Chapter 14: Q. 14 (page 350)
What is a perfectly competitive labor market?
Short Answer
In a completely competitive labor market, businesses can hire as many people as they want at the going market wage.
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Chapter 14: Q. 14 (page 350)
What is a perfectly competitive labor market?
In a completely competitive labor market, businesses can hire as many people as they want at the going market wage.
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Are unions and technological improvements complementary? Why or why not?
Would you expect the presence of labor unions to lead to higher or lower pay for worker-members? Would you expect a higher or lower quantity of workers hired by those employers? Explain briefly.
Table 14.11 shows levels of employment (Labor), the marginal product at each of those levels, and a monopoly’s marginal revenue.
| Labor | Marginal product of labor | Price of the product |
| 1 | 10 | \(10 |
| 2 | 8 | \)7 |
| 3 | 7 | \(5 |
| 4 | 5 | \)4 |
| 5 | 3 | \(2 |
| 6 | 1 | \)1 |
a. What is the monopoly’s marginal revenue product at each level of employment?
b. If the monopoly operates in a perfectly competitive labor market where the going market wage is $20, what is the firm’s profit maximizing level of employment?
Table 14.12 shows the quantity demanded and supplied in the labor market for driving city buses in the town of Unionville, where all the bus drivers belong to a union.
| Wage per hour | Quantity of workers demanded | Quantity of workers supplied |
| \(14 | 12,000 | 6,000 |
| \)16 | 10,000 | 7,000 |
| \(18 | 8,000 | 8,000 |
| \)20 | 6,000 | 9,000 |
| \(22 | 4,000 | 10,000 |
| \)24 | 2,000 | 11,000 |
Table 14.10 shows levels of employment (Labor), the marginal product at each of those levels, and the price at which the firm can sell output in the perfectly competitive market where it operates.
| Labor | Marginal product of Labor | Price of the product |
| 1 | 10 | \(4 |
| 2 | 8 | \)4 |
| 3 | 7 | \(4 |
| 4 | 5 | \)4 |
| 5 | 3 | \(4 |
| 6 | 1 | \)4 |
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