Economics 102 Assignment #1 (15 Points) Name



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Quantity Total Revenue Marginal Revenue Marginal Cost

10,000 $1.20

40,000 .40

90,000 .24

130,000 .30

160,000 .40

180,000 .60

192,000 1.00

198,000 2.00

200,000 6.00



Continued on Page 27

2. On a graph below, re-draw the average total cost and the marginal cost as they were drawn for Assignment #5. Then, draw the marginal revenue. Show on the graph the profit-maximizing quantity as well as the economic profits or losses. Show the actual numbers from question 1.


$




0 Quantity of Oranges

3. Now assume that the price of oranges falls to $0.40 per pound. Using the principles described in the reading, the profit-maximizing quantity is __________________ and the economic profit is $________________________
Quantity Total Revenue Marginal Revenue Marginal Cost

10,000 $1.20

40,000 .40

90,000 .24

130,000 .30

160,000 .40

180,000 .60

192,000 1.00

198,000 2.00

200,000 6.00


4. Use the principles of Chapter 16 to answer the following question: since the company is making an economic loss, should it continue to produce in the short-run or should it shut down? Explain why.
Continued on Page 28
5. Now assume that the company sells its product in perfect competition at a market price of $0.30 per pound. Using the principles described in the reading, the profit-maximizing quantity is __________________ and the economic profit is $________________________
Quantity Total Revenue Marginal Revenue Marginal Cost

10,000 $1.20

40,000 .40

90,000 .24

130,000 .30

160,000 .40

180,000 .60

192,000 1.00

198,000 2.00

200,000 6.00

6. Use the principles of Chapter 16 to answer the following question: since the company is making an economic loss, should it continue to produce in the short-run or should it shut down?

7. Fill in the following table. Assume there are 1,000 orange groves and that they are identical. Remember that at some point, the seller will shut-down in the short-run.


Price Supply of One Grove Industry Supply Quantity Demanded

$0.30 200,000,000

$0.40 190,000,000

$0.60 180,000,000

$1.00 170,000,000

$2.00 120,000,000

$6.00 80,000,000
The equilibrium price of oranges is $__________________ and the equilibrium quantity of oranges is _________________.

End of Homework Assignment #6.

Economics 102 Assignment #7 (20 Points) Name___________________


Part 1: 5 Points
1. Return to the case of the orange grove from the homework to previous chapters. Assume that all groves sell their oranges through one cooperative. This cooperative acts as a pure monopoly. Assume that, at a price of $1.50 per pound, the monopoly cooperative will sell 10,000 pounds of oranges. Every time the price is lowered by 5 cents per pound, another 10,000 pounds will be sold. This is shown below. Fill in the table. The average total cost and the marginal cost are repeated from the previous homework assignments. (Remember that the marginal revenue is calculated as the change in total revenue divided by the change in quantity.)
Quantity Price Total Revenue Marginal Revenue Average Total Cost Marginal Cost
10,000 $1.50 $4.80 $1.20

20,000 1.45

30,000 1.40

40,000 1.35 1.50 0.40

50,000 1.30

60,000 1.25

70,000 1.20

80,000 1.15

90,000 1.10 0.80 0.24

100,000 1.05

110,000 1.00

120,000 0.95

130,000 0.90 0.65 0.30

140,000 0.85

150,000 0.80

160,000 0.75 0.60 0.40

170,000 0.70

180,000 0.65 0.60 0.60

190,000 0.60

200,000 0.55 0.72 6.00


The quantity that the monopolist will choose in order to maximize profits is _______.

