Question

In the market for pickled herring there are two competing producers: Abbas and Taste of Base. Both herring manufacturers have fixed cost of $240,000 a year and a constant marginal cost (AVC) of $1.80 per jar. In the current year, Abbas produced and sold 125,000 jars of herring while Taste of Base produced and sold 150,000 jars. Based on this information, we can expect Taste of Base's quantity sold to _____________ and its ________ in the future.

Answer 1

Answer: a. increase; average fixed cost to decrease.

Step-by-step explanation:

Taste of Base produced and sold 150,000 jars of herring which was more than that of Abbas. As far as competition goes, Base is ahead of Abbas and this will only increase in future as they have the same cost yet are ahead. This efficiency will ensure that their quantity sold will increase.

Their average fixed cost will therefore decrease because average fixed cost is total fixed cost divided by the number of units produced so with a higher production level, there will be less average fixed cost.