Carroll’s diner decides to hire a new waitress to out with waiting tables. the new waitress costs the diner $1700 per month. the ability for customers to be served more quickly allows the diner to make an extra $2500 than previously. how do we know that carroll's diner made a rational economic decision? voluntary exchange led to the waitress making $1700 a month. the marginal benefit of $2500 is greater than the marginal cost of $1700 for the new waitress. specialization led to the diner making $2500. none of these; scarcity of resources does not allow for rational decisions to ever be made.

Consider the local telephone company, a natural monopoly. the following graph shows the monthly demand curve for phone services and the company’s marginal revenue (mr), marginal cost (mc), and average total cost (atc) curves. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 price (dollars per subscription) quantity (thousands of subscriptions) d mr mc atc 8, 60 suppose that the government has decided not to regulate this industry, and the firm is free to maximize profits, without constraints. complete the first row of the following table. pricing mechanism short run long-run decision quantity price profit (subscriptions) (dollars per subscription) profit maximization marginal-cost pricing average-cost pricing suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to marginal cost. complete the second row of the previous table. suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to average total cost. complete the third row of the previous table. under average-cost pricing, the government will raise the price of output whenever a firm’s costs increase, and lower the price whenever a firm’s costs decrease. over time, under the average-cost pricing policy, what will the local telephone company most likely do

In the united states, one worker can produce 10 tons of steel per day or 20 tons of chemicals per day. in the united kingdom, one worker can produce 5 tons of steel per day or 15 tons of chemicals per day. the united kingdom has a comparative advantage in the production of:

When cell phones were first entering the market, they were relatively large and reception was undependable. all cell phones were essentially the same. but as the technology developed, many competitors entered, introducing features unique to their phones. today, cell phones are only a small fraction of the size and weight of their predecessors. consumers can buy cell phones with color screens, cameras, internet access, daily planners, or voice activation (and any combination of these features). the history of the cell phone demonstrates what marketing trend?