ive efficiency. es to meeting allocation 9 QUESTION 8. Scrambled, Over Easy, for Baking, or Raw 'A lawsuit alleging the U.S. egg industry conspired to increase consumer ... alleges that as egg prices climbed between 2004 and 2008, industry officials who blamed rising feed costs were covering up an orchestrated hen kill- off to reduce supplies. If you can get an agreement to manipulate supply, you are changing the economics of the market. Consumers will pay more,' said attorney Michael Hausfeld, the lead attorney in the civil antitrust case against at least 13 of the nation's largest producers and trade groups, including industry giant Eggland's Best Inc. of Jeffersonville, Pa. The plaintiffs' attorneys say the new documents from Sparboe Farms of Minnesota, the nation's fifth-largest egg producer, bolster the price-fixing allegations uncovered during California's 2008 Proposition 2 referendum that bans caged chickens by 2015. The United Egg Producers had called the stock reduction an animal welfare effort to give caged chickens more room. The suit maintains it was a ruse to reduce the number of egg-laying hens and increase prices. ... Sparboe agreed to turn over documents and communications with the United Egg Producers in exchange for being dropped from the lawsuit ... wrote to the trade group in 2003 (and) expressed concern that the order for stock reductions 'strikes of price fixing.' Sparboe's documents include one from the United Egg Producers' research economist that says the egg industry could earn more money by reducing the supply of eggs. ... 'The industry insists they can't afford a penny per egg to (switch to cage-free systems) and yet that penny pales in comparison to the profits they've been reaping from the alleged scheme. ...' (Jennifer Fearing, chief economist for the animal welfare group). Source: "Papers boost case in egg price-fixing suit." Sun Journal. 13 April 2010. Print. Consider the United Egg Producers as a "UNITED group of major producers acting as one firm" alongside the other (few) major producers. BA. What is the market structure of the egg industry? 8 B. Define the key characteristics of this market structure. 8 C. Using your knowledge of markets, ILLUSTRATE the effect of "an orchestrated hen kill-off" on price and output in the market for eggs. 8 D. Why would the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission (Chapter 25/textbook) be interested in the behaviour of United Egg Producers