AQA A2 Economics Unit 3 - 12th June 2012 PM

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Out of interest, but I did the oligopoly question and it was slightly different to what I thought it would be. It asked to explain why oligopolistic firms are affected by interdependence and uncertainty in selling products, not how they are affected. Am I imagining things?

Reply 521

sweetascandy

Original post by scottb3scott

I did the question on environmental market failure and oligopoly.

I made points on:
-Quota- restricts supply to a socially optimum level but decreases supply so there is government failure.
- Tax- Decreases supply to a socially optimum level, but if demand is inelastic there will be government failure.
- Pollution permits- pollution permits only charge inefficient firms whereas a tax doesn't matter how efficient a firm is its the same regardless of how much they pollute. Government failure might occur if they are overgenerous with allowable pollution.

So overall pollution permits are the best option as they provide the best incentive for efficiency. They're the least likely too cause government failure. In the long term government will be able to issue a better amount of allowable pollution once they understand what is an acceptable level.

Can someone please say what they think I've got?

But the essay question for context 1 asked you to assess the impact on UK businesses of reducing pollution, so it was a bit different to how the previous ones have just been about different ways to reduce pollution. Anyhow, I wrote about taxing, pollution permits and extending property rights (I had some good evaluation points for this one :p:

), but the only thing I could think to write about firms, was that it would increase costs for them.
What did other people right about the impact on firms?

Original post by tonymanny

1.7 was the first data response

Original post by SM94

Cheers, 5 marks then :smile:

How did you guys get this answer? I don't remember what I got but I remember what I did - I divided Uk's production by the TOTAL of all the other countries (including UK and including the value for "world")... PLEASE tell me you guys did this as well? I wasn;t sure whether or not to include the value of world there, but I did :dontknow:

Original post by Stabilopink

Did anyone do the small and large firms essay question? I have no idea whether what I wrote was relevant!

Haha, I know I'm having the same feelings. Mine was soo rushed.

I wrote about how large firms can make supernormal profit in monopolies and charge high prices and not be allocatively efficient. I said that oligopolies could collude and restrict output and not be productively efficient, however they can collaborate and benefit from EOS an be productively efficient. (don't think I explained this point that well though!). The thing is, I only wrote like 1 sentence on how smaller firms can innovate and benefit from technological change (wtf?) and lower costs for themselves :s:

Is that alright? :l

What do you guys think?

Reply 522

ninegrandstudent

Original post by Jiytt

Hey bud, I did Laffer curve for poverty to show disincentivizing effect of high marginal tax rates, and NMW diagram to show unemployment. Didnt do diagrams for CBA. Mind checking out my post above and telling me what you think about the CBA answer? You sound like you know your sh*t

Pahaha, I'm just blagging my way through my exams, got no clue really!

Hmm, forgot about the Laffer curve...I managed to get Lorenz and the Gini co-efficicient in, the poverty trap triangle, and I didn't get chance to do the minimum wage diagram - sort of regret that I skipped over that a bit :')

For your CBA stuff, looks good, you got some great evaluation points in there by the sounds of it:
- Whats the Hicks-Caldor test? I did my whole EPQ based on economic evaluation and equity and never discovered this :s-smilie:

- I'd have said snow fall to that extent wasn't common (once a year) so large investment and its not proven we'd get that every year - but as long as you argue your point I don't suppose it matters!

But yeah, your answer looks good. I managed to get in valuing a human life, in terms of people not getting to hospital, cold weather effects, with evaluation being that these are more likely to be the elderly (suspectible to cold) and thus their life could be valued lower than others as theirs no potential wages being lost (obviously huge equity issue). My conclusion was something on the lines of it could be used to evaluate this investment (due to divergence of private and social benefits) but it should be taken with a 'pinch of salt' and treated with caution due to moral judgments and potential inaccuracy.

