Free Microeconomics MCQs with Answers

1,742 Microeconomics MCQs from Economics, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

Individual consumers, firms and markets are examined through demand and supply, elasticity, consumer choice, production, costs, revenue and the determination of prices and output. The topic also covers market structures such as perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly, plus market failure, externalities and the distinction between microeconomic decisions and economy-wide outcomes.

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  • A. Total utility of the good for consumption of the last unit
  • B. Extra utility associated with consuming another unit of the good
  • C. Utility associated with consuming an alternative good
  • D. Consumer surplus associated with the consumption of an alternative good

Explanation: Marginal utility is the additional satisfaction gained from consuming one more unit of a good.

Correct answer: Extra utility associated with consuming another unit of the good
  • A. Consumptive efficiency
  • B. Production efficiency
  • C. Allocative efficiency
  • D. EquityCompare Credit Cards

Explanation: Pareto efficiency concerns efficient allocation, production, and consumption, but it does not judge whether the resulting distribution is…

Correct answer: EquityCompare Credit Cards
  • A. Unitary price elastic
  • B. Relatively price inelastic
  • C. Perfectly price elastic
  • D. Perfectly price inelastic

Explanation: A nonsmoker has no intention of purchasing cigarettes, so the quantity demanded remains zero regardless of price.

Correct answer: Perfectly price inelastic
  • A. Horizontal
  • B. Vertical
  • C. Downward Sloping
  • D. Upward Sloping

Explanation: A normal demand curve slopes downward because consumers generally buy more when price falls and less when price rises, holding other…

Correct answer: Downward Sloping
  • A. Business by rich people
  • B. Monopoly shared by few large sellers
  • C. Just one supplier of an item
  • D. None of the above

Explanation: An oligopoly is a market in which a small number of large firms supply most of the product, so each firm’s decisions affect the others.

Correct answer: Monopoly shared by few large sellers
  • A. Adam Smith
  • B. David Ricardo
  • C. Malthus
  • D. J. M. Keynes

Explanation: Adam Smith wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776.

Correct answer: Adam Smith
  • A. Equal to 1
  • B. Greater than 1
  • C. Less than 1
  • D. Equal to 0

Explanation: A horizontal price-consumption curve implies that the quantity response to price changes keeps total expenditure on the good proportional…

Correct answer: Equal to 1
  • A. Profit
  • B. a change of supply
  • C. a shift to the supply curve
  • D. the law of supply

Explanation: The law of supply states that, other things remaining constant, producers offer more for sale when price rises and less when price falls.

Correct answer: the law of supply
  • A. maintaining the class system
  • B. encouraging social mobility
  • C. promoting nationalism
  • D. allowing the formation of a subculture and keeping children in school for a period of time

Explanation: Latent functions are unintended effects of schooling, such as creating subcultures and occupying children for a prolonged period.

Correct answer: allowing the formation of a subculture and keeping children in school for a period of time
  • A. the masses
  • B. a small elite
  • C. productive persons
  • D. the obviously intelligent

Explanation: Before industrialisation, formal education was costly and limited, so it mainly served a small elite such as nobles, clergy and…

Correct answer: a small elite
  • A. depth of religious feelings
  • B. whether one believes in God or gods
  • C. whether one participates in religious rituals
  • D. a belief in heaven and hell

Explanation: Religiosity measures the depth or intensity of a person’s religious commitment, not merely whether the person believes in God or performs…

Correct answer: depth of religious feelings
  • A. the sympathetic interpretation of myths
  • B. the rational system of ideas that explains a belief system
  • C. a justification of the function of religion
  • D. the rules of ritual observance

Explanation: Theology is the systematic and reasoned study of religious beliefs, doctrines and ideas.

Correct answer: the rational system of ideas that explains a belief system
  • A. differentiation
  • B. denomination
  • C. institutionalization
  • D. bureaucratization

Explanation: Institutionalization occurs when a leader’s personal charisma is converted into established rules, offices, rituals and routines that…

Correct answer: institutionalization
  • A. Baptism
  • B. Anglicanism
  • C. Calvinism
  • D. Lutheranism

Explanation: Weber linked Calvinist ideas, especially the calling, discipline and signs of election, with the spirit of modern capitalism.

Correct answer: Calvinism
  • A. another name for atheism
  • B. a fusion of Christianity and Marxism
  • C. a doctrine of personal transcendence
  • D. a branch of Roman Catholicism

Explanation: Liberation theology combines Christian teachings with Marxist-inspired analysis of poverty, exploitation and class inequality.

Correct answer: a fusion of Christianity and Marxism
  • A. income safety and deference
  • B. life liberty and the pursuit of property
  • C. survival and expressiveness
  • D. control over nature and the denial of death

Explanation: Functionalist anthropology, especially Malinowski’s approach, treats survival and expressive or psychological needs as fundamental human…

Correct answer: survival and expressiveness
  • A. victims of child abuse become troubled adults
  • B. the more severe the abuse the more extreme the later psychiatric symptoms
  • C. not all abused children go on to abuse their own children
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: Research links childhood abuse with troubled adulthood and generally finds that more severe abuse is associated with more serious later…

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. includes physical and emotional neglect
  • B. refers to a wide range of maltreatment
  • C. has a victimization rate of 12.3 per 1,000 children
  • D. only A B and C

Explanation: Child abuse is a broad category covering physical, emotional and neglectful maltreatment, and the cited victimization rate is part of the…

Correct answer: only A B and C
  • A. is most popular among the 24-35 age group
  • B. among working couples
  • C. among college-educated high-income groups
  • D. only A and B

Explanation: Cohabitation is especially common among adults aged roughly 24 to 35 and among working couples.

Correct answer: only A and B
  • A. a delay in the age of first marriage
  • B. the increase of cohabitation
  • C. the increase in the incidence of remaining single
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: Marriage rates fall when people marry later, choose cohabitation instead of marriage, or remain single.

Correct answer: all of the above