Microeconomics

Directions:  Click on the "file" item at the top left of the browser window.  Click on "Save as..." from the pull down menu.   Do the necessary reading then answer the questions in the file you just saved.   When you are all done then send me your answers as email.  The best thing to do is to include the file with the questions and your embedded answers as an attachment.

NAME:_________________________

1. In a merging of two banks' assets do either the Cellar-Kefauver or the Clayton Act apply? Under what circumstances?

2. If demand for a product triples, is it necessary that a firm's share of market demand decline?

3. Can you distinguish between resale price maintenance and price discrimination? Which antitrust laws cover these cases? Why should a firm engage in either?

4. One of the Brown Shoe cases involves vertical integration. Explain the circumstances. Why should we be concerned about vertical integration?

5. Under what circumstances can a large firm eliminate a small firm? What is predatory pricing? Is bigness necessarily bad?

6. Explain why price discrimination is undesireable? Physicians are said to practice price discrimination. Should they be allowed to do this?

7. Given the vague wording of the Sherman Act, how do the courts arrive at any decision? Do politics, should politics, play a role in antitrust enforcement?

8. Are patents an appropriate mechanism for the encouragement of R&D? What role should patents play in medical technology?

9. Should labor unions be exempt from the antitrust laws?

10. When it comes to R&D, do the antitrust and patent laws work at cross purposes?