Reply 523

fzzz

Original post by tonymanny

Fzzz? I need 60 Ums for an A as well and did question 1. Im worried now though. cause the 25 marker was bul****? Like u couldnt write anything

Totally agree on the data response the essay on oligopolistic quite easy anyways forcus on econ4 now

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 524

MAPW

Are unemployment and lack of basic education two causes of poverty?

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 525

arz15

Original post by MAPW

Are unemployment and lack of basic education two causes of poverty?

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Yes that should be fine!

Reply 526

Jakeeyy

Original post by MAPW

Are unemployment and lack of basic education two causes of poverty?

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

I did wage differences and unemployment, should be okay though.

Reply 527

theseeker

Is Unemployment and natural disaster ok for cause of poverty?

Reply 528

theseeker

Also, when you talk about do you talk about productive efficiency, allocative, dynamic..etc?

Reply 529

theajd

Original post by theseeker

Is Unemployment and natural disaster ok for cause of poverty?

I done a natural disaster as a cause but I'm not sure its correct

Reply 530

SM94

Original post by sweetascandy

divided 500, the total amount for the uk, by 29300 the total amount for the world

Reply 531

kirino1

goodbye A.. hello clearing..
I did Q1 and CBA but completely blanked out and regret not doing the essay about the big/small firms.
what is my life?!
for CBA i did advantages and disadvantages but had really bad structure.... i need a C in this to get an A overall but im completely bricking it.. have been looking at ucas extra to ease the pain.

Reply 532

M.Abdullahi

For the oligopoly 25 marker the three points I put were:
- Competition Committee and talked about collusion ect...Then used synopsis saying the competition committee are not always effective as they get it wrong sometimes, could cause government failure, e.g regulatory capture.
- I don't know if this is right after reading other posts but I wrote a price ceiling would be effective when it is above equilibrium, although it may be beneficial if it under the equilibrium also as it is still a way of controlling oligopoly activities as it would prevent them from charging higher prices to consumers.
- Couldn't think of a last point so I said about Market Forces 'Markets know best' used a few quotes ect. No government failure but could cause a market failure.

But im not sure about my points, could someone tell me if I had valid points please? I obv developed my points with analysis and synopsis, definitions, graphs ect.

Reply 533

NerdyMcNerdNerd

Big firm small firm question (07 & 08)..

I referred to small firm as if it was a firm in perfect competition and a large firm as if it was a monopoly then compared efficiencies(allocative, productive and X) by using monopoly/PC diagrams.

And spoke about MES and economies of scale.

What else did I miss/did I go down the wrong route?

Also question 04,05,06 did people get like 18.6% for q4?

Reply 534

Super Mario 64

Original post by reecew832

for the poverty 25 marker i found my self using alot of macro did anyone else find this or was i just bullshtting

I used quite a bit too, though it's nice to overlap, they credit you for that. Not too much though!

Reply 535

Super Mario 64

Original post by NerdyMcNerdNerd

Got 18.6% yep :smile:

Actually.. crap, I think I might have rounded it to 18.7% by accident! Ah well

Reply 536

joshadams

Original post by Super Mario 64

Got 18.6% yep :smile:

Actually.. crap, I think I might have rounded it to 18.7% by accident! Ah well

I thought after the exam I might of put 18.7% due to rounding but the actual figure was 18.57... so rounded it was 18.6%, sure you got it right and just subsequently unsure.

Reply 537

Super Mario 64

I can't remember whether I put 18.6% or 18.7%, this is gonna bug all night, throughout the entire summer. Wtf.

Reply 538

nickss

Original post by Super Mario 64

I can't remember whether I put 18.6% or 18.7%, this is gonna bug all night, throughout the entire summer. Wtf.

You'll only loose like 1 mark maximum :tongue:

- I probably lost many more writing a ridiculously confusing version of diminishing returns

Reply 539

joshadams

Original post by M.Abdullahi

I used similar points and think they're all valid as long as well explained. I also used the introduction of a state-subsidised firm to increase competition and encourage efficiency? not sure that's correct though.