Price Floors and Producer Surplus

question 20

Essay

Price Floors and Producer Surplus. The U. S. wheat crop averages about 2 billion bushels per year, and is about 10 percent of the 20 billion-bushel foreign wheat crop. Typically, the market has a relatively good estimate of the wheat crop from the United States and Canada, but wheat crops from the Southern Hemisphere are much harder to predict. Argentina's wheat acreage varies dramatically from one year to another, for example, and Australia has hard-to-predict rainfall in key wheat production areas. To illustrate some of the cost in social welfare from agricultural price supports, assume the following market supply and demand conditions for wheat:
where Q is output in bushels of wheat (in millions), and P is the market price per bushel.

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Definitions:

Income Offer Curve

A graphical representation showing how changes in income affect the quantities of goods consumed, holding prices constant.

Prices

The monetary value necessary to acquire a good or service.

Income

Periodic earnings from professional activities or financial investments.

Utility Function

A mathematical representation that defines the satisfaction or utility a consumer derives from consuming different bundles of goods and services.