In: Economics
Rapper Jay-Z has a monopoly over a scarce resource: himself. He
is the only person who...
Rapper Jay-Z has a monopoly over a scarce resource: himself. He
is the only person who can produce a Jay-Z album. He has just
finished recording his latest CD. His record company’s marketing
department determines that the demand for the CD is as follows:
Number of CDs
|
Price
|
|
|
|
|
0
|
$24
|
|
|
|
|
3,000
|
20
|
|
|
|
|
6,000
|
16
|
|
|
|
|
9,000
|
12
|
|
|
|
|
12,000
|
8
|
|
|
|
|
15,000
|
4
|
|
|
|
|
18,000
|
0
|
|
|
|
|
The company can produce CD’s with $20,000 fixed cost and a
constant marginal cost of $12 per CD.
- What price would Jay-Z charge for a CD to maximize profit? How
many CDs will be sold at this price? (5 points)
- Suppose that the government is concerned with economic
efficiency and has the power to regulate prices. What price would
the government make Jay-Z charge for the CD? How much profit would
Jay-Z make at this price? (10 points)
- Graph marginal revenue, marginal cost, demand, and average
total cost (ATC). Calculate the size of the deadweight loss. (10
points)
- The rap music industry is monopolistically competitive with
many artists producing rap albums every year. Given information in
the table above, is the industry in the long-run equilibrium? Will
this industry experience entry or exit? Will the price of rap
albums rise, fall, or stay the same? Briefly explain your answer.
(5 points)