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This question is a bit hard. Assume a market with many individuals who trade goods. The number of goods available for trade grows as time evolves. In the first period, there is only one good to trade, in the second period, two goods, and so on (obviously in the Nth period there are N goods). Suppose that the market arrangement (and preferences of individuals) is such that the probability an individual engages in trading is inversely proportional to the number of goods: if there is only one good, the probability of trading is 1; if there are N goods, the probability of trading is 1/N. The payoff if an individual trades is 1 and if she does not, the payoff is zero. Suppose that individuals can create a monetary system every period for which they all have to pay a cost equal to 0 < x < 1. This system, however, raises the probability of trading for all individuals to 1 irrespective of the number of goods available in the market. After how many periods will individuals in this market decide to pay for this monetary system? Note that individuals decide whether to pay for the monetary system before they look for trades. (Hint: what is the expected payoff for a given individual if there is no money? How about if there is money? At which point are these equal?). This question is a bit hard. Its purpose is to make you think somewhat more deeply about the role of money as medium of exchange

P.S. I know the answer to this question (find it below), however I am looking for a response that shows/demonstrates how one comes to the conclusion. SOLVE THIS ANSWER YOURSELF, show that work, THEN explain how/why that is the answer. Please show your work.

ANSWER TO THE QUESTION I POSTED ABOVE: Individuals in this market will decide to pay for this monetary system at a point where expected payoff fr a given individual if there is no money and if there is money become equal. therefore when X = 1/n, the individuals will decide to introduce monetary system where X is the cost of creatingmonetary system and n is number of goods.

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Paramjeet Chawla
Paramjeet ChawlaLv8
28 Sep 2019

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Related questions

CLASS NOTES ARE LOCATED WHERE IT SAYS CLASS NOTES!

During the early 1700s, a sailing ship is wrecked on an uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. The passengers and crew survive but lose all their possessions. There is no source of fresh water on the island, but coconut palm trees are fairly abundant, and the survivors are able to drink milk harvested from coconuts. There are no mammals living on the island, but many birds roost there, and these become a source of meat. There are a number of mango trees that provide fruit. A long, tough form of sawgrass grows in a number of different places on the island. This grass can be woven into knee-length sleeveless shirts, which are the basic type of clothing for people of both genders. The people on this island have developed a simple system of direct market exchange. Currently, two mangos trade for five coconuts, six coconuts trade for a pound of meat, and three pounds of meat trade for four shirts.

1. Use a formula that was stated in class, and in my notes, to calculate the total number of distinct relative prices in the island’s economy. Note that when this formula is used to count relative prices, any given pair of goods is considered to have only one relative price. For example, if we count the price of a pound of meat in mangos as one relative price, then we don’t count the price of mangos in pounds of meat as a second relative price.

(Class Notes: In a barter economy with markets, each good should have a market price, per unit, in terms of each of the other goods: baskets of fish per bushel of apples, bags of coconuts per bushel of apples, etc. A price of this type – units of one good per unit of the other good – is called a relative price (alternatively, a barter price). If there are different goods traded in an economy, then there turn out to be relative prices for a merchant to keep track of, in each market he visits. Each of the n goods has unit prices: one for each of the other goods. We divide by two to avoid counting reciprocal duplicates: if it costs 2 bags of coconuts to buy a bushel of apples, then it costs 1/2 bushel of apples to buy a bag of coconuts, and so on. )

2. Use the price information you are given to calculate all the distinct relative prices. Remember that the prices we are interested in are unit prices. A unit price is the price of a single unit of one good in units of another good. For each pair of goods, use the order that produces the highest unit price. In the case of coconuts and shirts, for example, if the price of a shirt in coconuts is higher than the price of a coconut in shirts, then report the first price but not the second one. Note: In calculating unit prices, don’t worry about issues of divisibility. Assume that any good can be divided in any way, so that fractions or decimals can be components of unit prices.

3. For each relative price you just calculated, calculate the relative price if the order of the two items is switched. (In the scenario above, for example, you would now calculate the price of a coconut in shirts.) What very simple formula can you use to do this? Explain briefly.

4. Now suppose the people on this island start using mangos as money. The relative prices on the island do not change, and the absolute prices are consistent with them. a. Use a formula stated in class, and in my notes, to calculate the total number of absolute prices in the island’s economy. b. Report these absolute prices.

