[Delta123]

anyone got the January 2012 paper?

[Eddy!]

Just a question on law of increasing/diminishing returns...

In the LR because the firm can expand its scale of production or reduce it mean that diminishing returns to scale and increasing returns to scale don't exist?

[tarek1]

(Original post by Eddy!)
Just a question on law of increasing/diminishing returns...

In the LR because the firm can expand its scale of production or reduce it mean that diminishing returns to scale and increasing returns to scale don't exist?

Yes, in the short run, there is at least one fixed factor of production. Therefore there comes a point where each additional unit of a variable factor will be less effective at increasing output the the previous variable factor, since the fixed factor would be maximised.
In the long however, all factors are variable which prevents this happening. This means the ATC slopes downwards. Although in the long run increase returns to scale could occur where the firm suffers from diseconomies of scale.

[R1Charles]

Has anyone got a model answer for Jan 12 Context B

Using the data and your economic knowledge, evaluate the view that intervention in
the fishing industry by the EU is unlikely to correct market failure but is likely to result in
government failure in both UK product markets and UK labour markets.

I've had a go at it, and analysed the mark scheme but still feel like my answer to it would be very superficial...

Hoping something comes up on enviromental market failure!

[Bright Lights]

For perfect competition, when asked to draw the effect of falling demand, would you go with cost/revenue curves; draw a P-Comp firm with Normal Profit, then shift the AR=MR curve down to show a loss...

Or would you revert to the AS style diagram where Supply is perfectly elastic, so if the demand curve shifts, then nothing happens to the price but the output produced decreases?

any help appreciated thanks

[marmstrong16]

My labour market and inequality knowledge is a bit rusty to say the least, but i'm very confident on all aspects of market structure, price discrimination etc. Do you think its a risky strategy to carry on focussing on just that stuff or should I really try hard to sort out my labour market knowledge?

[Super Mario 64]

(Original post by marmstrong16)
My labour market and inequality knowledge is a bit rusty to say the least, but i'm very confident on all aspects of market structure, price discrimination etc. Do you think its a risky strategy to carry on focussing on just that stuff or should I really try hard to sort out my labour market knowledge?

If you're fine on all your other knowledge, keep revising labour markets. I always say you should be prepared for the very very very worst

[Super Mario 64]

(Original post by Bright Lights)
For perfect competition, when asked to draw the effect of falling demand, would you go with cost/revenue curves; draw a P-Comp firm with Normal Profit, then shift the AR=MR curve down to show a loss...

Or would you revert to the AS style diagram where Supply is perfectly elastic, so if the demand curve shifts, then nothing happens to the price but the output produced decreases?

any help appreciated thanks

You could do that to show for the firm and then show a shift in demand to the left for the entire industry

I don't think you'd ever have to show that though. All you need to know is that in the short run, PC's make a loss or profit but in the long run because there are NO barriers to entry, they always make normal profit

[marmstrong16]

(Original post by Super Mario 64)
If you're fine on all your other knowledge, keep revising labour markets. I always say you should be prepared for the very very very worst

Thanks, i'll be getting on with that. Has there ever been a paper in the past where both possible data response questions are on the labour market? That would be a bit of a nightmare!

[Super Mario 64]

(Original post by marmstrong16)
Thanks, i'll be getting on with that. Has there ever been a paper in the past where both possible data response questions are on the labour market? That would be a bit of a nightmare!

There's never been a context question with the labour market up to now. That's not to say it can't come up tomorrow though.

They've always been on oligopolies, environmental externalities, poverty and monopolies

I'm seriously hoping for environmental externalities and poverty to come up!!!

[marmstrong16]

(Original post by Super Mario 64)
There's never been a context question with the labour market up to now. That's not to say it can't come up tomorrow though.

They've always been on oligopolies, environmental externalities, poverty and monopolies

I'm seriously hoping for environmental externalities and poverty to come up!!!

