ECON 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Economic Equilibrium, Price Ceiling, Price Floor

31 views2 pages

champagnejackal62

4 Nov 2016

School

Department

Course

Professor

For unlimited access to Class Notes, a Class+ subscription is required.

Document Summary

Government policies that alter the private market outcome. Price ceiling: a legal maximum on the price of a good or service. Price floor: a legal minimum on the price of a good or service. The government can make buyers or sellers pay a specific amount on each unit bought/sold. With a shortage, sellers must ration the goods among the buyers. Some rationing mechanisms: (1) long lines (2) discrimination according to sellers" biases. These mechanisms are often unfair, and inefficient. When prices are not controlled, the rationing mechanism is efficient and impersonal (and thus fair) Recall: markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity. Prices are the signals that guide the allocation of society"s resources. This allocation is altered when policymakers restrict prices. Price controls are often intended to help the poor, but they often hurt more than help them: The minimum wage can cause job losses. Rent control can reduce the quantity and quality of affordable housing.

Related Questions

Question 1

During a crisis such as Hurricane Katrina, governments often make it illegal to raise the price of emergency items like flashlights and bottled water. In practice, this means that these items get sold on a first-come, first-served basis. If a person has a flashlight that she values at $5, but its price on the black market is $40, what gains from trade are lost if the government shuts down the black market?

		$30
		$35
		$40
		Indeterminant with the given information.

2 points

Question 2

Which of the following is an example of a price floor?

		A sale price with a limit on the quantity you can purchase.
		Rent-controlled apartments
		Predatory pricing designed to put a competitor out of business.
		The minimum wage

2 points

Question 3

Airline regulation of the 1970s produced a similar result to which of the following government interventions?

		The Affordable Care Act
		Minimum wage laws
		Rent control laws
		Communism

2 points

Question 4

Which of the following is a possible effect of a price ceiling?

		A surplus of the good.
		Increases in product quality.
		Increased gains from trade.
		People will waste time in lines waiting to purchase the good.

2 points

Question 5

What is a price ceiling?

		A minimum price consumers are willing to pay.
		A minimum price allowed by law.
		A maximum price allowed by law.
		A maximum price consumers are willing to pay.

2 points

Question 6

Why are the long lines generated by a shortage worse than paying a higher price in money?

		It is not better or worse. Paying in time and paying in money are essentially the same in a market economy.
		Paying with time reduces the value of money, and prevents valuable trades from occurring.
		Waiting in line is a waste of a valuable resource: time. Paying a price in money transfers the value of resources from one person to another, and maximizes the value of resources.
		Paying with time gives those who do not work an advantage over those who do.

2 points

Question 7

Which of the following is a possible effect of a price floor?

		The quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded.
		Increased gains from trade.
		Decreases in product quality.
		A shortage of the good.

Target Statement for Assignment 8

When IT procurement managers do business across a transnational border (or choose which borders to negotiate across) it will be helpful for managers to be aware of what restraints or pressures exist on both sides of the border that will affect the negotiated price of the product or service being acquired. The understanding that Garrettâs entire pricing theory depends on the macroeconomic (and hence also political) environment emerges from considering relations between contract pricing and economic theory, specifically, the âreservation priceâ and âeconomic calculation problemâ.

A fixed-price strategy in Garrettâs account does not mean a price that is fixed legally; it means a price that is determined by negotiation between free parties, such as is described in Ch. 8, pp. 105-106. That is, in Garrettâs pricing theory there is a transaction pricing calculation performed on each side of the transaction. Contract pricing is a decision, about which what matters is not the type of contract but the locus of the decision, that is, who makes the decision, and under what constraints?

Garrettâs Chapter 8 answers: buyer and seller make the decision. In a free-market economy, the pricing decision would be entirely an outcome of their negotiation. In an interventionist economy, the decision is in part an outcome of the buyer-seller negotiation; however, the cost of such interventions as taxes, regulations, currency instability, or contract impairment by monetary inflation, and any price caps or floors are built into or reflected by the sellerâs offering price.

In free market economic planning where there is zero central economic planning, a first approximation to a contract price that is freely set by buyer and seller is the reservation price or âwalk-awayâ price for the buyer. The seller, too, has a âwalk-awayâ price. The negotiation can only occur, resulting in a contract, in the interval between the two. Buyer and seller make a decision through a negotiation based on the sellerâs estimate of the cost of performance and the buyerâs estimate of what price the market, established by other potential sellers, would bear -- both estimates being a function of history.

According to the economic calculation problem described by the economist Ludwig Von Mises, a freely agreed upon price that reflects the combination of the buyerâs and sellerâs needs or desires is based on a calculation of the type that cannot be performed in a condition of central economic planning by a government. Under central economic planning, or socialism, price determination is not a function of trading history, or of the sellers' willingness to sell or the buyers' willingness to buy at a given price, rather it is either an arbitrary or politically-influenced decision. Such central economic planning, Von Mises observes, replaces economic calculation â the statistical aggregate of all individual actions by buyers and sellers who freely set prices by their own transaction pricing calculations.

Under the free market modeled in the theory of Von Mises, contract pricing relies on the absence of such market intervention so that buyer and seller are totally free to set a price that allows a contract to occur in the interval between the seller's and buyer's respective walkaway prices. This decision of both parties to agree on a price in that interval is one component of economic calculation â a component that applies to a single trade or transaction and contributes to the statistical aggregate which, in turn, tends to govern resource allocation so as to bring supply and demand into alignment.

To a lesser extent, contract pricing described by Garrett in Chapter 8 relies largely on the absence of central economic planning. Why? Because when the state intervenes it either substitutes its decision for that of the buyer and seller, or at a minimum imposes price controls that either foster shortages or surpluses or else tend to preclude the contract from ever happening if the controlled price is below the sellerâs cost estimate.

