Explain what a cartel is and the difficulties faced in maintaining a cartel
What will be an ideal response?
A cartel is a group of firms acting together to decrease output, raise price, and increase economic profit. The difficulty faced by a cartel is the fact that each member has the incentive to cheat on the cartel and increase its output. If a member increases its output and the rest of the cartel members do not, the cheating member's profits will increase substantially. Each member reasons that if it is the only cheater, it can significantly increase its profit and so each firm has an incentive to cheat.
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After Hurricane Sandy, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) advertised in a New Jersey radio station how people affected by the hurricane could file for assistance
In the political marketplace, the decision makers in FEMA are best characterized as A) voters. B) firms. C) politicians. D) bureaucrats.
The consumer price index is
A) an average of the prices of the goods and services purchased by the typical family. B) the cost of a market basket of goods and services typically consumed in a base year. C) the cost of a market basket of goods and services typically consumed in the current year. D) an average of the prices of new final goods and services produced in the economy over a period of time.