Explain the reason that this quantity will be produced.
The price that this monopolist will charge is $______________________.
The economic profits that this monopolist will earn will equal $_________________.
Show calculations.
Continued on Page 30
2. You were given the following demand curve facing a monopolist in Chapter 18.
Price Quantity Total Revenue Marginal Revenue Marginal Cost
$340,000 0
320,000 1,000 $160,000
300,000 2,000 140,000
280,000 3,000 120,000
260,000 4,000 140,000
240,000 5,000 160,000
220,000 6,000 180,000
200,000 7,000 200,000
180,000 8,000 220,000
160,000 9,000 240,000
140,000 10,000 260,000
120,000 11,000 280,000
You calculated that the quantity the monopolist will produce is 5,000. The price that will be charged is $240,000. And the economic profits that will be earned are $300,000,000.
Now assume that the government puts a price ceiling on makers of houses. The price cannot be more than $200,000. Recalculate the decision of the monopolist under these conditions. Hint: every time there is a number above $200,000 under Price, change the number to $200,000. Every number below $200,000, do not change. Recalculate the total revenue and the marginal revenue. In calculating the marginal revenue, remember to divide by the change in quantity (1,000). The quantity produced will occur where the new marginal revenue equals the marginal cost.
The new quantity produced is ______________.
The new price charged is $_________________.
The new economic profits earned are equal to $__________________.
What can you conclude about price ceilings if there is monopoly?

Continued on Page 31
Part 2: 5 Points
2. In the graph below, draw the situation for the monopolist as you did originally. Show the profit-maximizing quantity and price as well as the economic profits.

Then, there is an increase in the demand for the product. Show the results of this change on the graph. Show the new profit-maximizing quantity, price, and economic profits.

$

___________________________________________

0 Quantity
As a result of the rise in the demand for the product, the quantity has ___________,

the price has ______________, and the economic profits have ________________ .

(Answer “risen”, “fallen”, or “remained unchanged”)
Part 3: 5 Points
1. The following is taken from an article in the San Diego Union Tribune on October 21, 2003.

“Richard Sarkis and David Kinsley were juniors at Williams College, surfing the Internet for a cheap source for their Economics textbook, when they discovered a little known economic fact: The very same college textbooks used in the United States sell for half price, in England.

Like prescription drugs, textbooks cost far less over seas than in the United States. The publishing industry defends its pricing policies, saying that foreign sales would be impossible if book prices were not pegged to local market conditions. …..

Thanks to the Internet, more students and college bookstores are starting to order textbooks from abroad – and a few entrepreneurs have begun what is essentially an arbitrage business to exploit the price differentials. … Kinsley and a classmate spent three years building a web-based company, BookCentral.com, selling textbooks from abroad to American students. … A 1998 Supreme Court ruling stated that copyright law does not protect U.S. manufacturers from having the products they arranged to sell overseas at a discount shipped back to the United States for sale. .. At one campus, a student who asked not to be identified imported 30 Biology textbooks this fall and sold then outside his classroom for less than the campus bookstore price, netting a $1,200 profit. None of the three major textbook publishers (Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Thomson) would discuss why overseas prices are so much lower than domestic ones.


Use the principles of price discrimination to explain why the prices of the same textbooks are lower overseas.

Then, explain what effect Internet sales are likely to have on the ability of the publishers to price

discriminate.

Continued on Page 32
2. Write a short essay explaining why companies in high technology industries tend to have the characteristics of natural monopolies. In your answer, give as many reasons as you can. (Be sure to define the following terms in your answer: network externalities, path dependence, and lock-in.)

3. California is now often cited as an example of “how not to do deregulation”. Read the section in Chapter 19 on the deregulation of electricity in California. Then, write a short essay describing to someone unfamiliar with Economics exactly what went wrong with California’s deregulation.



Part 4: 5 Points
In the chapter, the history of the personal computer industry is developed as an example of monopolistic competition. In the graph below, depict the history of IBM as related in the chapter. Assume that the personal computer industry is monopolistic competition. The graph below shows the situation as of 1980. It assumes that the company is in long-run equilibrium, with economic profits of zero. Go through the chapter and show on the graph all of the events that relate to IBM. Consider the decision to enter the personal computer industry, the entry of the “clones”, the development of the OS/2, the development of Microsoft Windows, and the alliances with Apple. In each case, explain why you made the changes that you did and also what resulted for the company. (You may need to redraw the graph so that your graph does not become too crowded! So several graphs are given on Pages 33 and 34.)

