A city has enough land either for a public garden or for a parking structure, but not both. The need to choose exists primarily because

The table shows efficient combinations of laboratory instruments and field kits that a workshop can produce in one week.

Moving from the first combination to the second has an opportunity cost of

One worker can produce the daily outputs shown.

Which specialization pattern is consistent with comparative advantage?

A student can spend successive hours reviewing for an exam. The marginal benefits of the first four hours are 18, 13, 8, and 4 points, while each hour has a marginal cost of 9 points. To maximize net benefit, the student should

A city council is sorting testimony into testable claims and value judgments. Which statement belongs in the testable group?

The graph shows the current production possibilities for Northport. Point U lies inside the frontier, E lies on it, and X lies beyond it.

A movement from U to E without a change in resources or technology is best explained by

Long-distance lending is generally easier when courts reliably enforce contracts because enforcement

A clinic assigns nurses, laboratory technicians, and pharmacists to tasks for which each has specific training. The main economic advantage of this arrangement is that specialization can

A theater has already paid a nonrefundable 6000 rental fee for tonight. A storm reduces expected ticket revenue to 2500, while staging the show would still require 1800 in avoidable labor and utility costs. The theater should

In the circular-flow model, when a household supplies labor to a software firm and receives a salary, the household is participating in

The price of tea rises while the price of coffee is unchanged. If consumers regard tea and coffee as substitutes, the coffee market will experience

The schedule describes a competitive market.

The equilibrium price and quantity are

The wage paid to bakery workers increases, with no change in bread prices or technology. In the bread market, this causes

The graph shows demand shifting from D_1 to D_2 in the Northport market while supply remains fixed.

The new equilibrium has

At a price of 10, sellers offer 80 units and buyers demand 45 units; the competitive equilibrium price is 8. If a price floor of 10 is imposed and the government buys no excess output, the floor creates

At the current price of concert tickets, the number buyers want exceeds the number offered. In an unregulated competitive market, this shortage tends to

A museum raises admission from 15 to 18, and weekly attendance declines from 400 to 352. Using the original price and attendance as the bases for both percentage changes, the absolute price elasticity of demand is

A seller observes the following two points on its demand curve.

Over this price range, the data indicate demand is

The cross-price elasticity of demand between streaming service X and service Y is +1.4. This statistic most strongly suggests that the services are

The graph shows a per-unit tax in the Northport market. Buyers pay P_b, sellers receive P_s, and Q_t is traded after the tax.

The vertical distance labeled t represents

A per-unit tax is imposed in a market where demand is much less elastic than supply. Most of the tax burden will be borne by

A new production process lowers the cost of electric scooters at the same time that commuters' preference for scooters strengthens. Relative to the original equilibrium,

A buyer would pay as much as 48 for a used desk but purchases it for 35. The buyer's consumer surplus is

A tax raises the price buyers pay, lowers the price sellers receive, and reduces trades from 100 units to 80 units. The deadweight loss consists primarily of

The marginal utility from successive servings of a food is shown below.

The schedule illustrates

A consumer currently obtains 24 marginal-utility units from the next unit of X, priced at 6, and 18 from the next unit of Y, priced at 3. To move toward maximum utility, the consumer should

A consumer spends all income on books and meals. Income rises while both prices remain unchanged. On a graph with books on one axis and meals on the other, the budget line

The price of bus travel falls, and bus travel is a normal good. Holding money income constant, the substitution and income effects on the quantity of bus travel demanded

Use the standard consumer-choice model and the values supplied below. Each quantity is evaluated at the price stated with it. A customer at a campus café is choosing between X and Y. At the current bundle, MU_X=30 and P_X= 4, while MU_Y=18 and P_Y= 5. To increase utility without changing total spending, the consumer should

The following demand information applies to the period under review. No fact outside the scenario alters the requested comparison. A customer at a campus café has 24 to spend on X at 4 per unit and Y at 3 per unit. The table lists marginal utilities for successive units.

Which purchase should be made first?

For a restaurant, the short run is best defined as a period in which

The table shows daily output with a fixed workshop and varying labor.

The marginal product of the fourth worker is

The marginal products of the first five workers are 12, 16, 14, 10, and 6 units. Diminishing marginal returns have clearly begun by the time the firm adds

A firm reports the following hourly cost data.

The marginal cost of the fourth unit is

A firm's marginal cost is currently below its average total cost. If it produces one more unit in that range, average total cost will

A bakery expands its ovens, staffing, and ingredient use by 25 percent. Its daily output rises by 40 percent. Over this range, the bakery exhibits

A shop earns 140000 in revenue, pays explicit costs of 90000, and uses owner-supplied resources worth 30000 in their next-best use. Its economic profit equals

Which cost is most likely fixed for a small factory during the next month?

A seasonal kiosk owes an unavoidable 200 daily license fee whether or not it opens. Opening today would generate 520 of revenue and 390 of avoidable operating cost. In the short run, the kiosk should

A price-taking firm is producing where marginal cost equals price. It earns zero economic profit when price also equals

Which set of conditions best describes perfect competition?

