!!Please Read!!
The Problem Set is due in 6 hours. Total of 3 Questions
1. Decide whether each of the following statements is True, False, or Uncertain, and give a brief but clear explanation why.
a. Due to particularly warm summer in Massachusetts, demand for air conditioners has increased for any given price. The upward-sloping supply curve has stayed unchanged.
Producer surplus will increase.
b. The long-run supply of rental apartments is upward sloping. A rent control policy that lowers rents below the free-market level will result in deadweight loss in the long run.
2. An econometric analysis of gasoline price data provided the following demand estimates, where log represents the natural logarithm:
Short run: log Qgasoline = 5 0.08 log Pgasoline
Long run: log Qgasoline = 5 0.6 log Pgasoline
a. -0.08 is the short-run price elasticity of demand for gasoline. What does this mean in words?
b. Does it make sense that the long-run elasticity is different from the short-run elasticity?
c. What does this imply for the volatility of gasoline prices in the short-run vs. the long run in response to oil price shocks?
3. In the competitive market for gasoline in Newton, supply and demand are given by:
Qd = 4 (1/3)*P
Qs = -1 + P
where Q is the number of thousands of gallons per day, and P is the price per gallon in dollars
a) Calculate the consumer surplus and producer surplus at the equilibrium.
b) Now, suppose that the government subsidizes gasoline by paying retailers $1.00 for each gallon sold.
What will be the new equilibrium price paid by consumers and quantity bought?
Calculate the deadweight loss, if any.