Continued on Page 33

Marginal Cost
$ Average Total Cost



P80 a


Demand1980

Marginal Revenue1980


0 Q1980 Quantity


Explanation:


Marginal Cost
$ Average Total Cost



P80 a


Demand1980

Marginal Revenue1980


0 Q1980 Quantity


Explanation:


Marginal Cost
$ Average Total Cost



P80 a


Demand1980

Marginal Revenue1980


0 Q1980 Quantity


Explanation:


Marginal Cost
$ Average Total Cost



P80 a


Demand1980

Marginal Revenue1980


0 Q1980 Quantity


Explanation:

End of Assignment 7

Economics 102 Assignment #8 (20 Points) Name________________________


Part 1: 5 Points
1. In Chapter 14, you were given homework concerning an orange grove. The following table described the relation between the number of pounds of oranges sold per year and the number of workers hired. This was the production function. You were asked to calculate the marginal physical product (MPP). Refer back to that homework.

Number of Workers Number of Pounds Per Year

0 0


1 10,000

2 40,000


3 90,000

4 130,000

5 160,000

6 180,000

7 192,000

8 198,000

9 200,000

10 200,000

11 190,000
You were also given that the price of oranges was $0.60 per pound and that the wage paid to each worker was $12,000 per year. Assume that oranges are sold in a perfectly competitive product market and that the workers are hired in a perfectly competitive labor market.
In the table below, calculate the marginal revenue product & the marginal resource cost.
Workers MPP Price Marginal Revenue Product Wage Marginal Resource Cost

1 $0.60 $12,000

2 $0.60 $12,000

3 $0.60 $12,000

4 $0.60 $12,000

5 $0.60 $12,000

6 $0.60 $12,000

7 $0.60 $12,000

8 $0.60 $12,000

9 $0.60 $12,000

10 $0.60 $12,000

11 $0.60 $12,000


This company will hire _________ workers because_____________________________.

(Compare this to the number hired in the homework in Chapter 14.)


Continued on Page 36
2. In the early 1990s, comparable worth was an important political issue. This meant that workers should not only be paid the same wage for doing the same job, they should be paid the same wage if they did comparable jobs. The courts found that jobs done by men and women were often comparable (as they measured this) but that the wages were commonly higher for jobs

done by men. Had comparable worth become national law, the effect would have been to significantly raise the wages paid to women who work.

Analyze this case. What would be the results of passing comparable worth laws? In doing your analysis, notice that this case is similar to the case of the increase in the minimum wage.

Part 2: 5 Points
1. In the section on perfect competition, you analyzed the case of an increase in demand for the product. Now, assume that these companies hire labor in a perfectly competitive labor market. Show the demand for labor (marginal revenue product) and the supply of labor (marginal resource cost) for one employer and then for all employers. Assume that the industry is a constant-cost industry (what does this mean?). Show on the graph first the results in the short-run (that is, what results in the labor market as a result of the changes in the product market in the short-run). Then, show the results in the long-run. Explain your answer.

$ $


____________________________ _________________________________

0 Labor 0 Labor

One Employer All Employers


Short-run:


Long-run:

Continued on Page 37

Part 3: 5 Points
1. In the reading for this section, the rising labor force participation rate for married women was explained. There has also been a significant increase in the labor force participation rate of young people --- ages 16 to 22 --- especially those still attending school. Use the explanations developed in this section to provide some explanations of this increase. In your answer, be sure to consider both the substitution effect and the income effect.

2. The following are the ratios of incomes.


Year Black Males to Black Females to Hispanic Males Hispanic Females

White Males White Females to White Males to White Females


1955 60.9% 51.4%
1960 66.1% 67.8%
1965 62.8% 67.9%
1970 68.1% 81.9%
1975 73.2% 95.5% 71.2% 85.0%
1980 70.4% 93.3% 70.0% 84.5%
1985 70.0% 88.5% 67.5% 82.0%
1990 71.4% 88.9% 64.0% 77.7%



  1. First, describe the trends that you observe in this data up to 1990.


  1. Then, based on the material presented in Chapter 23, what hypotheses can you suggest to explain these trends? Name as many as you can.