A perfectly competitive firm can sell any feasible output at the market price of 12. Its marginal revenue from selling one more unit is

At the market price, successive units add 12, 8, 3, 1, and - 5 to a price-taking firm's profit. The profit-maximizing quantity is

A competitive firm produces 100 units at price 14; average total cost is 17 and average variable cost is 11. The firm

The graph shows the cost curves of a price-taking Northport firm and the market price it faces.

In the short run, the firm should

In long-run perfect competition, the representative firm produces where

A legally enforced patent gives one firm the exclusive right to sell a new device for a limited time. The patent creates monopoly power by

A single-price monopolist must lower price to sell an additional unit. Its marginal revenue is therefore below price because

A single-price monopolist faces the following demand and total-cost data.

The profit-maximizing output and price are

A manager has isolated the revenue, cost, and market facts relevant to the next output decision. Fixed commitments cannot be revised during the decision interval. A single-price patented-drug supplier has the following marginal schedule.

The profit-maximizing quantity is

A museum charges lower admission to students whose demand is more price sensitive and prevents resale of tickets. This pricing can be profitable because the museum

The graph shows demand, marginal revenue, and marginal cost for a single-price monopolist serving Northport.

Relative to the competitive outcome, the monopoly outcome has

If a regulator requires a natural monopoly to charge price equal to marginal cost, a subsidy may be necessary because

A neighborhood contains many restaurants, each offering a somewhat different menu and atmosphere, and new restaurants can enter. This market is best described as

A monopolistically competitive firm maximizes short-run profit by producing the quantity at which

Positive economic profit in a monopolistically competitive industry attracts entry. In long-run equilibrium, the typical firm has

After a neighborhood coffee chain runs a branding campaign, surveyed customers describe its blend as unique and become less willing to switch when its price rises. The campaign has most likely

A defining feature of oligopoly is that each firm

The entries are annual profits for Firm A, Firm B.

For Firm A, the dominant strategy is to

For each firm, advertising yields 45 if the other advertises and 70 if the other does not; not advertising yields 20 if the other advertises and 55 if the other does not. The Nash equilibrium occurs when

If several oligopolists form a successful cartel, they maximize joint profit by behaving like

Even when cartel members agree to restrict output, an individual member is tempted to cheat because it can

The figures come from a single operating period and should be evaluated using the stated market structure. Buyers and rival sellers respond only in the ways stated below. A single-price patented-drug supplier lowers price from 18 to 17 and sales rise from 40 to 43 units. Marginal revenue over this change is

The firm is choosing an operating plan for one period, with unreported demand and cost conditions fixed. The firm evaluates the immediate consequence before any later adjustment. A single-price island ferry finds that MR=MC at 60 units. The demand curve shows buyers will pay 24 at 60 units, and ATC there is 19. The firm should charge

A furniture maker hires carpenters because consumers demand tables and cabinets. This illustrates that labor demand is

The last technician hired by a price-taking repair shop completes 7 additional service orders per shift. Each completed order adds 18 to revenue. The technician's marginal revenue product is

A firm should continue hiring additional units of labor up to the point where

The market price of the software produced by a type of programmer rises, with programmer productivity unchanged. The demand for those programmers will

The labor-market data refer to one period and contain every shift relevant to the requested outcome. Benefits and payroll taxes are already included wherever relevant. The output of a medical clinic sells in a competitive market for 8 per unit. The daily wage is 56.

How many workers maximize profit?

The employer treats the stated wage as the cost of an additional worker and holds other inputs fixed. The comparison excludes any unrelated change in fixed cost. At hourly wages of 16, 18, 20, and 22, labor demanded by bakery employers is 90, 80, 70, and 60 workers, while labor supplied is 50, 60, 70, and 80. The competitive equilibrium is

The employer treats the stated wage as the cost of an additional worker and holds other inputs fixed. The output created in the period can be sold as described. The next worker hired by a medical clinic adds 9 units of output. Each added unit increases total revenue by 6. The worker's marginal revenue product is

An outdoor music venue does not pay nearby residents for the late-night noise created by each concert. Because ticket buyers and the venue ignore that harm, an unregulated market schedules a number of concerts that is

Vaccination reduces an individual's chance of illness and also reduces transmission to others. Because some benefit spills over, a private market is likely to provide

The graph shows a negative production externality in the Northport market.

The unregulated market produces

Under a cap-and-trade system, firms with low pollution-abatement costs tend to

A nonprofit posts real-time tornado alerts that any household in the county can receive, including households that did not donate. Voluntary donations are likely to be too low because many residents can

Several farms pump from the same open-access aquifer. Each farm considers its own pumping expense but ignores most of the lower future water table imposed on the other farms. The unregulated pumping level is therefore likely to be

The allocation is evaluated for one period, with no external cost or benefit beyond those reported. Benefits and costs are measured for the same unit of activity. A college course creates the marginal private and external benefits below; marginal cost is shown in the last column.

The socially efficient quantity is

The table shows each household quintile's share of income.

Which conclusion is supported?

A government blocks a proposed merger because it would substantially lessen competition. This action is best described as