Class Notes: ( In a monetary economy, in contrast, each good has a single absolute price (alternatively, a money price), which is its unit price in terms of money: dollars per bushel of apples, etc. If we assume that one of the n goods is used as money, then a merchant only needs to keep track of absolute prices. As long as there are more than two different goods ( ), it turns out that , and the difference between these two numbers gets very big as n gets large. Even if there are only 10 different goods, then there are 45 relative prices and only 9 absolute prices. And if there are 100 different goods, which is a more realistic number, then there are 99 absolute prices but almost 5000 relative prices.)

5. Comment briefly on the potential advantages and disadvantages of using mangos as money, using our list of the desirable properties of money as a guide.

6. Suppose you are a merchant on this island, where mangos are used as money in the market (see Item 4 above). A competing merchant who dislikes using money in transactions is willing to trade coconuts for shirts (or vice-versa) directly, at a rate of five coconuts per shirt. Explain, carefully and completely, how you could use this merchant’s willingness to trade these two goods, at this rate, in order to make a profit of one unit of money for yourself by (1) using money to buy units of a good in the market, (2) trading those units of the good to this merchant, in exchange for units of another good, and (3) selling those units in the market for money. Identify the items traded and the quantities, and verify the amount of the profit. Finally, explain what you would need to do in order to make a larger profit (double, for example).

Consider the infinitely repeated game that I discussed in class that relies on the grim trigger strategy. I used the following definitions.

Î coop = payoff for one period to a cooperative firm given that

the other n-1 other firms are also cooperating.

Î ch = payoff for one period to a firm that has cheated given

that the other n-1 firms are playing cooperatively.

Î comp = payoff per period per firm if all n firms are playing

competitively.

Assume (1) that this industry is perfectly competitive in the absence of collusion; and (2) that if any single firm undercuts the collusive price-by even a tiny amount- it gets the entire market and other firms sell nothing; (3) if all n firms are cooperating, each sells the same amount as all the other firms.

Questions:

1. What does Î comp equal numerically?

2. If β equals .9, what is the maximum number of firms there can be in this industry if collusion is to be sustained as a Nash equilibrium?

3. Does your answer to the previous question depend on the size of the collusive payoff?

4. What law did the lysine defendants get charged with?

5. If they had set lower collusive prices, would this fact have affected their guilt or innocence? Explain.

Question 26 pts

Which of the following is not a reason why specialization and trade are beneficial to society?

Specialization fosters learning by doing, thus lowering the unit-costs of products

Firms and workers become less dependent on others for producing goods and services

The total output of economic goods may be increased even without any increase in resources

Scarce resources are utilized more efficiently by exploiting differences among them

Question 27 pts

Laissez-faire capitalism limits the government's economic functions to the following, except:

Protecting private property rights

Establishing a legal environment to enforce contracts among individuals

Setting prices of individual goods and services

Preventing individuals and firms from coercing others

Question 28 pts

A production system where various workers concentrate on different specialized tasks to contribute towards a whole product is referred to as:

Roundabout production

A coincidence of wants

Freedom of enterprise

Division of labor

Question 29 pts

The market system is said to be characterized by "consumer sovereignty." This is because:

A sovereign government determines which consumer goods will be produced

Firms must match their production decisions to the consumers' choices

The prices of consumer goods are regulated by a sovereign government

Consumer goods are considered to be more important than capital goods

Question 30 pts

Consumers express self-interest when they:

Seek the lowest price for a product

Reduce business losses

Exclude others in their thinking

Collect economic profits

Question 311 pts




Refer to the above graph with three demand curves. An "increase in quantity demanded" would be illustrated by a change from:

Point 5 to point 1

Point 4 to point 1

Point 2 to point 5

Point 4 to point 6

Question 32 pts

The table below shows the weekly demand for hamburger in a market where there are just three buyers.



Refer to the above table. At a price of $6, the weekly market quantity demanded for hamburger is:

17

23

24

18

Question 33pts

If farmers withhold some of their current corn harvest from the market because they anticipate a higher price of corn in the near future, then this would cause a(n):

Movement up along the current supply curve of corn

Movement down along the current supply curve of corn

Leftward shift in the current supply of corn

Rightward shift in the current supply of corn

Question 34 pts

Which of the following will not cause the supply curve to shift?

