A summary of the macroeconomic Rofiq, Irawanperwanda

Q 1. Define the following terms:

(a). Microeconomics

Microeconomics is the study of decisions that people and businesses make regarding the

allocation of resources and prices of goods and services. This means also taking into account

taxes and regulations created by governments. Microeconomics focuses on supply and demand

and other forces that determine the price levels seen in the economy. For example,

microeconomics would look at how a specific company could maximize it's production and

capacity so it could lower prices and better compete in its industry.

(b). Macroeconomics

Macroeconomics is the field of economics that studies the behavior of the economy as a whole

and not just on specific companies, but entire industries and economies. This looks at economy-

wide phenomena, such as Gross National Product (GDP) and how it is affected by changes in

unemployment, national income, rate of growth, and price levels. For example,

macroeconomics would look at how an increase/decrease in net exports would affect a nation's

capital account or how GDP would be affected by unemployment rate.

(c). Excess Demand

Excess demand is created when price is set below the equilibrium price. Because the price is so

low, too many consumers want the good while producers are not making enough of it.

In this situation, at price P1, the quantity of goods demanded by consumers at this price is Q2.

Conversely, the quantity of goods that producers are willing to produce at this price is Q1. Thus,

there are too few goods being produced to satisfy the wants (demand) of the consumers.

However, as consumers have to compete with one other to buy the good at this price, the

demand will push the price up, making suppliers want to supply more and bringing the price

closer to its equilibrium.

(d). Consumer’s Surplus

Consumer’s Surplus is the monetary gain obtained by consumers because they are able to

purchase a product for a price that is less than the highest price that they would be willing to

pay. Producer surplus or producers' surplus is the amount that producers benefit by selling at a

market price that is higher than the least that they would be willing to sell for.

(e). Full Employment

Full employment, is the level of employment rates when there is no cyclical unemployment. It is

defined by the majority of mainstream economists as being an acceptable level of natural

unemployment above 0%, the discrepancy from 0% being due to non-cyclical types of

unemployment. Unemployment above 0% is advocated as necessary to control inflation, which

has brought about the concept of the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment

(NAIRU); the majority of mainstream economists mean NAIRU when speaking of "full"

employment.

Full employment in microeconomics is when the economy is employing all of its available

resources. This simply means that the capital goods and capital resources are at their highest

and most efficient within the economy.

Diagram of macroeconomic circulation. LS ≤ LD, is the full employment situation, one in which

the rate of unemployment is zero or negative (corresponding to a labor shortfall).

(f). Government Expenditure

Government Expenditure, includes all government consumption and investment but excludes

transfer payments made by a state. Government acquisition of goods and services for current

use to directly satisfy individual or collective needs of the members of the community is

classed as government final consumption expenditure. Government acquisition of goods and

services intended to create future benefits, such as infrastructure investment or research

spending, is classed as government investment (gross fixed capital formation). Government

expenditures that are not acquisition of goods and services, and instead just represent

transfers of money, such as social security payments, are called transfer payments. The first

two types of government spending, final consumption expenditure and gross capital

formation, together constitute one of the major components of gross domestic product.

Q 3. With appropriate examples, define direct and indirect taxes.

Direct Taxes : Is the tax the government collects directly from the people. These direct taxes

are based on simple ownership or existence. Direct taxes will refer to any levy that is both

imposed and collected on a specific group of people or organizations. An example of direct

taxation would be income taxes that are collected from the people who actually earn their

income.

Indirect Taxes : Is the tax which is levied on one and passed on to others. Indirect taxes are

collected from someone or some organization other than the person or entity that would

normally be responsible for the taxes. A sales tax, for instance, would not be considered a

direct tax because the money is collected from merchants, not from the people who actually

pay the tax (the consumers). Indirect taxes are imposed upon a broad range of abstract ideas,

including rights, privileges, and activities.

In this economic context, the law may actually determine the person or entities from which the tax will

be collected, but has nothing to do with how that tax burden is distributed in the market. Who bears

the economic burden of the tax itself will be determined by market forces and can be calculated by

comparing the price of the goods after the tax has been imposed with the price of the goods prior to

the tax being in place.

