Exam 17: Oligopoly

Resale price maintenance involves a firm

The Clayton Act of 1914 allowed a person who successfully sued a company for damages caused by an illegal arrangement to restrain trade to recover damages.

In the language of game theory, a situation in which each person must consider how others might respond to his or her own actions is called a

Table 17-1 Imagine a small town in which only two residents, Rochelle and Alec, own wells that produce safe drinking water. Each week Rochelle and Alec work together to decide how many gallons of water to pump. They bring the water to town and sell it at whatever price the market will bear. To keep things simple, suppose that Rochelle and Alec can pump as much water as they want without cost so that the marginal cost of water equals zero. The weekly town demand schedule and total revenue schedule for water is shown in the table below: 21. -Refer to Table 17-1. If this market for water were perfectly competitive instead of monopolistic, what price would be charged?

Table 17-3 Imagine a small town in a remote area where only two residents, Maria and Miguel, own dairies that produce milk that is safe to drink. Each week Maria and Miguel work together to decide how many gallons of milk to produce. They bring milk to town and sell it at whatever price the market will bear. To keep things simple, suppose that Maria and Miguel can produce as much milk as they want without cost so that the marginal cost is zero. The weekly town demand schedule and total revenue schedule for milk is shown in the table below: -Refer to Table 17-3. Suppose the town enacts new antitrust laws that prohibit Maria and Miguel from operating as a monopoly. What will be the price of milk once Maria and Miguel reach a Nash equilibrium?

Two suspected drug dealers are stopped by the highway patrol for speeding. The officer searches the car and finds a small bag of marijuana and arrests the two. During the interrogation, each is separately offered the following: "If you confess to dealing drugs and testify against your partner, you will be given immunity and released while your partner will get 10 years in prison. If you both confess, you will each get 5 years." If neither confesses, there is no evidence of drug dealing, and the most they could get is one year each for possession of marijuana. If each suspected drug dealer follows a dominant strategy, what should he/she do?

Table 17-1 Imagine a small town in which only two residents, Rochelle and Alec, own wells that produce safe drinking water. Each week Rochelle and Alec work together to decide how many gallons of water to pump. They bring the water to town and sell it at whatever price the market will bear. To keep things simple, suppose that Rochelle and Alec can pump as much water as they want without cost so that the marginal cost of water equals zero. The weekly town demand schedule and total revenue schedule for water is shown in the table below: 21. -Refer to Table 17-1. What is the socially efficient quantity of water?

If all of the firms in an oligopoly successfully collude and form a cartel, then total profit for the cartel is equal to what it would be if the market were a monopoly.

Table 17-34 Suppose that two oil companies - BP and Exxon - own adjacent natural gas fields. The profits that each firm earns depends on both the number of wells it drills and the number of wells drilled by the other firm. The table below lists each firm's individual profits: Exxon Drill one well Drill two wells -Refer to Table 17-34. Does BP have a dominant strategy? If so, describe it.

In general, game theory is the study of

Other things the same, in which case is the quantity produced the highest?

To move the allocation of resources closer to the social optimum, policymakers should typically try to induce firms in an oligopoly to

Laurel and Janet are competitors in a local market and each is trying to decide if it is worthwhile to advertise. If both of them advertise, each will earn a profit of $5,000. If neither of them advertise, each will earn a profit of $10,000. If one advertises and the other doesn't, then the one who advertises will earn a profit of $12,000 and the other will earn $2,000. In this version of the prisoners' dilemma, if the game is played only once, Laurel should

An agreement among firms in a market about quantities to produce or prices to charge is called

Why would lack of cooperation between criminal suspects be desirable for society as a whole?

The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in

If duopolists colluded but then stopped colluding,

Table 17-11 Only two firms, ABC and XYZ, sell a particular product. The table below shows the demand curve for their product. Each firm has the same constant marginal cost of $8 and zero fixed cost. -Refer to Table 17-11. What is the socially efficient quantity of the product?

Firms do not need to be concerned about striking a balance between the price effect and the output effect when making production decisions in which of the following types of markets?

Table 17-31 Imagine a small town in a remote area where only two residents, Maria and Miguel, own dairies that produce milk that is safe to drink. Each week Maria and Miguel work together to decide how many gallons of milk to produce. They bring milk to town and sell it at whatever price the market will bear. To keep things simple, suppose that Maria and Miguel can produce as much milk as they want without cost so that the marginal cost is zero. The weekly town demand schedule and total revenue schedule for milk is shown in the table below: -Refer to Table 17-31. Discuss the difference between the monopoly outcome and the Nash equilibrium.