In 2019, the Australian Competition Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched Federal Court proceedings against BlueScope Steel Limited (BlueScope) and its former general manager sales and marketing for alleged cartel conduct in relation to the supply of flat steel products.  The Federal Court found the company and its former general manager guilty of price-fixing and cartel conduct. 1.2 Conduct an economic analysis on the ACCC’s concerns and rationale behind its decision to launch legal action against BlueScope Steel Limited (BlueScope).  Evaluate and discuss ACCC’s concerns and rationale in terms of market structure, competition policy, firm behaviour, consumer surplus, producer surplus, deadweight loss and market efficiency.  In this evaluation and discussion, Please draw  diagrams to illustrate the impact of price-fixing and cartel activity on consumer surplus, producer surplus, deadweight loss and market efficiency on the demand and supply curves.

Based on United States Census Bureau data for 2017, for the utilities (electricity and gas) industry the four firm concentration ratio (C4) is 16.2 percent and the Herfindahl-Hirschman index is 161.4. Why might the actual concentration, and therefore market power enjoyed by a specific utility company in a state, be greater than what is indicated by these numbers? These ratios are calculated for the entire country, and not for a specific city or state. Please give an explanation.

8.1. 8.2. What is third-degree price discrimination? Describe the basis for the Stackelberg oligopolistic model.

Complete the following table by indicating whether each of the scenarios describes the concept of tying, resale price maintenance, or predatory pricing. Scenario Snackyville sells a wide variety of snacks to retail grocery stores. Snackyville recently released two new snacks: a popular trail mix and a much less popular granola bar. Snackyville requires grocery stores to buy 15 cases of the granola bar for every 120 cases of the trail mix ordered. Heat-Em-Up is the only firm producing grills. It costs $410 to produce a grill, and Heat-Em-Up sells each grill for $950. After Well Done, a new firm with the same costs as Heat-Em-Up, enters the market for grills, Heat-Em-Up starts selling its grills for a price of $330. Televix is a firm that produces televisions. Suppose Televix sells its televisions to retail stores for $810 each and requires those retailers to charge customers at least $840 for each television. True or False: All economists believe that predatory pricing is a profitable…