Q 5. Using a diagram, explain the perfect competitive firm is in short-run

quilibrium when the market price and the marginal cost are equal.

Perfect competitive firm (sometimes called pure competition) describes markets such that no

participants are large enough to have the market power to set the price of a homogeneous

product. Because the conditions for perfect competition are strict, there are few if any

perfectly competitive markets. Still, buyers and sellers in some auction-type markets, say for

commodities or some financial assets, may approximate the concept. Perfect competition

serves as a benchmark against which to measure real-life and imperfectly competitive

markets.

The short run supply curve for a perfectly competitive firm is the marginal cost (MC) curve at

and above the shutdown point. Portions of the marginal cost curve below the shut down

point are not part of the SR supply curve because the firm is not producing in that range.

Technically the SR supply curve is a discontinuous function composed of the segment of the

MC curve at and above minimum of the average variable cost curve and a segment that runs

with the vertical axis from the origin to but not including a point "parallel" to minimum

average variable costs.

In the short run, it is possible for an individual firm to make an economic profit. This situation

is shown in this diagram, as the price or average revenue, denoted by P, is above the average

cost denoted by C .

In a perfectly competitive firm's demand curve is perfectly elastic. As mentioned above, the perfect

competition model, if interpreted as applying also to short-period or very-short-period behaviour, is

approximated only by markets of homogeneous products produced and purchased by very many

sellers and buyers, usually organized markets for agricultural products or raw materials. In real-world

markets, assumptions such as perfect information cannot be verified and are only approximated in

organized double-auction markets where most agents wait and observe the behaviour of prices before

deciding to exchange (but in the long-period interpretation perfect information is not necessary, the

analysis only aims at determining the average around which market prices gravitate, and for gravitation

to operate one does not need perfect information).

However, in the long period, economic profit cannot be sustained. The arrival of new firms or

expansion of existing firms (if returns to scale are constant) in the market causes the

(horizontal) demand curve of each individual firm to shift downward, bringing down at the

same time the price, the average revenue and marginal revenue curve. The final outcome is

that, in the long run, the firm will make only normal profit (zero economic profit). Its horizontal

demand curve will touch its average total cost curve at its lowest point. (See cost curve.)

In the absence of externalities and public goods, perfectly competitive equilibria are Pareto-efficient,

i.e. no improvement in the utility of a consumer is possible without a worsening of the utility of some

other consumer. This is called the First Theorem of Welfare Economics. The basic reason is that no

productive factor with a non-zero marginal product is left unutilized, and the units of each factor are so

allocated as to yield the same indirect marginal utility in all uses, a basic efficiency condition (if this

indirect marginal utility were higher in one use than in other ones, a Pareto improvement could be

achieved by transferring a small amount of the factor to the use where it yields a higher marginal

utility).

A simple proof assuming differentiable utility functions and production functions is the following. Let wj

be the 'price' (the rental) of a certain factor j, let MPj1 and MPj2 be its marginal product in the

production of goods 1 and 2, and let p1 and p2 be these goods' prices. In equilibrium these prices must

equal the respective marginal costs MC1 and MC2; remember that marginal cost equals factor 'price'

divided by factor marginal productivity (because increasing the production of good by one very small

unit through an increase of the employment of factor j requires increasing the factor employment by

1/MPji and thus increasing the cost by wj/MPji, and through the condition of cost minimization that

marginal products must be proportional to factor 'prices' it can be shown that the cost increase is the

same if the output increase is obtained by optimally varying all factors). Optimal factor employment by

a price-taking firm requires equality of factor rental and factor marginal revenue product, wj=piMPji, so

we obtain p1=MC1=wj/MPj1, p2=MCj2=wj/MPj2.

Now choose any consumer purchasing both goods, and measure his utility in such units that in

equilibrium his marginal utility of money (the increase in utility due to the last unit of money spent on

each good), MU1/p1=MU2/p2, is 1. Then p1=MU1, p2=MU2. The indirect marginal utility of the factor is

the increase in the utility of our consumer achieved by an increase in the employment of the factor by

one (very small) unit; this increase in utility through allocating the small increase in factor utilization to

good 1 is MPj1MU1=MPj1p1=wj, and through allocating it to good 2 it is MPj2MU2=MPj2p2=wj again. With

our choice of units the marginal utility of the amount of the factor consumed directly by the optimizing

consumer is again w, so the amount supplied of the factor too satisfies the condition of optimal

allocation.

