Question

Suppose that purely competitive firms producing cashews discover that P exceeds MC.

a. Is their combined output of cashews too little, too much, or just right to achieve allocative efficiency?
b. In the long run, what will happen to the supply of cashews and the price of cashews?
1. Supply will increase and the price of cashews will increase.
2. Supply will increase and the price of cashews will decrease.
3. Supply will decrease and the price of cashews will decrease.
4. Supply will decrease and the price of cashews will increase.

Answer 1

a. Too Little

b. 2. Supply will increase and the price of cashews will decrease.

Step-by-step explanation:

a. Output is always maximised when Marginal Revenue equals Marginal Cost because at this point it is argued that all resources are being utilised. In a purely competitive market, the Price is equal to the Marginal Revenue. If the price is larger than the Marginal Cost that means that Marginal Revenue is larger than Marginal Cost. The firms are therefore not utilising enough resources to produce as much as they can which should change.

b. In the long run in a purely competitive market, more firms will enter the market as they will see it as a chance to make economic profits. As this happens the Supply will increase due to the larger number of firms and the price will decrease as a result as well.