Data in the following table refer to the purchase of a resource by a pure monopsonist. Let the resource be labor time L, measured in hundreds of hours per day

Units of Labor Marginal Average Marginal Revenue
Input Expenditure Expenditure Product
L ME AE MRP
1 10 10 16
2 12 11 15
3 14 12 14
4 16 13 13
5 18 14 12
6 20 15 11
7 22 16 10
8 24 17 9

a. Determine the profit maximizing purchase rate of labor for the monopsonist.
b. If this market were not monopsonistic but competitive, what would be the purchase rate of labor time?
c. Determine the equilibrium wage rate in both the monopsonistic and competitive markets?

a. Equate ME to MRP. This occurs at L = 3.
b. Equate AE to MRP. This occurs at L = 4.
c. The wage rate for the monopsonist would be the value of AE at L = 3. Thus, wage = 12. The wage rate in the competitive market would be the value of MRP at the intersection with AE. Thus, wage = 13.

Economics

You might also like to view...

If the long-run real interest rate falls, ________

A) unemployment increases B) investment by firms decreases C) the demand for loans decreases D) investment by firms increases

Economics

Suppose a bank has $100,000 in checking account deposits with no excess reserves and the required reserve ratio is 5 percent. If the Federal Reserve lowers the required reserve ratio to 3 percent, then the bank will now have excess reserves of

A) $0. B) $2,000. C) $3,000. D) $5,000.

Economics