5. Complaints are often made that the gasoline industry colludes to maintain monopoly profits for the oil companies. Following Hurricane Katrina, supply of gasoline from refineries to gasoline providers was reduced. As a result, gasoline industry revenue increased. Critics contended that the higher revenue was clear evidence of collusion in the gasoline industry to raise prices and generate monopoly profits. Provide an economics critique of this argument.

5. Complaints are often made that the gasoline industry colludes to maintain monopoly profits for the oil companies. Following Hurricane Katrina, supply of gasoline from refineries to gasoline providers was reduced. As a result, gasoline industry revenue increased. Critics contended that the higher revenue was clear evidence of collusion in the gasoline industry to raise prices and generate monopoly profits. Provide an economics critique of this argument.

ENGR.ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

14th Edition

ISBN:9780190931919

Author:NEWNAN

Publisher:NEWNAN

Chapter1: Making Economics Decisions

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1QTC

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Exercise A.5 Consider a company with market power that sells its product to two distinct consumer groups (type 1 consumers and type 2 consumers). Graphically illustrate the following situation: "if you charge a single price only consumers of type 1 will be able to buy the product but, if you charge differentiated prices, the two types of consumers will be able to buy it"
3) Bookface, the largest online social media network in the world, is being sued for abusing market power and attempting to create a monopoly. To defend his company, its founder Zark Muckerberg claims that in the social media industry, users want to be on whichever platform their friends are, which makes the creation of monopolies inevitable. Prosecutors, however, disagree. They claim that Bookface has used its market power to drive small companies out of the market. a. Which side is right? b. Please discuss this phenomenon and its sources.
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Suppose you are the economic adviser ofa company producing three brands of mobile pnones;Nokia 10, Samsung X and iPhone 7. Suppose further that, your company currently sells 120units of iPhone Z at e800 per unit, 150 units of Samsung X at e800 per unit and 200 units ofNokia 10 at e100 per unit, but in a bid to maximize profit, the company's managing directorproposes an increase in price of Samsung X from e800 to e1000 per unit for which quantitydemanded is anticipated to fall from 150 to 100 units; iPhone Z from e800 to e 1200 per unitfor which quantity demanded is anticipated to fall from 120 to 100 units; and Nokia 10 from100 to 200 per unit for which quantity demanded is expected to fall from 200 to 100 unitsUsing the mid-polint formula. compute the price elasticity of demand for each brand.From your answer in i, what is the type and economic interpretatiom of each brand'sii.value of elasticity.
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1. Hertz and other car rental companies charge much more to rent luxury cars such as Ferraris andBentleys than to rent compact cars such as the Toyota Yaris or Chevrolet Sonic. Is this pricediscrimination? Explain 2. A Grocery store issued frequent-buyer cards to willing customers and collected information about their purchases. How should a manager use this information to offer customized discount coupons to individuals?
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There are only two driveway paving companies in a small town, Asphalt, Inc. and Blacktop Bros. The inverse demand curve for paving services is ?= 2040 ―20? where quantity is measured in pave jobs per month and price is measured in dollars per job. Assume Asphalt, Inc. has a marginal cost of $100 per driveway and Blacktop Bros. has a marginal cost of $150. Answer the following questions: Determine each firm’s reaction curve and graph it. How many paving jobs will each firm produce in Cournot equilibrium? What will the market price of a pave job be? How much profit does each firm earn?
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3.There are two competing Internet-based providers of medical information suitable for patients. ProPatient currently charges $150 per year to subscribers of its service,which helps patients learn more about their medical conditions. Its competitor, AskUs Health, currently charges $125 for a similar service. The current level of advertising by ProPatient is $2,500,000. ProPatient has tracked its volume of subscribers as a function of its price, the price of AskUs services, and of its own marketing expenditures designed to promote the service. The marketing department at ProPatient estimated its demand relationship based on these data. Here is the result: QP= 120,000 -900PP+ 400PA+.02M where QP= quantity of subscribers to ProPatient PP = price charged by ProPatient PA= price charged by AskUs Health MP= Marketing expenditures by ProPatient (all values of the independent variables are in dollars)ProPatient’s fixed cost to establish and maintain the business is $10,000,000 plus marketing…
3.There are two competing Internet-based providers of medical information suitable for patients. ProPatient currently charges $150 per year to subscribers of its service,which helps patients learn more about their medical conditions. Its competitor, AskUs Health, currently charges $125 for a similar service. The current level of advertising by ProPatient is $2,500,000. ProPatient has tracked its volume of subscribers as a function of its price, the price of AskUs services, and of its own marketing expenditures designed to promote the service. The marketing department at ProPatient estimated its demand relationship based on these data. Here is the result: QP= 120,000 -900PP+ 400PA+.02M where QP= quantity of subscribers to ProPatient PP = price charged by ProPatient PA= price charged by AskUs Health MP= Marketing expenditures by ProPatient (all values of the independent variables are in dollars)ProPatient’s fixed cost to establish and maintain the business is $10,000,000 plus marketing…
Suppose a manufacturer and its retailer face the problem of double marginalization. If the manufacturer sets the wholesale price equal to its marginal cost c and in addition, requires the retailer to pay a fraction α (between 0 and 1) of its profit. 4.a Write down the retailer’s profit maximization problem. Will this practice solve the double marginalization problem? (That is, will this practice maximize their joint profit?) 4.b Suppose the retailer is required to pay a fraction of α of its sales (i.e., total revenue). Write down the retailer’s profit maximization problem. Will this practice solve the double marginalization problem?