Final answer:
The concept at play here is price ceilings in a market, where setting a price below the equilibrium causes a shortage by increasing the quantity demanded and reducing the quantity supplied. The exact figures for the equilibrium price, quantity, and resulting shortage cannot be provided without Table 3.11.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Market Equilibrium with Price Ceilings
The initial question you posed about the chocolate cupcake market and a subsequent tax's effect is actually related to a different concept, which is the impact of taxes on market equilibrium. However, the information you've provided from your book alludes to the concept of price ceilings in a market for a different product, which is bread. A price ceiling is a regulation that makes it illegal to charge a price higher than a specified level.
When a price ceiling is set below the equilibrium price, it results in a shortage, meaning the quantity demanded will exceed the quantity supplied. To directly answer your question about bread: before any price ceiling is applied, we calculate the equilibrium price and quantity by finding the point where the supply and demand curves intersect. For the scenarios given, the excess demand or shortage at each price ceiling can be calculated by subtracting the quantity supplied from the quantity demanded at that price.
Without the table (Table 3.11), the exact values for equilibrium and shortage can't be determined. However, in general, the lower the price ceiling below the equilibrium, the larger the shortage that will result from this policy