Continued on Page 38

Part 4: 5 Points
1. Using the data provided in Chapter 25, draw the Lorenz Curves for the years 2000, the year 1990, the year 1980, and the year 1970. Did the United States become more equal or unequal in the decade of the 1970s? Did the United States become more equal or unequal in the decade of the 1980s? Did the United States become more equal or unequal in the decade of the 1990s?
Cumulative Percent

Of Income






Percent of Households

2. A. Read the description of the creation of the great fortunes in the text. In magazines, books, or on the internet, find the story of a billionaire who is not mentioned in the text. You may use one who is currently alive or an historical person. Write a brief description of the source of this person’s great wealth. (If the wealth was inherited, go back to discover the original source of the wealth.)


End of Assignment 8
Economics 102 Name_________________________
Assignment #9
Part 1: 5 Points:
In Chapter 26, it was assumed that there were only two countries and two products. The cost of making a product in each country (that is, the amount of labor time) was given by the following:
In Vineland In Cheeseheadland

Labor Hours Required:

1 Bottle of Wine 15 hours 10 hours

1 Kilogram of Cheese 10 hours 4 hours


1. First, in the space below, draw the production possibilities curve for Vineland, assuming that there are 30 million hours of labor time available per year. Remember that the production possibilities curve shows all possible combinations of goods that can be produced. If all of the hours are devoted to wine, Vineland can produce _____ bottles of wine. If all of the hours are devoted to cheese, Vineland can produce _____ kilograms of cheese. If 15 million hours were devoted to wine and 15 million hours to cheese, Vineland can produce ____ bottles of wine and ____ kilograms of cheese. Show these on the graph below. Show the production possibilities curve as a solid line.

Quantity of Wine





Quantity of Cheese


2. Second, in Vineland, each hour devoted to producing wine requires the sacrifice of ___ kilograms of cheese. This is the opportunity cost.

In Cheeseheadland, each hour devoted to wine requires the sacrifice of ___ kilograms of cheese. This is the opportunity cost.


Vineland has the absolute advantage in ______________. Cheeseheadland has the absolute advantage in _______________. (Choose wine, cheese, both, or neither).
Vineland has the comparative advantage in ______________. Cheeseheadland has the comparative advantage in _______________. (Choose wine, cheese, both, or neither).
Vineland should export _____________ goods and it should import _______________ goods.
Continued on Page 40

Third, imagine that Vineland specializes completely in wine. All 30 million hours were used to produce wine. Vineland then trades 1 million bottles of wine to Cheeseheadland. In return, it gets back _____ kilograms of cheese from Cheeseheadland.


Is Rest of the World better-off with trade? Why? _____________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Finally, show the production possibilities curve with trade on the graph on Page 39. Then, show the new production possibilities curve as a dashed line.



Part 2: 5 Points:
1. In Chapter 27, the text refers to a paradox. On the one hand, since the end of World War II, the government of the United States has been the leading proponent of free trade around the world. Many actions have been taken by the American government to promote free trade. Yet, on the other hand, the American government has imposed trade restrictions on Japanese steel, Japanese automobiles, textiles, agricultural products, etc. The American government has also subsidized certain companies, such as Boeing, to aid them in international competition. How do you explain this paradox? (You may want to review the section on Public Choice before answering.)

Ethics Question:
2. a. In November, 1999, the World Trade Organization (WTO) met in Seattle. There were about 50,000 protesters there. There was destruction and some arrests. What exactly does the World Trade Organization (WTO) do? Give some examples of some cases it has been involved with. (Look up the World Trade Organization on the Internet in order to answer.)

b. You will be assigned one of the following groups who opposed the World Trade Organization (WTO). Explain the reasons that the group opposes the WTO. How does it want the WTO to change? You will get the information you need from the Internet or from newspaper accounts.

The AFL – CIO or any particular labor union OR

Any Environmental group who opposed the WTO, such as the Sierra Club OR

Any other political group who opposed the WTO.

c. Present arguments made by people in support of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Who are the people supporting the WTO? What arguments do they make that it has been good for the world economy? You will get the information you need from the Internet or from newspaper accounts.



End of Assignment 9

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