Market Structure, Competition, Production, & Pricing

Descussion questions

1. Relate the law of diminishing returns to a firm's short-run production costs. Why is this important for a business decision-maker?
2. Explain the difference between short and long run. Why is this important to understand for a business decision-maker?  

3. Distinguish between accounting profit, economic profit, and normal profit. Does accounting profit or economic profit determine how entrepreneurs allocate resources between different business ventures? Explain.

4. Please explain the difference between fixed cost and variable cost. Why are they important to management? 

5. List the basic characteristics of pure competition, pure monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly. 

6. Strictly speaking, pure competition is relatively rare. Then why study it? Please explain. 

7. What is a sunk costs? Please provide an example. Why is this important? 

8. Explain the differences between constant-cost, increasing-cost, and decreasing cost industries.