EC1000 – Question Sheet 3 –Week 8
1. Three managers of a beer producing company are discussing a possible increase inproduction. Each suggests a way to make this decision.
H: We should examine whether our company’s productivity (gallons of beer per worker) would rise or fall.
R: We should examine whether our average cost would rise or fall.
T: We should examine whether the extra revenue from selling the additional beerwould be greater or smaller than the extra costs.
Whose opinion would you support?
2. The Clean Springs Water Company has a monopoly on bottled watersales in California. If the price of tap water increases, what is the change in CleanSprings' profit-maximizing levels of output, price, and profit? Explain in words and witha graph.
3. Jimmy Jazz and the Repercussions (a band from Tadcaster) have just finishedrecording their first CD. Their record company's marketing department determines thatthe demand for the CD is as follows:
Price / Number of CD’s£24 / 10,000
22 / 20,000
20 / 30,000
18 / 40,000
16 / 50,000
14 / 60,000
The company can produce the CD with no fixed cost and a variable cost of £5 per CD.
a. Find total revenue for quantity equal to 10,000, 20,000, and so on. What is themarginal revenue for each 10,000 increase in the quantity sold?
b. What quantity of CDs would maximize profit? What would the price be? Whatwould the profit be?
c. If the band had an agent, and if you were the band's agent, what recording feewould you advise them to demand from the record company? Why?
4. Larry, Curly, and Moe run the only saloon in town. Larry wants to sell asmany drunks as possible without losing money. Curly wants the saloon to bring in asmuch revenue as possible. Moe wants to make the largest possible profits. Using a singlediagram of the saloon’s demand curve and its cost curves, show the price and quantitycombinations favoured by each of the three partners. Explain.
5. Paul is the manager of Alpha Company, a firm that has a monopoly in the market for bicycle breaks thanks to a patented innovative technology. The owner of the firm, David, hires a consulting company to estimate the price elasticity of bicycle brakes. The consultants find that a 10% increase in the price would decrease demand by 5%. As a result, David decides to fire Paul and hire a new manager. Why? If you were Paul, what could you argue to convince David not to fire you?
EC1000 – Question Sheet 3 – Week 8
6. Consider two products, 1 and 2, and two consumers, A and B. Company Alpha has a monopoly over both products. Products are indivisible and consumers buy at most one unit of each. The products are independent (that is, neither substitutes nor complementary). Both products have a unit production cost equal to £2. The following table gives the willingness to pay for the two products:
A’s willingness to pay / B’s willingness to payProduct 1 / £10 / £8
Product 2 / £8 / £10
a. What is the monopoly price and the monopoly profits if the two products are sold separately?
b. What happens if the firm bundles the two products and sell them as a single product?
7. Your cousin Vinnie owns a painting company with fixed costs of £200 and the following schedule for variable costs:
Quantity of Houses Painted per Month / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7Variable Costs / £10 / £20 / £40 / £80 / £160 / £320 / £640
Calculate average fixed cost, average variable cost, and average total cost for each quantity.
What is the efficient scale of the painting company?
8. You go out to the best restaurant in town and order a lobster dinner for £40.
After eating half of the lobster, you realize that you are quite full. Your date wants you to finish your dinner, because you can’t take it home and because “you’ve already paid for it.” What should you do? Relate your answer to the notion of sunk and recoverable costs.
9. Singer Britney Spears has monopoly over a scarce resource: herself. She is the only person who can produce a Britney Spears concert. Does this fact imply that the government should regulate the price of her concerts? Why or why not?
10. Suppose that you and a classmate are assigned a project on which you willreceive one combined grade. You each want to receive a good grade, but you also want todo as little work as possible. The decision box and payoffs are as follows:
EC1000 – Question Sheet 3 – Week 8
Your decisionWork Shirk
Work
Your classmate’s
decision
Shirk / You get A, no fun
Classmate gets A, no fun / You get B, fun
Classmate gets B, no fun
You get B, no fun
Classmate gets B, fun / You get D, fun
Classmate gets D, fun
Assume that having fun is your normal state, but having no fun is as unpleasant as receiving a grade that is two letters lower.
a. Write out the decision box that combines the letter grade and the amount of fun you have into a single payoff for each outcome.
b. If neither you nor your classmate knows how much work the other person is doing, what is the likely outcome? Does it matter whether you are likely to work with this person again? Explain your answer.