ECON1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Adverse Selection, Perfect Competition, Market Failure
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A health insurance company knows that there are two types of customers (smokers and non-smokers), each facing different health risks. The probabilities of getting sick and the healthcare costs in the case of illness for the two customer types is given in the table below.
Group | Healthcare costs | Probability of getting sick |
Smokers | $1200 | 50% |
Non-smokers | $1200 | 20% |
Assume that each customer has a monthly income of $1600 and has a utility function given by U(x)=sqrt(x), where x is the remaining income after medical/health insurance expenses have been paid.
a. Explain the problem of âadverse selectionâ and the problem of âmoral hazard.â Give one example of a market in which adverse selection occurs and one example of a market in which moral hazard can be observed. What is the difference between the two information problems? Explain the consequences of adverse selection and moral hazard for the principal â agent relationship.
b. Discuss in detail the two ways (screening and signaling) in which the principal or the agent can try to resolve the problem of adverse selection. Give an example of screening and signaling and explain how the parties involved benefit from these strategies.
c. For the numerical example above construct the lotteries associated with the income that remains after healthcare expenses have been paid for smokers and for non-smokers (assuming agents do not have health insurance). Calculate the expected utility associated with the lotteries for smokers and non-smokers. Calculate the certainty equivalent of the two lotteries. What is maximum amount that smokers and non-smokers are willing to pay for full insurance? Calculate the actuarially fair health insurance premium for the two groups of customers (i.e. the expected healthcare costs).
dAssume the company cannot distinguish between smokers and non-smokers and offers a full insurance contract to all customers. How much should the company charge for the full insurance contract? Which customer group will purchase full insurance?
1).
A consumer spends more time searching for a good when her reservation price is:
increased.
reduced.
fixed.
None of the statements is correct.
2).
In the game shown below, firms 1 and 2 must independently decide whether to charge high or low prices.
Which of the following are Nash equilibrium payoffs in the one-shot game?
(0, 0)
(5, -5)
(-5, 5)
(10, 10)
3).
A risk-neutral individual would:
prefer $5 with certainty to a risky prospect with the expected value of $5.
prefer a risky prospect with an expected value of $5 to a certain amount of $5.
be indifferent between a risky prospect with an expect value of $5 to a certain amount of $5.
prefer a risky prospect with the expected value of $0.50 to $5 with certainty.
4).
Snowpeak Ski Resort offers a price for a lift ticket that is barely over its marginal cost, but the high equipment rental fee keeps generating big profits. Which pricing strategy is the management using?
Price discrimination
Two-part pricing
Commodity bundling
Cross-subsidization
5).
The short run is defined as the time frame:
in which there are no fixed factors of production.
in which there are fixed factors of production.
less than one year.
less than three years.
6).
Fixed costs exist only in:
the long run.
capital-intensive markets.
the short run.
labor-intensive markets.
7).
Top of Form
Non-fed ground beef is an inferior good. In economic booms, grocery managers should:
increase their orders of non-fed ground beef.
reduce their orders of non-fed ground beef.
not change their orders of non-fed ground beef.
neither increase, reduce, nor maintain their current orders for non-fed ground beef.
Bottom of Form
8).
Which of the following pricing strategies is NOT used in markets with special cost and demand structures?
Peak-load pricing
Cross-subsidization
Transfer pricing
Low-price guarantees
9).
A perfectly competitive firm faces a:
perfectly elastic demand function.
perfectly inelastic demand function.
demand function with unitary elasticity.
None of the answers is correct.
10).
The special demand structure that induces a firm to use a cross-subsidization strategy is:
perfect substitution among products.
imperfect substitution among products.
independent demand for products.
interdependent demand for products.
11).
Which of the following factors reduces the need for government involvement in the marketplace?
The presence of externalities
The incentive to rent-seek
The need for public goods
Incomplete information
12).
Which of the following statements is true?
A mineral rights auction is not the same as a common-value auction.
An auctioneer is always indifferent between different kinds of auctions.
The Dutch and first-price, sealed-bid auctions are strategically equivalent.
An English auction always yields lower expected revenues than a second-price, sealed-bid auction.
13).
Which of the following is true concerning negative externalities?
Firms tend to produce more than the efficient level of output.
Society gains because firms do not pay the external costs of production.
Perfect competition is better than monopoly from the viewpoint of society even in the presence of negative externalities.
With negative externalities, a monopoly will always produce an output level less than is socially efficient.
14).
Which of the following is true under monopoly?
P > ATC
P > MC
P = MR
P = ATC
15).
Differentiated goods are NOT a feature of a:
perfectly competitive market.
monopolistically competitive market.
monopolistic market.
perfectly competitive market and monopolistic market.
16).
Producer surplus is measured as the area
below the demand curve and above the market price.
above the demand curve and below the market price.
above the supply curve and below the market price.
below the supply curve and above the market price.
17).
Jaynet spends $25,000 per year on painting supplies and storage space. She recently received two job offers from a famous marketing firm â one offer was for $105,000 per year, and the other was for $85,000. However, she turned both jobs down to continue a painting career. If Jaynet sells 30 paintings per year at a price of $9,000 each:
a. What are her accounting profits?
$
b. What are her economic profits?
$
18).
