2021, Set 1, Question 1 · Long · 10 points

Island airline monopoly: price ceiling versus open entry

Graph a profitable monopoly with its output, price and profit, then show output under a price ceiling that removes deadweight loss. Predict how removing barriers to entry changes the firm's output, demand elasticity, profit and the deadweight loss in the long run.

This exam had three free-response questions in a 60 minute section (10 minutes of reading and 50 of writing), with about half the time suggested for Question 1 and the rest split evenly between Questions 2 and 3, and the scoring guidelines label Question 1 long and Questions 2 and 3 short. 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 2021, Set 1 exam. It starts on page 3 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 December 28, 2025.

Open Question 1 (PDF, page 3)

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 2) What the exam readers saw (Chief Reader report)

Question, scoring guidelines and Chief Reader report: College Board, from the Internet Archive. The title, summary are ours.