CHAPTER 6 GROUP PROJECT-Philip Selin

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Apr 3, 2024

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CHAPTER 6 GROUP PROJECT In your group project for Chapter 3 you encountered some data for the daily demand for pizza at an average Pizza Hut. (The data are reproduced in the table to the right.) Your manager at Yum, Inc has returned to this data with one last assignment for you. Pizza Hut estimates that on average a store has fixed costs of $100 per day. The fixed costs include interest payments on borrowed funds used to fund construction of the store and rental payments for their land. Pizza Hut also estimates that the marginal cost of a pizza is $8. Suppose Pizza Hut is a monopoly. (Later you will see that Pizza Hut is probably better thought of as a monopolistic competitive firm. But you will also see that the answers to the questions you next see are the same [at least in short run] regardless of whether Pizza Hut is a monopoly or a monopolistic competitive firm.) Using the regression analysis from the same data our team calculated from the first project we determined that our estimated demand curve is very close to what the actual demand curve would illustrate. The prices and quantities provided prove to be a very accurate representation to determine more data that is needed to be calculated. Ultimately, we need to determine our marginal revenue curve to continue finding the profit-maximizing price. We first needed to figure out our total revenue, which is multiplying the quantity sold by the price. Using the TR calculated we use this to determine the change in revenue divided by the change in quantity to obtain our MR curve. Marginal cost is the change in total cost divided by the change in output. We can find our total profit by subtracting the TC from the TR. Your manager wants to know what the profit-maximizing price for a pizza? The profit-maximizing quantity are? The key to maximizing profits for many kinds of firms is to produce all the profitable units and none of the unprofitable ones. We should produce the quantity for which MR=MC, then set the highest price that sells the quantity produced. Assuming that pizza hut is a monopoly, we can still use the same profit- maximization rule. The point where the MR curve equals our MC curve for our data shows a price of $7.67 which we round up to $8 while producing roughly 140 pizzas. With keeping the profit- maximization rule in mind, the price is determined from the demand curve as the highest price that sells the quantity produced. Our demand curve shows that the highest price buyers are willing to pay for 140 pizzas is $13 per pizza. The profit-maximizing price is $13. The profit-maximizing quantity is 140 pizzas. Your manager also wants to know what the profit at this price and quantity will be? We find that the total cost is determined by adding our fixed costs of $100 per day to the variable cost. The variable cost in our situation is MC of $8 per pizza sold then multiplying it to our quantity of demand to get a total of $1220. Perfectly competitive firms make an economic profit if P>average total cost, makes a competitive return if P=ATC, and incurs an economic loss if P<ATC. This same set of results holds true also for a monopoly firm such as pizza hut. We find our ATC by taking our TC and dividing it by the quantity sold. We have an ATC of $8.71 per day selling 140 pizzas. To determine our economic profit, we use the formula (P-ATC) *Q. We determined that our profit at the price and quantity given to be $600.60 per day. If production costs are high relative to demand, profits will be low, and economic losses may even occur. There is no guarantee that a monopoly will make an economic profit, but fortunately for pizza hut there is profit.
To make your analysis easier, your manager will allow you to round your estimated demand curve coefficients to the nearest integer value. Leaving Pizza Hut behind, suppose that the market for pizza is perfectly competitive, that the market demand is still given by the data in the table to the right, and the marginal cost of a pizza is $8. In this case, what is the equilibrium price and equilibrium quantity of pizza? When analyzing a perfectly competitive market, you must distinguish between market demand and an individual firm’s demand. The equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity are determined in the market from the intersection of the market supply curve (MC curve) and the market demand curve. We cannot set a price above the equilibrium price or sales will collapse. The P=MR and D=MR for all perfectly competitive firms. We do not know how many sellers are in this market and if supply has changed. We do know there is no change in MC, and that there are no barriers to entry in competitive markets. Given that in a competitive market we can expect the prices to decrease. The equilibrium price will be $..., and the equilibrium quantity will be ... pizzas, which we will set a lower price and produce a higher quantity of pizzas compared to the case of the monopoly. Discuss how the competitive equilibrium price and quantity compare to the monopoly profit- maximizing price and quantity. A firm in a competitive market has no control over the price and takes the equilibrium price as given. They can sell whatever quantity it produces at the equilibrium price. Its demand is perfectly elastic at the equilibrium price. The demand equals the MR for a perfectly competitive firm. Competitive firms always produce at the minimum average total cost in the long run. The price to charge will also equal the demand for competitive firms. Competitive firms also have zero markup for their price. Both competitive firms and monopolies use marginal analysis to maximize its profit by producing the quantity at which the MR=MC sets the highest price that sells the quantity produced. Monopolies however has market power to control the price they set. Monopolies sells products that have fewer substitutes to those goods, so that means that a monopoly can charge a higher price. Monopolies sets a higher price and produces a smaller quantity compared to competitive markets. The higher price means that the firm are better off at the expense of the consumers. Managers of monopolies can also maximize profits in the long-run by producing so that marginal revenue equals long-run marginal cost which competitive firms will not be able to profit-maximize in the long-run. How much would you, as a producer, be willing to pay to convert the perfectly competitive pizza market into a monopoly? Explain how you arrived at your last answer.
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