Economics Assignment: Cost, Market Structures, and Government

This economics assignment comprehensively addresses key concepts in microeconomics. Section A focuses on business decision-making, beginning with a detailed analysis of cost theory, including the completion of a cost structure table for a hypothetical company and the drawing and interpretation of AC, MC, AFC, and AVC curves. The assignment then delves into market structures, identifying and analyzing monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly through examples like a T-shirt company, ASB Bank, and Auckland Airport. The section concludes with a discussion of the features of a perfectly competitive market and the reasons for its non-existence in reality. Section B shifts the focus to the role of government in markets, examining government intervention through the lens of a free tertiary education initiative in New Zealand. It explores the concepts of market failure, positive externalities, public goods, and private goods in the context of this intervention. The assignment uses real-world examples to provide a practical understanding of economic principles.