A technological change in the production of the good

A change in the prices of other goods that producers could be producing

A change in the costs of resources needed to produce the good

A change in the price of the good

Question 35 pts

All of the following would affect the position of the supply curve for cranberries, except the:

Price of agricultural land for cranberries

Cost of fertilizers for cranberry production

Popularity of cranberry drinks

Development of a new pest control for cranberries

Question 36 pts

When high-school and college graduates apply for jobs in the labor markets,

Job applicants and employers are both "buyers".

Job applicants are the "sellers" while employers are the "buyers".

Job applicants and employers are both "sellers".

Job applicants are the "buyers" while employers are the "sellers".

Question 37 pts




Refer to the figure above, which shows three supply curves for corn. Which of the following would cause the supply of corn to shift from S1 to S2?

A decrease in consumer incomes, assuming corn is a normal good

The development of a more effective insecticide against corn rootworm

An increase in the price of fertilizer

A change in consumer tastes away from cornbread

Question 38 pts

Which is of the following statements is correct?

If demand increases, then price will decrease

If demand decreases, then price will decrease

If price decreases, then demand will decrease

If price increases, then demand will decrease

Question 39 pts

Which would be a likely cause of an increase in the demand for pizza?

A decrease in the price of hamburger sandwiches

A health report showing eating pizza reduces stress

A reduced desire for take-out and fast-food dining

A decrease in the prices of cheese, pepperoni, and mushrooms

Question 40 pts

A market for a product reaches equilibrium when:

Price falls further after there is a shortage

The price rises further after there is a surplus

Buyers intend to buy a quantity equal to the quantity that sellers intend to sell

The actual quantity bought by buyers equals actual quantity sold by sellers

Question 41 pts

A higher price reduces the quantity demanded for a product because:

Individuals can afford less of the product and will switch to substitutes

The financial assets of individuals increase

Individuals will buy more of the product and less of its substitutes

The purchasing power of individuals increases

Question 42 pts

The idea of the Law of Demand, as applied to electric cars, assumes which of the following to be constant?

Price of electric cars

How much sellers are charging customers for electric cars

Price of gasoline cars

Quantity of electric cars demanded by buyers

Question 43 pts

Use the following graph of the demand for coffee:



Refer to the above diagram of three demand curves for coffee. An increase in the price of coffee, other factors constant, would cause a:

Movement from point a to point b

Movement from point b to point a

Shift from D1 to D2

Shift from D1 to D3

Question 44 pts

Which of the following factors will decrease the current demand for a product?

A decrease in the current price of a complementary product

A decrease in the current price of a substitute product

An increase in the current price of a substitute product

An expected increase in the future price of the product

Question 45pts

In competitive markets, a surplus or shortage will:

Cause shifts in the demand and supply curves that tend to eliminate the surplus or shortage

Cause changes in the quantities demanded and supplied that tend to intensify the surplus or shortage

Cause changes in the quantities demanded and supplied that tend to eliminate the surplus or shortage

Never exist because the markets are always at equilibrium

Question 46 pts

Which of the following would cause a leftward shift in the supply curve for car washes?

A decrease in taxes on car washes

An increase in the price of car washing equipment

A decrease in the price of water

An increase in the number of cars in the city

Question 47pts

The market system automatically corrects a surplus condition in a competitive market by:

Raising the price of the commodity in question while decreasing the quantity demanded

Raising the price of the commodity in question while increasing the quantity demanded

Reducing the price of the commodity in question while increasing the quantity demanded

Reducing the price of the commodity in question while decreasing the quantity demanded

Question 48 pts

A leftward shift of the supply curve for oil in the United States is most likely to result from:

A decrease in the world price of oil

An increase in the costs of exploration and drilling for oil

An increase in the subsidy for oil exploration and drilling

A decrease in the fees that oil companies must pay for drilling licenses

Question 49 pts

A fall in the price of milk, used in the production of ice cream, will:

Decrease the supply of ice cream

Have no effect on the supply of ice cream

Increase the supply of ice cream

Cause a movement along the supply curve of ice cream

Question 50 pts




Refer to the above graph, which shows the market for beef where demand shifted from D1 and D2. The change in equilibrium from E1 to E2 is most likely to result from:

An increase in the cost of cattle feed

A decrease in consumer incomes

A decrease in the tax on beef products

An increase in the price of pork

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