Reading 9 The Firm and Market Structures
Reading 9 The Firm and Market Structures
Reading 9 The Firm and Market Structures
If an industry features differentiated products but has low barriers to entry, in the long run
A) economic losses.
The short-run supply curve to a firm operating under perfect competition is most accurately
A) average total cost (ATC) curve above the average variable cost (AVC) curve.
B) marginal cost (MC) curve above the average variable cost (AVC) curve.
C) marginal cost (MC) curve below the average total cost (ATC) curve.
The kinked demand model assumes that at prices above the current price, the demand
curve becomes:
When a regulatory agency requires a monopolist to use average cost pricing, the intent is to
produce the quantity where the:
A) the market demand curve intersects the average total cost curve.
A perfectly competitive firm will continue to increase output so long as which of the
Which of the following describes the regulatory practice of setting prices at a level where the
monopoly firm's average total cost curve intersects the demand curve?
C) Cost-of-service pricing.
Which of the following situations is least likely to lead to high barriers to entry and
monopoly supply?
A) is a horizontal line.
A) barriers to entry.
B) economies of scale.
The practice of charging different consumers different prices for the same product or
service is called:
A) price discrimination.
B) variable pricing.
C) price searching.
B) MR = MC and the price of the product will be determined by the demand curve.
A profit maximizing firm will expand output as long as marginal revenue is:
A) greater than marginal cost.
Which of the following is least likely to be considered a reason why regulation of monopolies
is not effective?
Natural monopolies exist because they can produce at lower costs with greater output,
which means there are economies of scale. Which of the following industries is typically a
natural monopoly?
A) Utilities.
B) Oil.
C) Technology.
In which of the following market structures is price least likely to be greater than marginal
cost?
A) Monopolistic competition.
B) Monopoly.
C) Perfect competition.
The short-run supply curve for a firm in a perfectly competitive market is equal to the firm's:
A) ATC curve.
B) AVC curve.
C) MC curve.
Homogeneous products
No barriers to entry/exit
The Papyrus Company operates in the market for paper supplies and Wudden Floss
operates in the toothpick market. The sales managers for both companies want to know
Which of the following choices best completes the following sentence? If both firms increase
less output, and the sum of the consumer surplus and the producer surplus will be
A)
increased.
less output, and the sum of the consumer surplus and the producer surplus will be
B)
reduced.
more output, and the sum of the consumer surplus and the producer surplus will be
C)
reduced.
A) Monopoly.
B) Monopolistic competition.
C) Perfect competition.
A technology that all of the firms in a perfectly competitive industry are using in their
production process has been banned by new legislation. What will most likely be the effect if
Profit will no longer be maximized at the level of output where marginal cost is
A)
equal to the market price.
B) The quantity that the industry will supply at a given price will be reduced.
C) Firms will adopt a different technology that reduces their costs of production.
Which one of the following is most likely to contribute to the presence of monopoly in an
industry?
C) Diseconomies of scale.
If the market demand for a product increases in a competitive market, then price:
The type of economic market that features a large number of competitors offering
differentiated products is best characterized as:
A) monopolistic competition.
B) oligopoly.
C) perfect competition.
Firms’ advertising costs tend to be greater than those for firms in perfect
A)
competition.
B) The average total cost attributable to advertising will increase as output increases.
Many firms spend a significant portion of their advertising budget on brand name
C)
promotion.
What is the relationship between price and marginal revenue for a price searcher?
Statement 1: "The sum of consumer and producer surpluses is maximized under both
Statement 2: "All else being equal, a monopolist that practices price discrimination will be
Under perfect competition, a firm will experience zero long term economic profit when:
A) MC = ATC = MR = price.
C) The size of each firm is small relative to the size of the overall market.
producing at the output level where marginal revenue equals marginal cost and
C)
charging a price on the demand curve that corresponds to the output rate.
Statement 1: "The kinked demand curve model of oligopoly assumes that a decrease in price
will not be followed by other firms in the industry, but a price increase will."
B) barriers to entry are high under monopoly, but low under monopolistic competition.
