--%>
Assignment Help - homework help

Question on lowering the supply

The Reagan Administration introduced new agricultural program named as the Payment-in-Kind Program, in the year of 1983. In order to distinguish how the program worked, let's assume the wheat market. Now assume the government desire to lower the supply of wheat by 25 percent from the free-market equilibrium by paying farmers to withdraw land from production. Though, the payment is made in wheat instead of in dollars--hence the name of the program. The wheat comes from the government's vast reserves that resulted from previous price-support programs. The amount of wheat paid is equivalent to the amount which could have been harvested on the land withdrawn from production. Farmers are free to sell this wheat on the market. How much is produced by farmers now? How much is supplied indirectly to the market by the government? What is the new market price? How much do the farmers gain? Do consumers gain or lose?
Since the free market supply by farmers is 20 billion bushels, the 25 percent reduction needed by the new Payment-In-Kind (PIK) Program would imply that the farmers now generate 15 billion bushels. To encourage farmers to withdraw their land from cultivation, the government have to give them 5 billion bushels, which they sell on the market.
Since the total supply to the market is still 20 billion bushels, the market price does not change; this remains at $4 per bushel. The farmers gain $20 billion, equal to ($4)(5 billion bushels), from the PIK Program, since they incur no costs in supplying the wheat (which they received from the government) to the market. The PIK program does not influence consumers in the wheat market, since they purchase the similar amount at the same price as they did in the free market case.

   Related Questions in Microeconomics

  • Q : Problem on spending shares of national

    The view which big corporations unfailingly capture much stable shares of spending out of national income is: (i) Accepted by almost all the economists. (ii) Contrary to the confirmation of turnover among big over the decades. (iii) The symptom of strong competition.

    		•
  • Q : Marginal social costs exceed the

    When governments compelled pharmaceutical producers to manufacture and sell at least Q3 penicillin, in that case the: (1) purely-competitive firms which produced penicillin would experience persistent economic profits. (2) resulting inadequate antibiotic tr

    		•
  • Q : Cut in prices of Complementary Goods

    The demand for gasoline would rise rapidly after a fifty percent: (i) Drop in the price of crude oil. (ii) Discovery of main latest oil supplies. (iii) Cut in public transportation fares. (iv) Cut in latest car prices.

    Q : Tacit collusion by oligopolists Tacit

    Tacit collusion through oligopolists is possible when: (w) agreed to by the government. (x) a price leader is visible. (y) the oligopolists succeed in forming a cartel. (z) very few firms control the market. How ca

    		•
  • Q : Profit-maximizing to make economic

    This profit-maximizing brickyard of below illustrated figure on the average is, about: (i) making an economic profit of $8 per thousand bricks. (ii) incurring variable costs of $90 per thousand bricks. (iii) suffering an accounting loss of $2 per thou

    		•
  • Q : Relation of transaction costs with

    Transaction costs are costs mainly related with the: (w) transportation and gathering information about goods or resources. (x) direct production costs for goods. (y) inputs quite than outputs. (z) supply prices rather than demand prices.

  • Q : Problem on Minimum Wage Laws The

    The Minimum wage legislation is UNLIKELY to aid: (i) Skillful workers who compete with untrained workers. (ii) Untrained workers who don’t lose their jobs. (iii) Buyers of goods which are more capital intensive associative to the buyers of labor intensive goods.

    		•
  • Q : Law of demand is the price in the "law

    is the price in the "law of demand" a relative price or an absolute price

    		•
  • Q : Negative externalities Give the answer

    Give the answer of following question. Negative externalities arise: A) when firms pay more than the opportunity cost of resources. B) when the demand curve for a product is located too far to the left. C) when firms "use" resources without being compelled to pay for

    		•
  • Q : Experience of mill for constant cost

    When generic lumber processing is a constant cost industry, within the long run this lumber mill is probable to experience a: (i) a severe shrinking of economic profit to zero. (ii) a decline within the price of 2×4s to about $2.40 apiece. (iii)

    		•