A major reason why the market equilibrium for a manufactured good may not be efficient is O the industry is producing too little output. O there is likely to be a positive externality associated with production. the industry is likely to be a monopoly. O there is too much government regulation. property rights are not well defined.

May and Raj me the only two growers who provide organically grown corn to a local grocery store. They know that if they cooperated and produced less corn, they could raise the price of the com. If they work independently, they will each earn 100. If they decide to work together and both lower their output, they call each earn 150. If one person lowers output and the other does not, the person who lowers output will earn $1 and the other person will capture the entire market and will earn 200. Table 10.6 represents the choices available to Mary and Raj. What is the best choice for Raj if he is sole that Mary will cooperate? If Mary thinks Raj will cheat, what should Mary do and why? What is the prisoners dilemma result? What is the preferred choice if they could ensure cooperation? A = Work independently; B = Cooperate and Lower Output. (Each results entry lists Rajs earnings first, and Marys earnings second.)

What are the gains from competition?

Return to Figure 9.2. Suppose P0 is 10 and P1 is 11. Suppose a new firm with the same LRAC curve as the incumbent tries to bleak into the market by selling 4,000 units of output. Estimate from the graph what the new firms average cost of producing output would be. If the incumbent continues. to produce 6,000 units, how much output would the two films supply to the market? Estimate what would happen to the market price as a result of the supply of both the incumbent firm and the new entrant. Approximately how much profit would each firm earn? Figure 9.2 Economics of Scale and Natural Monoploy

HighFlyer Airlines wants to build new airplanes with greatly increased cabin space. This will allow HighFlyer Airlines to give passengers more comfort and sell more tickets at a higher price. However, redesigning the cabin means rethinking many other elements of the airplane as well, like engine and luggage placement, and the most efficient shape of the plane for moving through the air. HighFlyer Airlines has developed a list of possible methods to increase cabin space, along with estimates of how these approaches would affect the planes operating costs and ticket sales. Based on these estimates, Table 13.5 shows the value of R, how much should the firm invest in R on top of the private return; that is, an R private return to HighFlyer Airlines would have a 9 social return. How much investment is socially optimal at the 6 interest rate?

Some years ago. two intercity bus companies, Greyhound Lines, Inc. and Trailways Transportation System, wanted to merge. One possible definition of the market for this case was the market for intercity bus service. Another possible definition was the market for intercity transportation, including personal cars, car rentals, passenger trains, and commuter air flights.' Which definition do you think the bus companies preferred, and why?

Use Table 11.5 to calculate the four-firm concentration ratio for the U.S. auto market. Does this indicate a concentrated market or not?

How does the quantity produced and price charged by a monopolist compare to that of a perfectly competitive film?

If public utilities are a natural monopoly, what would be the danger in deregulating them?

Would you rather have efficiency or variety? That is, one opportunity cost of the variety of products we have is that each product costs more per unit than if there were only one kind of product of a given type, like shoes. Perhaps a better question is, What is the right amount of variety? Can there be too many varieties of shoes, for example?