Robert's New Way Vacuum Cleaner Company is a newly started small business that produces vacuum cleaners and belongs to a monopolistically competitive market.
Its demand curve for the product is expressed as Q = 5000 - 25P where Q is the number of vacuum cleaners per year and P is in dollars. Cost estimation processes have determined that the firm's cost function is represented by TC = 1500 + 20Q + 0.02Q2.
Show all of your calculations and processes. Describe your answer for each question in complete sentences, whenever it is necessary.
- What are the profit-maximizing price and output levels? Explain them and calculate algebraically for equilibrium P (price) and Q (output). Then, plot the MC (marginal cost), D (demand), and MR (marginal revenue) curves graphically and illustrate the equilibrium point.
- How much economic profit do you expect that Robert's company will make in the first year?
- Do you expect this economic profit level to continue in subsequent years? Why or why not?