Very true. I can't say environmental and poverty are my favourite topics, I always struggle to keep the answer to economic theory. I'd like an oligopoly, merger or privatisation question but I know that there have been some like that quite recently. We'll just have to wait and see I suppose!

[Wulf chan]

Does anyone have like a list of all the diagrams we may need?

Of the top of my head I know there's the kinked demand curve for oligopolies that shows the effect of price wars or something, economies of scales (though that's more unit 1 I guess) also the price maximising or cost maximising one. I do not understand that at all isn't it where MC = MB ? i think that's wrong, anyone care to explain? :P

[arz15]

(Original post by marmstrong16)
My labour market and inequality knowledge is a bit rusty to say the least, but i'm very confident on all aspects of market structure, price discrimination etc. Do you think its a risky strategy to carry on focussing on just that stuff or should I really try hard to sort out my labour market knowledge?

My teacher said some colleges don't even teach labour markets to save time and just tell students to avoid those questions. Maybe you could do that?

[Alpha5]

"Assess the economic consequences of rising levels of poverty in the UK?" (25 marks)

[Alpha5]

(Original post by Super Mario 64)
There's never been a context question with the labour market up to now. That's not to say it can't come up tomorrow though.

They've always been on oligopolies, environmental externalities, poverty and monopolies

I'm seriously hoping for environmental externalities and poverty to come up!!!

yeah, environmental pollution, poverty and olig/mon-opoly with contestablity are the best questions to do. Its easy to evaluate and score highly.
Labour markets has come up in Jan 11 question 06 in context b and Jan 12 question 06 context b. So its safe to say it will by pass up. I just hope the context is good!

[Super Mario 64]

(Original post by Wulf chan)
Does anyone have like a list of all the diagrams we may need?

Of the top of my head I know there's the kinked demand curve for oligopolies that shows the effect of price wars or something, economies of scales (though that's more unit 1 I guess) also the price maximising or cost maximising one. I do not understand that at all isn't it where MC = MB ? i think that's wrong, anyone care to explain? :P

The profit maximising point is where marginal revenue is equal to marginal cost. MC=MR

When MC>MR, it is not beneficial to keep producing because the cost of producing one more unit is greater than the revenue it will bring in.
When MC<MR, it is still beneficial to keep producing because the revenue that the extra unit will bring in is greater than the cost of producing it.

[Super Mario 64]

(Original post by Alpha5)
"Assess the economic consequences of rising levels of poverty in the UK?" (25 marks)

Is that a real essay question?

It sounds like it should be a 15 mark question 'Explain' instead of 'Assess'

The economic consequences of poverty are always bad haha.

[Bright Lights]

(Original post by Super Mario 64)
You could do that to show for the firm and then show a shift in demand to the left for the entire industry

I don't think you'd ever have to show that though. All you need to know is that in the short run, PC's make a loss or profit but in the long run because there are NO barriers to entry, they always make normal profit

Cool
Yeah, you'd never include it in a 25 marker, sure, but there was a 10-marker in June 2010 that asked you to do this ... not that it'll probably ever come up again. But thanks anyway!

[_becca]

(Original post by Wulf chan)
Does anyone have like a list of all the diagrams we may need?

-Long run AC curve
-Monopoly
-Deadweight loss
-Perfect competition
-Kinked demand curve
-Collusion/cartel
-Price discrimination
-Labour supply curve (competitive market)
-Individual supply curve
-Discrimination of labour
-Monopsonistic labour market
-Lorenz curve
-Laffer curve


edit: if you want a copy of them all with notes I can send you them x

[Bright Lights]

REALLY hoping for a privatisation vs nationalisation question, maybe a monopoly/oligopoly context... and I've heard TU's are a strong rumour, so I'm going to brush up on imperfectly competitive labour markets, NMW, wage differentials now.

If externalities come up then all I can do is use my rusty AS knowledge from the past :/ and CBA would be crap... not because its hard, but after all this revision it would be the biggest let-down.

In other news, when we talk about utility industries my mind immediately goes to gas/electricity/water... are rail/telecoms also "utility" industries, and are there any others I've missed out?