Monopoly violates this optimal allocation condition, because in a monopolized industry market price is

above marginal cost, and this means that factors are underutilized in the monopolized industry, they

have a higher indirect marginal utility than in their uses in competitive industries. Of course this

theorem is considered irrelevant by economists who do not believe that general equilibrium theory

correctly predicts the functioning of market economies; but it is given great importance by neoclassical

economists and it is the theoretical reason given by them for combating monopolies and for antitrust

legislation.

Q 6. Elaborate the effects of inflation on household, firms, and the Government.

The term "inflation" originally referred to increases in the amount of money in circulation, and some

economists still use the word in this way. However, most economists today use the term "inflation" to

refer to a rise in the price level. An increase in the money supply may be called monetary inflation, to

distinguish it from rising prices, which may also for clarity be called 'price inflation'. Economists

generally agree that in the long run, inflation is caused by increases in the money supply.

Effects of inflation rates are regarded as harmful to an overall economy. They add

inefficiencies in the market, and make it difficult for companies or firm to budget or plan

long-term.

Inflation can act as a drag on household and productivity as companies are forced to shift

resources away from products and services in order to focus on profit and losses from

currency inflation. Uncertainty about the future purchasing power of money discourages

investment and saving.

In the Government, inflation can impose hidden tax increases, as inflated earnings push

taxpayers into higher income tax rates unless the tax brackets are indexed to inflation.

With high inflation, purchasing power is redistributed from those on fixed nominal incomes, such as

some pensioners whose pensions are not indexed to the price level, towards those with variable

incomes whose earnings may better keep pace with the inflation. This redistribution of purchasing

power will also occur between international trading partners. Where fixed exchange rates are imposed,

higher inflation in one economy than another will cause the first economy's exports to become more

expensive and affect the balance of trade. There can also be negative impacts to trade from an

increased instability in currency exchange prices caused by unpredictable inflation.

High inflation can prompt employees to demand rapid wage increases, to keep up with consumer

prices. In the cost-push theory of inflation, rising wages in turn can help fuel inflation. In the case of

collective bargaining, wage growth will be set as a function of inflationary expectations, which will be

higher when inflation is high. This can cause a wage spiral. In a sense, inflation begets further

inflationary expectations, which beget further inflation.

Q 7. Distinguish between monopoly and perfect competitive market

caracteristics ( see the producers, products, buyers, etc.)

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity

(this contrasts with a monopsony which relates to a single entity's control of a market to purchase a

good or service, and with oligopoly which consists of a few entities dominating an industry).

Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce the good or service

and a lack of viable substitute goods. The verb "monopolize" refers to the process by which a

company gains the ability to raise prices or exclude competitors. In economics, a monopoly is a single

seller. In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power, to

charge high prices. Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a

monopoly. A small business may still have the power to raise prices in a small industry (or market).

Characteristics :

Profit Maximizer: Maximizes profits. Price Maker: Decides the price of the good or product to be sold. High Barriers to Entry: Other sellers are unable to enter the market of the monopoly. Single seller: In a monopoly, there is one seller of the good that produces all the output.[5]

Therefore, the whole market is being served by a single company, and for practical purposes, the company is the same as the industry.

Price Discrimination: A monopolist can change the price and quality of the product. He sells more quantities charging less price for the product in a very elastic market and sells less quantities charging high price in a less elastic market.

Perfect Competitive Market (sometimes called pure competition) describes markets such that no

participants are large enough to have the market power to set the price of a homogeneous product.

Because the conditions for perfect competition are strict, there are few if any perfectly competitive

markets. Still, buyers and sellers in some auction-type markets, say for commodities or some financial

assets, may approximate the concept. Perfect competition serves as a benchmark against which to

measure real-life and imperfectly competitive markets.

Generally, a perfectly competitive market exists when every participant is a "price taker", and no participant influences the price of the product it buys or sells.

