he has more experience mowing lawns than the many other teenagers who also offer the same service. If the market for lawn mowing services is perfectly competitive, what would happen if Jason raised his price?
A) He would lose some but not all his customers.
B) Initially, his customers might complain but over time they will come to accept the new rate.
C) If Jason raises his price he would lose all his customers.
D) If Jason raises his price, then all others supplying the same service will also raise their prices.
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Figure 12-19 Refer to Figure 12-19. The figure above shows the cost curves of a perfectly competitive firm in the coffee market. Use the graph in Figure 12-19 to answer the following questions. Assume the market price is $3 per pound.
a. What is the lowest price at which the coffee grower will supply output in the short run?
b. In the diagram draw the firm's demand curve (label this "MR" for marginal revenue).
c. What is the firm's profit-maximizing output?
d. Is the firm earning a profit or a loss? Identify the area in the graph that represents the firm's profit or loss.
e. Explain how entry or exit will occur in the market to ensure that firms will break even in the long run.
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Both buyers and sellers are price takers in a perfectly competitive market because
A) the price is determined by government intervention and dictated to buyers and sellers.
B) each buyer and seller knows it is illegal to conspire to affect price.
C) both buyers and sellers in a perfectly competitive market are concerned for the welfare of others.
D) each buyer and seller is too small relative to others to independently affect the market price.
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Why would a company continue to operate for many years while never once turning a profit rather than shut down immediately? Using revenue and cost analysis, explain when the company would shut down.
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A very large number of small sellers who sell identical products imply
A) a multitude of vastly different selling prices.
B) a downward sloping demand for each seller's product.
C) the inability of one seller to influence price.
D) chaos in the market.
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Perfect competition is characterized by all of the following except
A) heavy advertising by individual sellers.
B) homogeneous products.
C) sellers are price takers.
D) a horizontal demand curve for individual sellers.
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If in the long run a firm makes zero profit, it should exit the industry.
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Assume that firms in a perfectly competitive market are earning economic profits. Which of the following statements describes the change in market price and output as a result of the entry of new firms into this market?
A) The market demand curve shifts to the right, causing price to rise and market output to increase.
B) The market demand curve shifts to the left, causing price to fall and market output to decrease.
C) The short-run market supply curve shifts to the right, causing price to fall and total market output to increase.
D) The short-run market supply curve shifts to the left, causing price to rise and total market output to decrease.
Q:
Figure 12-17 The graphs in Figure 12-17 represent the perfectly competitive market demand and supply curves for the apple industry and demand and cost curves for a typical firm in the industry.
Refer to Figure 12-17. Which of the following statements is true?
A) The firm will produce 30 thousand pounds of apples in the short run and earn an economic profit. New firms will enter the market and shift the market supply curve to the left.
B) The firm will produce 30 thousand pounds of apples in the short run and earn an economic profit, but it would earn a greater profit if it produced at the lowest point on the ATC curve.
C) The firm will produce 30 thousand pounds of apples in the short run and earn an economic profit. New firms will enter the industry; as a result, the firm will be forced to exit the industry in the long run.
D) The firm will produce 30 thousands pounds of apples in the short run and earn an economic profit. In the long run the firm will break even.
Q:
A firm's expansion path
A) is the same thing as its long-run average cost curve.
B) is a curve that shows a firm's cost-minimizing combination of inputs for every level of output, holding input prices constant.
C) shows the targeted growth rate in sales over the long run.
D) is a curve that shows expected profits at various price levels.
Q:
Suppose two countries use different combinations of inputs, such as labor and capital, to produce the same product. This implies all of the following except that
A) the two countries use different technologies to produce the product.
B) the inputs are not equally productive in the two countries.
C) the prices of the inputs are not the same in the countries.
D) one country is more efficient in the production of the good than the other.
Q:
In the long run which of the following is true?
A) Total cost = fixed cost + variable cost.
B) The size of a firm's physical plant can be changed but the firm cannot adopt new technology.
C) There are no fixed costs.
D) The firm can vary its explicit costs but not its implicit costs.
Q:
As a firm moves to higher isocost lines
A) its profits increase.
B) its revenue increases.
C) its input price ratio increases.
D) its total cost increases.
Q:
The marginal rate of technical substitution is measured by
A) the slope of the isoquant.
B) the relative input prices.
C) the slope of the isocost line.
D) the ratio of the product's price to the product's cost of production.
Q:
The typical shape of an isoquant is
A) convex towards the origin.
B) concave towards the origin.
C) linear and downward sloping.
D) linear and upward sloping.
Q:
An expansion path shows
A) the level of sales necessary for a firm if it wants to expand.
B) the level of long-run average cost at different scales of operation.
C) the least-cost combination of inputs for each level of output.
D) the returns to scale at each level of output.
Q:
Maximizing the level of output for a given total cost of production
A) is equivalent to producing the profit maximizing output level.
B) is equivalent to minimizing cost for a given level of output.
C) necessitates using only relatively low-priced inputs.
D) will maximize total revenue.
Q:
Golda Rush quit her job as a manager for Home Depot to start her own hair dressing salon, Goldilocks. She gave up a salary of $40,000 per year, invested her savings of $30,000 (which was earning 5 percent interest) and borrowed $10,000 from a close friend, agreeing to pay 5 percent interest per year. In her first year, Golda spent $18,000 to rent a salon, hired a part-time assistant for $12,000 and incurred another $15,000 on equipment and hairdressing material. Based on this information, what is the amount of her implicit costs?
A) $80,000
B) $70,000
C) $42,000
D) $41,500
Q:
Which of the following would be categorized as an opportunity cost?
a. not being able to spend your $10,000 savings if you sink the money in your business
b. the cost of purchasing supplies for your house-cleaning business
c. the cost of purchasing auto insurance for your dry-cleaning delivery business
A) a only
B) a and c only
C) b and c only
D) all of the above