Exam 2: Demand and Supply

Price elasticity measures the:

A physician takes a 20 hour per week position at the local hospital. She has two preschool age children and regularly turns down overtime work at $250 per hour. Economists calculate the opportunity cost of one hour of time spent outside work as equal to a minimum of _______ per hour.

Scientific evidence suggests that nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) can be considered as substitutes in providing many types of medical care. When hospitals take hiring decisions, the "price" (i.e. salaries) they have to pay for a new NP versus a new PA is one of the deciding factors. If PAs' salaries have grown substantially during the last 6 months, while there has been no change in the NPs' salaries, what would happen in the market for nurse practitioners' services?

Consider the following scenario. A pharmaceutical company has spent 230 million dollars developing and testing a new drug. The company projects the total revenue from sales to be about 850 million dollars over the course of three years after the drug approval by the FDA. The company is close to the completion of the research phase, when they learn that a competing drug has entered the market. Sales projections have been downgraded to 150 million dollars. An investment of an additional 9 million dollars would be required to complete the research and obtain the FDA approval, if the company decides to do so. The cost of producing actual pills, after the research phase is complete, will be close to zero and can be ignored for simplicity. The company should complete the research and launch production of this drug only if the required additional investment does not exceed

The Principle of Diminishing Marginal Returns means

The demand for cosmetic surgery is more elastic than the demand for Botox treatments.

Licensure of physicians means that to some extent, the supply of physicians can be viewed as a vertical line. Explain what this means for the price of physician services. Which factors might change the shape and position of the supply curve for physicians over time?

Health economists observe individuals' willingness to pay by observing not only cash transactions, but also by observing patients' time spent waiting and/or pain endured to obtain medical services. Examples of observable, non-cash prices paid by patients include all of the following, except

Potential health benefits of eating organic versus non-organic food have been often discussed in mass media. Though the scientific evidence of such benefits remains inconclusive, many consumers would consider switching to organic food; however, it is priced considerably higher. It can be projected that if the overall price level of organic foods goes down substantially, the demand for non-organic foods will decrease.

Why is it easier to measure the effects of smoking on individual's health than it is to measure the effects of anti-smoking campaigns on health? Be sure to discuss the idea of medical care as derived demand.