Characteristics :

Infinite buyers and sellers – An infinite number of consumers with the willingness and ability to buy the product at a certain price, and infinite producers with the willingness and ability to supply the product at a certain price.

Zero entry and exit barriers – A lack of entry and exit barriers makes it extremely easy to enter or exit a perfectly competitive market.

Perfect factor mobility – In the long run factors of production are perfectly mobile, allowing free long term adjustments to changing market conditions.

Perfect information - All consumers and producers are assumed to have perfect knowledge of price, utility, quality and production methods of products.

Zero transaction costs - Buyers and sellers do not incur costs in making an exchange of goods in a perfectly competitive market.

Profit maximization - Firms are assumed to sell where marginal costs meet marginal revenue, where the most profit is generated.

Homogenous products - The qualities and characteristics of a market good or service do not vary between different suppliers.

Non-increasing returns to scale - The lack of increasing returns to scale (or economies of scale) ensures that there will always be a sufficient number of firms in the industry.

Property rights - Well defined property rights determine what may be sold, as well as what rights are conferred on the buyer.

In the short run, perfectly-competitive markets are not productively efficient as output will not occur where marginal cost is equal to average cost (MC=AC). They are allocatively efficient, as output will always occur where marginal cost is equal to marginal revenue (MC=MR). In the long run, perfectly competitive markets are both allocatively and productively efficient.

In perfect competition, any profit-maximizing producer faces a market price equal to its marginal cost (P=MC). This implies that a factor's price equals the factor's marginal revenue product. It allows for derivation of the supply curve on which the neoclassical approach is based. This is also the reason why "a monopoly does not have a supply curve". The abandonment of price taking creates considerable difficulties for the demonstration of a general equilibrium except under other, very specific conditions such as that of monopolistic competition.

Monopoly versus Perfect Competitive Markets

While monopoly and perfect competition mark the extremes of market structures there is some similarity. The cost functions are the same.[16] Both monopolies and perfectly competitive companies minimize cost and maximize profit. The shutdown decisions are the same. Both are assumed to have perfectly competitive factors markets. There are distinctions, some of the more important of which are as follows:

Marginal revenue and price: In a perfectly competitive market, price equals marginal cost. In a monopolistic market, however, price is set above marginal cost.

Product differentiation: There is zero product differentiation in a perfectly competitive market. Every product is perfectly homogeneous and a perfect substitute for any other. With a monopoly, there is great to absolute product differentiation in the sense that there is no available substitute for a monopolized good. The monopolist is the sole supplier of the good in question. A customer either buys from the monopolizing entity on its terms or does without.

Number of competitors: PC markets are populated by an infinite number of buyers and sellers. Monopoly involves a single seller.

Barriers to Entry: Barriers to entry are factors and circumstances that prevent entry into market by would-be competitors and limit new companies from operating and expanding within the market. PC markets have free entry and exit. There are no barriers to entry, exit or competition. Monopolies have relatively high barriers to entry. The barriers must be strong enough to prevent or discourage any potential competitor from entering the market.

Elasticity of Demand: The price elasticity of demand is the percentage change of demand caused by a one percent change of relative price. A successful monopoly would have a relatively inelastic demand curve. A low coefficient of elasticity is indicative of effective barriers to entry. A PC company has a perfectly elastic demand curve. The coefficient of elasticity for a perfectly competitive demand curve is infinite.

Excess Profits: Excess or positive profits are profit more than the normal expected return on investment. A PC company can make excess profits in the short term but excess profits attract competitors, which can enter the market freely and decrease prices, eventually reducing excess profits to zero. A monopoly can preserve excess profits because barriers to entry prevent competitors from entering the market.

Profit Maximization: A PC company maximizes profits by producing such that price equals marginal costs. A monopoly maximises profits by producing where marginal revenue equals marginal costs. The rules are not equivalent. The demand curve for a PC company is perfectly elastic – flat. The demand curve is identical to the average revenue curve and the price line. Since the average revenue curve is constant the marginal revenue curve is also constant and

equals the demand curve, Average revenue is the same as price (AR = TR/Q = P x Q/Q = P). Thus the price line is also identical to the demand curve. In sum, D = AR = MR = P.

