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Market Structures

Excess capacity and efficiency in monopolistic competition

  • 3 things to know
  • Papers 1 and 3

Overview

Recall questions on reading the diagram, calculating supernormal profit, and why excess capacity makes the firm neither productively nor allocatively efficient.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

State the formula for calculating supernormal profit in monopolistic competition.

Key term

Is monopolistic competition allocatively efficient in long-run equilibrium?

Key term

Where is the marginal revenue curve positioned relative to the average revenue curve in monopolistic competition?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    In a short-run diagram for monopolistic competition, what shape is the average revenue (demand) curve?

    Model answer

    Downward-sloping.

  2. 2

    Where is the marginal revenue curve positioned relative to the average revenue curve in monopolistic competition?

    Model answer

    The marginal revenue curve lies below the average revenue curve.

  3. 3

    What shape is the average total cost curve in a monopolistic competition diagram?

    Model answer

    U-shaped.

  4. 4

    Where does the marginal cost curve intersect the average total cost curve?

    Model answer

    At the minimum point of the average total cost curve.

  5. 5

    How is the profit-maximising output determined on a monopolistic competition diagram?

    Model answer

    At the output level where the marginal revenue curve equals the marginal cost curve (MR = MC).

  6. 6

    How is the price determined once profit-maximising output is found in monopolistic competition?

    Model answer

    Price is read from the demand (average revenue) curve at the profit-maximising output level.

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ANiche markets are too small to support a large producer.
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Monopoly means a market dominated by one seller.
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