HW: Firms in Competitive Markets Assignment Consider the competitive market for ruthenium. Assume that no matter how many rms operate in the industry, every firm is. identical and faces the same marginal cost {MC}, average total cost {ATE}, and average variable cost (AVE) curves plotted in the following graph. '3 ATC COSTS (Dollars per pound) 2-1- 1 6 AVG El 4 S 12 16 2G 24 23 3'2 315 4C! QUANTITY (Thousands of pounds] If there were 30 rms in this market, the shortrun equilibrium price of ruthenium would be per pound. At that price, rms in this industry would V . Therefore, in the long run, firms would V the ruthenium market. Because you know that competitive rms earn V economic prot in the long run, you know the longrun equilibrium price must be per pound. From the graph, you can see that this means there will he V rms operating in the ruthenium industry in long-run equilibrium. True or False: Assuming implicit costs are positive, each of the firms operating in this industry in the long run earns negative amounling prot. 0 True 0 False