Under contract pricing as described by Garrett, the parties to the contract are still able to perform calculations of reservation (walkaway) prices and determine whether they can do the deal at some price in the interval that does not cause either to walk away. However, in a market that is only partially free, interventions such as regulations, taxes, currency exchange fluctuations, or monetary inflation that increase the sellerâs cost do alter the pricing calculation and tend to narrow the interval within which the buyer and seller can come to agreement. That still-intact possibility of agreeing on a price sensitive to market conditions is the essence of the relationship between the economic theory of Von Mises and the contract pricing theory of Garrett.

chocolateraven16

1. Suppose that there is a tax of $1 per unit, and the elasticity of supply is 3 and the elasticity of demand is 2 (in absolute value). How much of the $1 tax is paid by sellers?

		$0.60
		$0.40
		$0.75
		$0.67

2. In Market X, the external benefit of consumption is $5. In Market Y, the external cost of consumption is $10. Efficiency in both markets could be achieved by:

		a tax of $5 in Market X and a subsidy of $10 in Market Y.
		subsidizing both markets.
		taxing Market Y and subsidizing Market X.
		taxing both markets.

3.Economic theory suggests that a natural monopoly should be:

		eliminated whenever it arises.
		regulated to take advantage of economies of scale.
		left alone to operate with excess capacity.
		taken over by the government.

4.When the size of the production is the most efficient:

		total cost is at the minimum.
		average cost is at the minimum.
		marginal cost is at the minimum.
		fixed cost is at the minimum.

5.A firm should exit the industry if which of the following conditions apply?

		TR > TC
		P < AC
		Lifetime expected profit is positive.
		Prices are low now but expected to rise.

6.Figure: Costs

Reference: Ref 11-6

(Figure: Costs) Use the figure. At a price of $20, the firm earns profit of:

		$75.
		$300.
		$225.
		$0, because P = MC at P = $20.

7.When external benefits are present, the market price is ________, however when external costs are present, the market price is ________.

		too low; too high
		equal to the efficient price; too low
		too high; too low
		equal to the efficient price; too high

8.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

I. The EPA's tradeable allowances program for sulfur dioxide establishes property rights to pollute and helps reduce transaction costs by distributing allowances, maintaining databases, and monitoring emissions.

II. One criticism of tradeable allowances is that they prohibit non-businesses and environmental groups from purchasing the allowances.

III. The tradeable allowances for sulfur dioxide have performed poorly because electricity output has increased, causing a rise in sulfur dioxide levels.

		I only
		II and III only
		I, II, and III
		III only

9.Price floors make it illegal to compete for more customers by lowering prices, so firms compete by offering customers:

		various options.
		more quantity.
		more discount.
		higher quality.

10.Figure: Government Price Controls

Reference: Ref 8-3

(Figure: Government Price Controls) Refer to the figure. If the government sets the price ceiling at $31, there will be:

		a shortage of 15 units.
		a surplus of 15 units.
		a supply of 20 units.
		no effect on the market.

11.In which of these instances does price function as a signal in the market?

		Suppliers invest more in exploration when the price of oil increases.
		Consumers complain of price gouging as the price of oil skyrockets.
		Government imposes price controls on the skyrocketing price of oil.
		All of the answers are correct.

12.Ethanol and sugar are both made from sugar cane, and ethanol can be used as substitute fuel for oil. Increasing oil prices cause the demand for ethanol to increase. This will cause the ______ sugar to ______ and its price to ______.

		demand for; decrease; decrease
		supply of; increase; increase
		supply of; decrease; increase
		demand for; increase; increase

13.Why do cotton growers spend billions of dollars to dam rivers and transport water hundreds of miles to grow cotton in California deserts?

		Cotton growers in California don't pay payroll taxes.
		The water used to grow California cotton is highly subsidized by the government.
		Cotton growers in California are mostly operated as nonprofit enterprises.
		The water used to grow California cotton is high in mineral contents, making for a bigger cotton yield.

14.Suppose that the equilibrium price in the market is $10. If the current market price is $7.50:

		the equilibrium price will fall to $7.50.
		competition among buyers will increase the current price.
		the current price will fall below $7.50 as sellers compete for market share.
		There is not enough information provided to answer the question.

15.Which of the following would increase the demand for beef?

		lower pork prices
		higher consumer income
		higher prices of feed grains used to feed beef cattle
		an increase in the price of beef

16.A change in quantity supplied is reflected by a movement along the same supply curve while a change in supply refers to a shift in the entire supply curve.

True

False

17.Table: Production in the United States and Germany

Labor units required to produce:

One Clock

One Sofa

United States		2	5
Germany		3	9

Reference: Ref 2-8

(Table: Production in the United States and Germany) According to the table, the opportunity cost of producing one sofa in the United States is _________, and the opportunity cost of producing one sofa in Germany is _______.

		two clocks; three clocks
		10 clocks; 27 clocks
		0.4 clocks; 0.33 clocks
		2.5 clocks; three clocks

18.Mark values his drum set at $800 and Ella values her guitar at $1,000. Suppose that Mark trades his drum set for Ella's guitar.

		This trade makes Ella worse off by $200.
		This trade makes Mark better off by $200.
		Mark must value Ella's guitar for at least $1,000, and Ella must value Mark's drum set for at least $800.
		This trade creates value by moving the guitar and drum set to people who value them more.

ECON 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Economic Equilibrium, Price Ceiling, Price Floor

Document Summary

Get access

Related Documents

ECON 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Price Ceiling, Price Floor, Economic Equilibrium

ECON 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Price Ceiling, Tax Incidence, Working Poor

ECON 1000 Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Related Questions