X-inefficiency refers to the situation in which:
A) highly competitive firms have less incentive to minimize their costs of production
than other firms because the highly competitive firms have almost no chance to earn
above-average profits.
B) firms are unable to minimize their costs of production because there is no potential
for input substitution.
C) firms that use labor-intensive production methods tend to be less efficient than firms
that use capital-intensive production methods.
D) firms with market power have less incentive to minimize their costs of production
than more competitive firms.
In the run up to the war in Iraq that began in 2003, one of the many concerns raised was
that a war could result in a decrease in the supply of oil. At the same time, the U.S.
economy was having a hard time recovering from the recession of 2001 and, as a result,
incomes of many consumers had decreased (due to layoffs, wage cuts, and so forth). All
else constant, it was reasonable to predict, with certainty, that the combination of these
two factors would cause the equilibrium:
A) quantity of oil to decrease.
B) quantity of oil to increase.
C) price of oil to increase.