Final answer:
The beneficiary of price improvement is the submitter of the market order. Price floors and ceilings do not shift supply or demand but create excess supply or demand, leading to market imbalances.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer is c. Market order submitter benefits from price improvement and d. neither because a price floor or price ceiling does not shift supply or demand.
Price improvement occurs when a trade is executed at a better price than the best-advertised price at the time the order is placed. In the context of stock trading, when a market order is placed, it is filled at the best available price. If the execution price is better than the expected price, the individual who submitted the market order benefits.
Market makers might not necessarily receive a direct benefit from this, as they are providing the liquidity that facilitates this improvement. Meanwhile, price controls, like floors and ceilings, are typically set by government regulations to prevent prices from falling too low or rising too high. A price floor is the minimum price set for a good or service, and a price ceiling is the maximum. These controls do not shift the demand or supply curves themselves, but they do create excess supply in the case of a price floor and excess demand in the case of a price ceiling, leading to market imbalances.