Question 1  (9 marks)

During the 1990s, technological advance reduced the cost of computer chips.  Explain, with the use of supply and demand diagrams, how the following markets are affected in terms of prices and quantities.

(a)   Computers                 (3 marks)

(b)   Computer software  (3 marks)

(c)    Typewriters                (3 marks)

Question 2  (6 marks)

After an economics lecture one day, your friend suggests that taxing food would be a good way to raise revenue because the demand for food is quite inelastic. 

(a)   In what sense is taxing food is a ‘good’ way to raise revenue?  (3 Marks)

(b)   In what sense is it not a ‘good’ way to raise revenue?                (3 Marks)

Question 3  (5 marks)

Most studies of firms’ long run costs have found that average costs decline as firms produce increasingly larger output levels (economies of scale), such as for automobile firms.  However, trucking (haulage) firms appear not to experience falling average costs associated with large-scale operations. Why might this be the case?