Externalities Mark owns a butchery. His marginal cost of selling meat is MC = 0.35Q, where Q is the pounds of meat he sells. Mark is in a competitive market and can sell all the meat he wishes for $7 per pound. However, the smell from the butchery bothers the customers of George, the owner of the coffee shop next door. Assume that every pound of meat costs George $1.4 worth of lost business. If Mark focuses on maximizing his profit, how much would he sell? At the profit-maximizing quantity from part a, does selling the last pound of meat benefit the society. Calculate the social marginal cost and compare it to the marginal benefit. Note that here “society” refers to Mark and George. What is the socially optimal quantity of meat sold?

ENGR.ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
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Chapter1: Making Economics Decisions
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Externalities Mark owns a butchery. His marginal cost of selling meat is MC = 0.35Q, where Q is the pounds of meat he sells. Mark is in a competitive market and can sell all the meat he wishes for $7 per pound. However, the smell from the butchery bothers the customers of George, the owner of the coffee shop next door. Assume that every pound of meat costs George $1.4 worth of lost business.

  1. If Mark focuses on maximizing his profit, how much would he sell?
  2. At the profit-maximizing quantity from part a, does selling the last pound of meat benefit the society. Calculate the social marginal cost and compare it to the marginal benefit. Note that here “society” refers to Mark and George.
  3. What is the socially optimal quantity of meat sold? 
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3) If Mark buys George’s coffee shop, what would his profit-maximizing quantity of meat sales be?

4) Describe a Coase theorem based solution to the problem of inefficiency in this market, and explain how the 3 conditions of Coase theorem apply in your suggested solution.

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