Which of the following statements about price takers and price searchers is most accurate?
A) Price takers maximize profits at the point price = marginal revenue = marginal cost.
In the long run, both price takers and price searchers maximize profits at the
B)
quantity corresponding to the minimum point on the average total cost curve.
In the long run, both price takers and price searchers will have zero economic
C)
profits.
two identifiable groups of consumers with different price elasticities of demand for
B)
the product.
In a natural monopoly:
B) the average total cost of production continually declines with increased output.
B) Indistinguishable products.
A) identical products.
Which of the following is least likely to be considered a necessary condition for a monopolist
Which of the following most accurately describes why firms under monopolistic competition
A) Availability of substitutes.
B) Allocative efficiency.
In the short run, price searchers maximize profits by producing output where marginal
revenue (MR):
A) equals marginal costs (MC) and charging a price based on the demand curve.
is greater than marginal costs (MC) and charging a price based on the demand
B)
curve.
equals marginal costs (MC) and charging a price based on the average total cost
C)
(ATC) curve.
For price discrimination to increase economic profit, the seller must identify at least
A)
two groups of customers, each with a different price elasticity of demand.
If a monopolist produces the quantity of output for which marginal cost equals
B)
marginal revenue, it will earn an economic profit.
Monopolists are price searchers and must experiment with different prices to find
C)
the one that maximizes profit.
Question #48 of 118 Question ID: 1377544
economic profits will not be earned for any significant period of time.
One way in which monopolistic competition can be distinguished from perfect competition is
A monopolist, like any other profit-maximizing firm, will sell at the output level
A)
where marginal revenue equals marginal cost.
B) A monopolist will charge the highest price for which he can sell his product.
Under which type of market structure are the production and pricing alternatives of a firm
A) Monopolistic competition.
B) Oligopoly.
C) Perfect competition.
A perfectly competitive firm will choose to produce the quantity for which:
A market structure characterized by a large number of firms all producing identical products
A) monopoly.
B) monopolistic competition.
C) perfect competition.
A) a differentiated product.
A firm operating under perfect competition will experience economic losses under which of
Which of the following is least accurate regarding the relationship between price (P),
marginal revenue (MR), average total cost (ATC), and marginal cost (MC) at the profit
A) MR < ATC.
B) MR = MC.
C) P = MR.
leads to production where the sum of consumer surplus and producer surplus is
C)
greater than it would be otherwise.
A) Differentiated products.
Monopolists will maximize profit by producing at an output level where which of the
Firms in an industry characterized by perfect competition exit the market because they are
experiencing economic losses. What will be the effect on the equilibrium market price and
the effect on the total revenue of a firm that remains in the industry in the short run?
Price Revenue
A) Decrease Increase
B) Increase Increase
C) Increase Decrease
Statement 1: "When oligopoly firms cheat on price fixing agreements, the result increases
economic efficiency."
When a firm operates under conditions of perfect competition, marginal revenue always
equals:
A) price.
C) total cost.
Because economic profits in the long run are positive for firms in monopolistic
C)
competition, there are efficiency losses.
Question #68 of 118 Question ID: 1377506
Which of the following statements is least accurate with regard to the efficiency of
monopolistic competition?
The expense of advertising and promotion may not be justified by their benefit to
C)
consumers.
Comment 1: "In the short run, an increase in demand in a perfectly competitive industry will
Comment 2: "In the long run, a permanent increase in demand in a perfectly competitive
industry will result in zero economic profit for the firms in the industry."
The most effective way to assess the impact of a potential merger on the market structure of
an industry is to:
Which of the following is least accurate regarding product development and marketing for
Brand names can provide consumers with information regarding the quality of
A)
firm’s products.
Firms that bring new and innovative products to the market face relatively more
B)
elastic demand curves than their competitors.
Which of the following is most likely the long-term adjustment in a perfectly competitive
industry that is characterized by firms incurring economic losses?
C) The industry supply curve will shift downward and to the right.
Which of the following most accurately describes a market with a single seller of a product
A) Monopoly.
B) Oligopoly.
C) Monopolistic competition.
A) A single seller.
