How do I determine these questions?

Homework 3 (Chapters 24 & 25) 1. Why might a producer use a designer label to differentiate her product from that of another producer? 2. Will there be profits in the long run in a monopolistically competitive market? Explain your answer. 3. Total industry sales are $105 million. The top four firms account for sales of $10 million, $9 million, $8 million, and $5 million, respectively. What is the four-firm concentration ratio? 4. The following schedule summarizes the sales situation confronting an oligopolist. Identify the profit-maximizing rate of output in a situation where marginal cost (per unit) is constant at $11. Price per unit $8 $10 $12 $14 $16 $17 $18 $19 $20 Quantity Demanded 10 2 5. How does a vertical merger differ from a horizontal merger? Why would the government look more carefuly at one than at the other? 6. Explain price regulation, profit regulation, and output regulation. 7. Calculate the Herfindahl index and the four-firm concentration ratio for the following industry: Firms Market Share (%) A 17 B 15 14 D 14 E 12 F 10 G 9 H 9 8. Suppose a natural monopolist has fixed costs of $24 and a constant marginal cost of $2. The demand for the product is as follows: Price per unit $10 $9 $8 $7 $6 $5 $4 $3 $2 $1 Quantity Demanded 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 a. What price and quantity will prevail if the monopolist is not regulated? b. What price-output combination would exist with efficient pricing (MC=p)? c. What price-output combination would exist with profit regulation (zero economic profits)