In: Economics
buyer | reservation value of buyer ($) | seller | reservation value of seller($) |
1 | 15 | 1 | 1 |
2 | 14 | 2 | 2 |
3 | 13 | 3 | 4 |
4 | 12 | 4 | 6 |
5 | 11 | 5 | 8 |
6 | 10 | 6 | 10 |
7 | 9 | 7 | 12 |
8 | 8 | 8 | 14 |
9 | 7 | 9 | 16 |
10 | 6 | 10 | 18 |
Scenario: Suppose a competitive market has ten buyers and ten sellers. The product exchanged in this market is beach hats, which are indivisible. The following table shows the reservation values for both buyers and sellers.
a) Refer to the scenario above. If the market is perfectly competitive, the equilibrium price of a hat is?
b) Refer to the scenario above. If the market is perfectly competitive, the equilibrium quantity of hats is?
Price | Demand | Supply |
1 | 10 | 1 |
2 | 10 | 2 |
4 | 10 | 3 |
6 | 10 | 4 |
7 | 9 | 4 |
8 | 8 | 5 |
9 | 7 | 5 |
10 | 6 | 6 |
11 | 5 | 6 |
We have computed the demaand and supply schedule where we
determined the demand and supply at each price. For eg: At $1, all
buyers have reservation value greater than 1 so all of them will
demand the good but only one seller has reservation value of1 or
less than 1. So, only one seller will supply the good.
At $2, all buyers have reservation value greater than 2 so all of
them will demand the good but only two seller have reservation
value of 2 or less than 2. So, two seller will supply the
good.
Equilibrium is determined where demand equals supply. We can see
that at $10, demand = supply = 6. So, equilibrium price of
a hat is $10 and equilibrium quantity is 6 hats.