You are the manager of a monopoly that sells a product to two groups of consumers in different parts of the country. Group 1âs elasticity of demand is -2, while group 2âs is -4. Your marginal cost of producing the product is $40.
a. Determine your optimal markups and prices under third-degree price discrimination.
Instruction: Round your answers to two decimal places.
Markup for group 1:
Price for group 1: $
Markup for group 2:
Price for group 2: $
b. Which of the following are necessary conditions for third-degree price discrimination to enhance profits.
Instructions: You may select more than one answer. Click the box with a check mark for the correct answers and click twice to empty the box for the wrong answers. You must click to select or deselect each option in order to receive full credit.
At least one group has elasticity of demand less than one in absolute value. | |
There are two different groups with different (and identifiable) elasticities of demand. | |
We are able to prevent resale between the groups. | |
At least one group has elasticity of demand greater than 1 in absolute value. |
19).
You are the manager of a firm that receives revenues of $60,000 per year from product X and $80,000 per year from product Y. The own price elasticity of demand for product X is -1.5, and the cross-price elasticity of demand between productY and X is -1.4.
How much will your firm's total revenues (revenues from both products) change if you increase the price of good X by 2 percent?
Instructions: Round your answer to the nearest dollar. Include a minus (-) sign if applicable.
$
Question 1
Which compensation method helps to explain the large difference between the salaries of top-level managers and mid-level managers in a firm?
A. | Tournaments | |
B. | New blood | |
C. | Piece rate | |
D. | Backloaded compensation |
3 points
Question 2
Please consider the information provided under Question 19 in Chapter 3 (page 54). Based on the stated information, the optimal number of bees kept if the externality is ignored by Yung is 5,000. Is the socially optimal number of bees higher or lower than 5,000?
A. | We do not have enough information to answer this question | |
B. | Same | |
C. | Lower | |
D. | Higher |
3 points
Question 3
Which of the following factors contribute to the existence of firms?
A. | All of these factors contribute to firm existence | |
B. | Risks associated with specialization | |
C. | Incomplete contracts | |
D. | Willingness of some people to take on risk in exchange for residual income |
3 points
Question 4
Public goods are often subject to free-rider problems because these goods are:
A. | Non-rival and non-excludable | |
B. | Rival and non-excludable | |
C. | Non-rival and excludable | |
D. | Rival and excludable |
3 points
Question 5
Which of the following is the most efficient mechanism for allocating scarce goods?
A. | Government allocation system | |
B. | First-come-first-served system | |
C. | Market system | |
D. | Random allocation system |
3 points
Question 6
Many years ago, most of the major Hollywood movie studios also owned chains of local movie theaters across the US. Today, most of the local movie theaters are owned by other companies. What has happened to the degree of integration in the movie industry over time?
A. | Less horizontally integrated | |
B. | Less vertically integrated | |
C. | More horizontally integrated | |
D. | More vertically integrated |
3 points
Question 7
Your firm produces replacement parts for the nuclear submarines operated by the US Navy. Which one of Porter's Five Forces will be most prominent in determining your strategies and profitability?
A. | Bargaining Power of Suppliers | |
B. | Bargaining Power of Customers | |
C. | Threat of New Entrants | |
D. | Threat of Substitutes |
3 points
Question 8
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. | The market mechanism for allocating resources is most efficient due to the incentives it creates. | |
B. | Markets are always the most efficient way to allocate goods, even if the market is not perfectly competitive. | |
C. | The random allocation mechanism provides no incentives at all. | |
D. | The government allocation mechanism provides no incentive for the economy to grow. |
3 points
Question 9
Suppose a firm's cost structure exhibits economies of scope. Which of the following actions is compatible with this cost structure?
A. | Diversify into other product lines | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
B. | Focus on core competencies and reduce production | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
C. | Focus on core competencies and maintain constant production | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
D. | Focus on core competencies and expand production Question 10 Please refer to Table 8.3 on page 132 in the book. Suppose we change the payoffs in the "low price, low price" cell to 0, 25 from 0, 0. Does this change the Nash equilibrium for the game, and is the game still a Prisoner's Dilemma?
3 points Question 11 Which of the following statements about restricting entry to markets is NOT true?
3 points Question 12 Your firm earns $2 million per quarter in total revenue, and your accounting profits are $100,000 per quarter. You do not charge the firm for the use of an old building that you own because it is 50 years old and fully depreciated. However, another firm has offered you $200,000 per quarter to use the facility, and this is the market rental rate for similar facilities. In this case, we know that your:
3 points Question 13 Please refer to Question 13 in Chapter 1 (page 17). What is the marginal cost of reducing global warming by 0.017 degrees?
3 points Question 14 In Chapter 6, Boyes focuses on negative externalities such as the various types of pollution. However, as we discussed during our online session, we can also observe positive externalities in which external benefits are generated for people. Which of the following is NOT an example of a positive externality?
3 points Question 15 Common property resources are:
3 points Question 16 The free-rider problem arises in markets for common property resources.
3 points Question 17 Firms that set their product price below the actual cost of production may be engaging in:
3 points Question 18 Under a cap-and-trade mechanism to control air pollution, what happens to the price of pollution rights if the supply of righs is reduced (i.e., the supply of rights is reduced)?
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