The short and long-run equilibrium in a P-Competitive industry are among the key concepts of microeconomics, and have a wide range of applications. This chapter reviews some widely discussed applications, both with a view to making the concepts themselves clearer through application and because of the intrinsic importance of the examples themselves.

It is also our hope that these examples of application will help the student to find ways of applying the concepts to questions that are of interest to herself or himself -- or to the employer! -- by pointing toward concrete interpretations and analogies of relatively abstract concepts. Application of economic theory always requires some creativity on the part of the applied economist. Perhaps this is more true of economics than of some other fields. There is no cookbook for the applied economist; but more examples are always helpful in finding one's own way.

The applications we will review are

• Rent controls
• Supply cycles
  • in markets for computer chips
  • in markets for grains and other agricultural products
  • in job markets for engineers
• Public regulation of agriculture

Notice!

Rent Control