2010, Question 3 · 5 points
Candy market surplus and externality tax
Use labeled points on a provided graph to name consumer and producer surplus at equilibrium. Find the socially optimal quantity when production causes a negative externality, then identify consumer surplus and deadweight loss after a corrective per-unit tax.
This exam had three free-response questions with 10 minutes of planning and 50 minutes of writing, and the directions suggested spending about half the time on Question 1 and splitting the rest evenly between Questions 2 and 3. The current exam has 3 free-response questions in 60 minutes. The skills these questions practice still count.
1 Read the question
The question is College Board's, from the 2010 exam. It starts on page 4 of the PDF. College Board no longer posts this exam, so it opens from the copy of College Board's PDF that the Internet Archive saved on March 22, 2023.
2 Write your answer
Answer each part the way you would on the exam, in full sentences, with your work shown. Your writing saves as you type.
3 Score it
Score your answer against College Board's scoring guidelines, one point at a time. Give yourself a point only when your answer says what the guideline asks for.
Scoring guidelines (PDF, page 4) What the exam readers saw (Student Performance Q&A)
Question, scoring guidelines and Chief Reader report: College Board, from the Internet Archive. The title, summary are ours.