P-Max quantity, price and profit: If a monopolist obtains control of a formerly perfectly competitive industry, the monopolist would increase prices, reduce production, and realise positive economic profits.

Supply Curve: in a perfectly competitive market there is a well defined supply function with a one to one relationship between price and quantity supplied.[23] In a monopolistic market no such supply relationship exists. A monopolist cannot trace a short term supply curve because for a given price there is not a unique quantity supplied. As Pindyck and Rubenfeld note a change in demand "can lead to changes in prices with no change in output, changes in output with no change in price or both".[24] Monopolies produce where marginal revenue equals marginal costs. For a specific demand curve the supply "curve" would be the price/quantity combination at the point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. If the demand curve shifted the marginal revenue curve would shift as well and a new equilibrium and supply "point" would be established. The locus of these points would not be a supply curve in any conventional sense.

The most significant distinction between a PC company and a monopoly is that the monopoly has a downward-sloping demand curve rather than the "perceived" perfectly elastic curve of the PC company. Practically all the variations above mentioned relate to this fact. If there is a downward-sloping demand curve then by necessity there is a distinct marginal revenue curve. The implications of this fact are best made manifest with a linear demand curve. Assume that the inverse demand curve is of the form x = a − by. Then the total revenue curve is TR = ay − by2 and the marginal revenue curve is thus MR = a − 2by. From this several things are evident. First the marginal revenue curve has the same y intercept as the inverse demand curve. Second the slope of the marginal revenue curve is twice that of the inverse demand curve. Third the x intercept of the marginal revenue curve is half that of the inverse demand curve. What is not quite so evident is that the marginal revenue curve is below the inverse demand curve at all points. Since all companies maximise profits by equating MR and MC it must be the case that at the profit-maximizing quantity MR and MC are less than price, which further implies that a monopoly produces less quantity at a higher price than if the market were perfectly competitive.

The fact that a monopoly has a downward-sloping demand curve means that the relationship between total revenue and output for a monopoly is much different than that of competitive companies. Total revenue equals price times quantity. A competitive company has a perfectly elastic demand curve meaning that total revenue is proportional to output. Thus the total revenue curve for a competitive company is a ray with a slope equal to the market price. A competitive company can sell all the output it desires at the market price. For a monopoly to increase sales it must reduce price. Thus the total revenue curve for a monopoly is a parabola that begins at the origin and reaches a maximum value then continuously decreases until total revenue is again zero. Total revenue has its maximum value when the slope of the total revenue function is zero. The slope of the total revenue function is marginal revenue. So the revenue maximizing quantity and price occur when MR = 0. For example assume that the monopoly’s demand function is P = 50 − 2Q. The total revenue function would be TR = 50Q − 2Q2 and marginal revenue would be 50 − 4Q. Setting marginal revenue equal to zero we have

1. 50 − 4Q = 0 2. −4Q = −50 3. Q = 12.5

So the revenue maximizing quantity for the monopoly is 12.5 units and the revenue maximizing price is 25.

A company with a monopoly does not experience price pressure from competitors, although it may experience pricing pressure from potential competition. If a company increases prices too much, then others may enter the market if they are able to provide the same good, or a substitute, at a lesser price.[31] The idea that monopolies in markets with easy entry need not be regulated against is known as the "revolution in monopoly theory".

A monopolist can extract only one premium, and getting into complementary markets does not pay. That is, the total profits a monopolist could earn if it sought to leverage its monopoly in one market by monopolizing a complementary market are equal to the extra profits it could earn anyway by charging more for the monopoly product itself. However, the one monopoly profit theorem is not true if customers in the monopoly good are stranded or poorly informed, or if the tied good has high fixed costs.

A pure monopoly has the same economic rationality of perfectly competitive companies, i.e. to optimise a profit function given some constraints. By the assumptions of increasing marginal costs, exogenous inputs' prices, and control concentrated on a single agent or entrepreneur, the optimal decision is to equate the marginal cost and marginal revenue of production. Nonetheless, a pure monopoly can – unlike a competitive company – alter the market price for its own convenience: a decrease of production results in a higher price. In the economics' jargon, it is said that pure monopolies have "a downward-sloping demand". An important consequence of such behaviour is worth noticing: typically a monopoly selects a higher price and lesser quantity of output than a price-taking company; again, less is available at a higher price.

