Economics

Your responses to the short answer questions should not have to be lengthy unless specified.  A few short sentences will suffice for what I am asking in most cases.  Please be as parsimonious as you can!

42. How would the assumption of perfect information in the theory of perfect competition 

render advertising utterly ineffective? (5 points)

43. We talked quite a bit about textbook monopoly theory and its potential weaknesses. Why 

does the theory appear to be inapplicable (that is, why doesn’t there seem to be much 

evidence in the real world)? (I’m looking for a very specific answer, as we discussed it

often.) (6 points)

44. The term “robber baron” is usually meant as a slur against the industrialists of the late 19th 

and early 20th centuries. Why might this derogatory smear be inappropriate or even unfair?

(6 points, the answer to be given is from the context of our extensive discussions of

Monopoly)

45. Robert Murphy makes the case in “Trusting the Feds on Antitrust” that the textbook model 

for analyzing and regulating monopolies is inappropriate for economic policy theorists even 

for the most egregious historical examples of monopoly. In 100 words or less, explain his 

argument using both your understanding of his position and your understanding of the text-