📚 Learning Guide
Graphing Deadweight Loss
hard

In a market where a tax is imposed on a good, how does this tax impact producer surplus, tax incidence, and overall economic surplus as depicted in a graph?

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Choose the Best Answer

A

Producer surplus increases while economic surplus decreases, with tax incidence falling entirely on consumers.

B

Producer surplus decreases, economic surplus decreases, and tax incidence is shared between consumers and producers.

C

Producer surplus remains unchanged, economic surplus increases, and tax incidence falls entirely on producers.

D

Producer surplus decreases, economic surplus remains unchanged, with tax incidence falling entirely on consumers.

Understanding the Answer

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Answer

When a tax is placed on a good in the market, it raises the price that consumers pay while lowering the price that producers receive. This change decreases producer surplus because producers earn less for each unit sold after the tax is deducted. The tax also creates a situation called tax incidence, which refers to how the burden of the tax is shared between consumers and producers; often, both parties feel the impact. Overall economic surplus, which is the total benefit to society from the market, decreases because the tax creates a deadweight loss, representing the lost trades that would have occurred without the tax. For example, if a tax makes a product too expensive for some buyers, those buyers may decide not to purchase it, leading to fewer transactions and a loss in economic efficiency.

Detailed Explanation

When a tax is added, producers get less money for their goods. Other options are incorrect because This option suggests producers gain more money, which is not true; Here, it says producer surplus stays the same, but taxes always change how much they earn.

Key Concepts

producer surplus
tax incidence
economic surplus
Topic

Graphing Deadweight Loss

Difficulty

hard level question

Cognitive Level

understand

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