Q 8. Should a competitive firm continue its production when it is loosing

money. Why or why not?. Give your reasons and show the shutdown

point in appropriate graph.

In the short run, a firm operating at a loss [R < TC (revenue less than total cost) or P < ATC (price less than unit cost)] must decide whether to continue to operate or temporarily shutdown. The shutdown rule states "in the short run a firm should continue to operate if price exceeds average variable costs." Restated, the rule is that for a firm to continue producing in the short run it must earn sufficient revenue to cover its variable costs. The rationale for the rule is straightforward. By shutting down a firm avoids all variable costs. However, the firm must still pay fixed costs. Because fixed cost must be paid regardless of whether a firm operates they should not be considered in deciding whether to produce or shutdown. Thus in determining whether to shut down a firm should compare total revenue to total variable costs (VC) rather than total costs (FC + VC). If the revenue the firm is receiving is greater than its total variable cost (R > VC) then the firm is covering all variable cost plus there is additional revenue ("contribution"), which can be applied to fixed costs. (The size of the fixed costs is irrelevant as it is a sunk cost. The same consideration is used whether fixed costs are one dollar or one million dollars.) On the other hand if VC > R then the firm is not even covering its production costs and it should immediately shut down. The rule is conventionally stated in terms of price (average revenue) and average variable costs. The rules are equivalent (If you divide both sides of inequality TR > TVC by Q gives P > AVC). If the firm decides to operate, the firm will continue to produce where marginal revenue equals marginal costs because these conditions insure not only profit maximization (loss minimization) but also maximum contribution.

Another way to state the rule is that a firm should compare the profits from operating to those realized if it shutdown and select the option that produces the greater profit. A firm that is shutdown is generating zero revenue and incurring no variable costs. However, the firm still has to pay fixed cost. So the firm's profit equals fixed costs or −FC. An operating firm is generating revenue, incurring variable costs and paying fixed costs. The operating firm's profit is R − VC − FC. The firm should continue to operate if R − VC − FC ≥ −FC, which simplified is R ≥ VC. The difference between revenue, R, and variable costs, VC, is the contribution to fixed costs and any contribution is better than none. Thus, if R ≥ VC then firm should operate. If R < VC the firm should shut down.

A decision to shut down means that the firm is temporarily suspending production. It does not mean that the firm is going out of business (exiting the industry). If market conditions improve, and prices increase, the firm can resume production. Shutting down is a short-run decision. A firm that has shut down is not producing. The firm still retains its capital assets; however, the firm cannot leave the industry or avoid its fixed costs in the short run. Exit is a long-term decision. A firm that has exited an industry has avoided all commitments and freed all capital for use in more profitable enterprises.

However, a firm cannot continue to incur losses indefinitely. In the long run, the firm will have to earn sufficient revenue to cover all its expenses and must decide whether to continue in business or to leave the industry and pursue profits elsewhere. The long-run decision is based on the relationship of the price and long-run average costs. If P ≥ AC then the firm will not exit the industry. If P < AC, then the firm will exit the industry. These comparisons will be made after the firm has made the necessary and feasible long-term adjustments. In the long run a firm operates where marginal revenue equals long-run marginal costs.

Q 9. Base on the data available below, calculate MP and MR if the Price of

output is IDR 0.50 for each unit.

Employees Total

(Labor) Product

0 0

1 10

3 35

5 40

6 42

Calculate of MP

MP = ∆P/∆L

Qty of Labor (∆L)

TP (∆Q) ∆P MP

0 0 - 10

1 10 10 12.5

3 35 11.67 2.5

5 40 8 2

6 42 7 7

Calculate of MR

MR = ∆TR/∆Q

IDR=0.50/pcs

Qty of Product (∆Q)

∆TR MR

0 0 0.5

10 5 0.5

35 17.5 0.5

40 20 0.5

42 21 0.5