If a nonbinding price ceiling is imposed on a market, then the :
a. price in the market will decrease.
b. price in the market will increase.
c. quantity sold in the market will decrease.
d. quantity sold in the market will stay the same.

Suppose that kenji, an economist from an am talk radio program, and lucia, an economist from a school of industrial relations, are arguing over health insurance. the following dialogue shows an excerpt from their debate: lucia: a popular topic for debate among politicians as well as economists is the idea of providing government assistance for health benefits. kenji: i think it is oppressive for the government to tax people who take care of themselves in order to pay for health insurance for those who are obese. lucia: i disagree. i think government funding of health insurance is useful to ensure basic fairness. the disagreement between these economists is most likely due to . despite their differences, with which proposition are two economists chosen at random most likely to agree? lawyers make up an excessive percentage of elected officials. minimum wage laws do more to harm low-skilled workers than them. tariffs and import quotas generally reduce economic welfare.

Aprice ceiling is “binding” if the price ceiling is set below the equilibrium price. suppose that the equilibrium price is $5. if a price ceiling is set at $6, this will not affect the market in any way since $5 remains a legally allowable price (since $5 < $6). a price ceiling of $6 is called a “non-binding” price ceiling. on the other hand, if the price ceiling is set at $4, the price ceiling is “binding” because the natural equilibrium price is $5 but that is no longer allowed. what happens when there is a binding price ceiling? at a price below the equilibrium price, quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied. there is a shortage. normally, price increases eliminate shortages by increasing quantity supplied and decreasing quantity demanded. in this case, however, price increases are not allowed past the price ceiling. we therefore predict that the observed market price will be right at the price ceiling and there will be a permanent shortage. the observed quantity bought and sold will be dictated by the quantity supplied at the price ceiling. although consumers would like to buy more, there are no more units for sale

Suppose a firm faces a fixed price of output, 푝푝= 1200. the firm hires workers from a union at a daily wage, 푤푤, to produce output according to the production function 푞푞= 2퐸퐸12. there are 225 workers in the union. any union worker who does not work for this firm is guaranteed to find nonunion employment at a wage of $96 per day. a.what is the firm’s labor demand function? b.if the firm is allowed to choose 푤푤, but then the union decides how many workers to provide (up to 225) at that wage, what wage will the firm set? how many workers will the union provide? what is the firm’s output and profit? what is the total income of the 225 union workers? c.now suppose that the union sets the wage, but the firm decides how many workers to hire at that wage (up to 225). what wage will the union set to maximize the total income of all 225 workers? how many workers will the firm hire? what is the firm’s output and profit? what is the total income of the 225 union workers? [hint: to maximize total income of union, take the first order condition with respect to w and set equal to 0.]