Review Questions
What is the relationship between product differentiation and monopolistic competition?
How is the perceived demand curve for a monopolistically competitive firm different from the perceived demand curve for a monopoly or a perfectly competitive firm?
What is excess capacity?
How does a monopolistic competitor choose its profit-maximizing quantity of output and price?
How can a monopolistic competitor tell whether the price it is charging will cause the firm to earn profits or experience losses?
If the firms in a monopolistically competitive market are earning economic profits or losses in the short-run equilibrium, would you expect them to continue doing so in the long-run equilibrium? Why?
Is a monopolistically competitive firm productively efficient? Is it allocatively efficient? Why or why not?
Will the firms in an oligopoly act more like a monopoly or more like competitors? Briefly explain.
Does each individual in a prisoner’s dilemma benefit more from cooperation or from pursuing self-interest? Briefly explain.
What is a Nash equilibrium?
What stops oligopolists from acting together as a monopolist and earning the highest possible level of profits?