Edexcel Economics: Unit 3 Business Economics and Economic Efficiency (June 2014) EC03

YES! In previous MCQs about vertical mergers they would have firms that deal with completely different (but obviously related) things such as coal mining to create steel, or say cotton farming to make clothes. MILK FOR MILK?! It just makes it much harder to distinguish and those who got the wrong answer don't necessarily know any less about mergers, we should get 3/4 marks I think :/
then again, maybe we deserve it for not reading it thoroughly enough

Would it be viable to talk about just non-price strategies for the 16 marker? As price strategies may not be sensible because it's in oligopoly. I did 3 examples which were separate enough from each other.

I completely agree - it's so frustrating! I don't think 3/4 marks would be possible :/ the examiners are cruel and will only accept one correct answer and not allow two to be correct even though the wording of the question was awful :'( hopefully 2 marks are still possible for defining and eliminating other options.. I can imagine in the examiner report it will say something like "Students found this question particularly challenging but it was quite an obvious and easy question"

I managed to get a fifth point in about giving free gifts away the chewing gum. ������

The question had wording something along the lines of "A dairy product firm(food product firm) uses milk in its production. Welsh milk sells milk. Dairy product firm merges with Welsh milk. What is the reason for this?" And the uses milk part was signifying milk is raw material...

Stop crying over 'poor phrasing' of the first question, exams are not meant to be obvious. The question clearly stated that the firm "uses a large amount of milk in its production of dairy produce" (along those lines), suggesting that it was backwards vertical integration.

How do you know the guy on the examining team?


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If you put the definition of Oligopoly as a 'market with a few large interdependent firms dominating the market' and forget to mention high entry/exit barriers, will you lose marks?

If you put the definition of Oligopoly as a 'market with a few large interdependent firms dominating the market' and forget to mention high entry/exit barriers, will you lose marks?

Yes agreed and obviously they would need milk to produce their goods as they produce dairy products, but there was a wording about the question that didn't make this clear enough - the question (to me at least) made it feel like these milk sellers would go on to sell the products of the dairy company. On reflection it does make more sense to be backward vertically integrated but the poor or confusing wording threw me.

For the question 9 8 marker I put

Definition of patents: legal right or protection to produce a product or an idea/concept which acts as an incentive to invest and acts as a barrier to entry. And this is for a set period of time

Benefit one: there's an incentive to invest as it's an exclusive right to produce the product and reap the benefits etc....

Evaluation: creates a monopoly as the parent is a barrier to entry for other firm so there is a sole supplier which could lead to exploitation of consumers higher prices and reduced consumer surplus etc....

Benefit two: they have a set period of time to gain economies of scale and become larger to be able to produce at a lower price etc...

And I didn't really evaluate not that I can remember properly anyway
How many marks do people think that'll get me?

For real though, if you didn't find that paper real easy I'd be very concerned. Edexcel must have been in a good mood and decided to gift every 80 UMS. Bring on Unit 4, can't wait to get 100% again

hey, for question 10c is it not right to put internet as inelastic because of the increased demand and therefore setting the price higher made sense and then highstreet shops as elastic?

it will more than likely be split 4 KAA and 4 Eval, so you will get the 4KAA and 2eval but if you did evaluate the last point even with just a valid piont you could squeeze another mark

it will more than likely be split 4 KAA and 4 Eval, so you will get the 4KAA and 2eval but if you did evaluate the last point even with just a valid piont you could squeeze another mark