B) Differentiated products.
Which of the following is least likely to be considered a feature that is common to both
A) Economies of scale.
B) Few sellers.
The kinked demand model assumes that below the current price, the demand curve
becomes:
A) differentiated products.
B) revenue is maximized.
Firms in a perfectly competitive industry will increase their output until which of the
The most likely limitation of the N-firm and Herfindahl-Hirschman concentration measures
A) Allocative Efficiency.
B) Economies of Scale.
C) Patents.
The market structure in which a firm's optimal pricing strategy depends on the responses of
A) Monopolistic competition.
B) Perfect competition.
C) Oligopoly.
Question #89 of 118 Question ID: 1377483
In the long-run, after all firms in a perfectly competitive industry have adopted new
technology, the:
B) price will be set where average variable cost is equal to marginal revenue.
Under perfect competition, the short-run market supply curve is most accurately described
by which of the following statements? The market short-run supply curve is the:
average of the quantities at each price along the marginal cost curve for all firms in
A)
a given industry.
sum of the quantities at each price along the average total cost curve for all firms in
B)
a given industry.
sum of the quantities at each price along the marginal cost curves for all firms in a
C)
given industry.
A) Resource controls.
B) Price controls.
C) Economies of scale.
monopolists maximize profits by setting output such that marginal revenue exceeds
A)
marginal cost.
the profit maximizing output level for monopolists occurs at lower levels of
C)
production than for purely competitive firms.
In the dominant firm model of oligopoly, it is least likely that one firm:
The short-run supply curve for a price taker firm is the portion of the marginal cost (MC)
curve:
A) adopt a marginal cost pricing strategy, which will decrease consumer surplus.
B) result in a higher price, less consumer surplus, and more producer surplus.
C) result in lower output, deadweight loss, and less producer and consumer surplus.
C) Many sellers.
Under perfect competition, a firm will be inclined to increase output as long as which of the
a way of preventing customers from purchasing the product at a lower price and
A)
reselling it at a higher price.
Which of the following is the most likely result of a technological improvement in a perfectly
competitive industry?
In which of the following industry structures is a firm least likely able to increase its total
A) Oligopoly.
B) Monopolistic competition.
C) Perfect competition.
A) downward sloping.
B) horizontal.
C) upward sloping.
A business believes a price discrimination strategy will increase both its output and profits.
For this to occur, the firm must have:
customers who cannot resell the product and whose price elasticities of demand are
A)
in a limited range.
distinct groups of customers with different price elasticities of demand who are able
B)
to resell the product.
distinct groups of customers with different price elasticities of demand who cannot
C)
resell the product.
Which of the following is least accurate with regard to advertising for firms operating under
monopolistic competition?
The increase to average total costs associated with advertising increases as output
B)
increases.
A profit-maximizing monopolist will supply less of his product than the amount
C)
consistent with the conditions of ideal static efficiency for an economy.
Question #106 of 118 Question ID: 1377443
Under monopolistic competition, companies can earn positive economic profits in:
If a profit maximizing firm finds that its marginal revenue exceeds its marginal cost, it should
increase output:
Which of the following is most accurate for a price-taker firm in long-run equilibrium when
A) P = AVC = MR.
B) P = MC = ATC = MR.
C) TC = TR = MC.
In a perfectly competitive industry, the short-run supply curve for the market is the:
A) sum of the individual supply curves for all firms in the industry.
Which of the following is least relevant when explaining why monopoly firms can earn
The short-run supply curve for a firm under perfect competition is the firm's:
Which one of the following structures is characterized by free entry and exit, a differentiated
A) Monopolistic competition.
B) Oligopoly.
C) Pure competition.
Even though the producer surplus increases under a monopoly scenario, relative to one of
A) a lesser amount.
B) an equal amount.
C) a greater amount.
Question #117 of 118 Question ID: 1377526
have more than one identifiable group of customers with the same price elasticities
B)
of demand for the product.
For a perfectly competitive firm in the short-run, what will be the effect of an increase in
A) Increase; increase.
B) Increase; decrease.
C) Decrease; increase.