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Question
For years economists believed that market structure explained the ability of some firms to earn economic profits. For example, firms in industries with little competition and high barriers to entry would earn higher profits than firms in competitive industries with low entry barriers. Which of the following has caused economists to question this explanation and seek other explanations for why firms are profitable?A) Studies have shown that, on average, firms in competitive industries earn higher profit rates than firms in industries with little competition.
B) In recent years new technologies have increased the potential entry of new firms in industries with high entry barriers.
C) Studies have shown that firms in industries that have little competition and high entry barriers are not very profitable. Economists conclude from this that some competition is necessary in order to force firms to lower their costs and develop products that satisfy new consumer demands.
D) The market structure explanation fails to explain how firms in the same industry can have very different levels of profit.
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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Q:
A perfectly competitive industry achieves allocative efficiency because
A) goods and services are produced at the lowest possible cost.
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C) it produces where market price equals marginal production cost.
D) firms carry production surpluses.
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A) the minimum efficient scale.
B) where maximum economic profit is earned by producers.
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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.
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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.
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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