When a Profit-Maximizing Firm in a Monopolistically Competitive Market Charges

question 147

Multiple Choice

When a profit-maximizing firm in a monopolistically competitive market charges a price higher than marginal cost,

• A)the firm must be earning a positive economic profit.
• B)the firm may be incurring economic losses
• C)there is a deadweight loss to society, but it is exactly offset by the benefit of excess capacity.
• D)new firms will necessarily wish to enter the market in the long run.

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Definitions:

Variable Costs

Costs that change in proportion to the level of output or activity, such as raw materials, labor, and utilities.

Output

The quantity of goods or services produced by a business, industry, or country.

Normal Profit

The payment made by a firm to obtain and retain entrepreneurial ability; the minimum income that entrepreneurial ability must receive to induce entrepreneurs to provide their entrepreneurial ability to a firm; the level of accounting profit at which a firm generates an economic profit of zero after paying for entrepreneurial ability.

Implicit Cost

The monetary income a firm sacrifices when it uses a resource it owns rather than supplying the resource in the market; equal to what the resource could have earned in the best-paying alternative employment; includes a normal profit.