The total supply of milk might remain the same, because the remaining high-efficiency producers are likely to be able to earn profits at this level of output. In the long-run, however, lower prices are going to sustain the quantity of milk demanded at higher than equilibrium levels, and the profits available to producers at lower than equilibrium levels. Producers, in their efforts to control costs, are going to reach a point of diminishing returns on those efforts. The result of this is that the market for milk will eventually become so distorted by the price ceiling that the government is forced to raise the price ceiling in order to ensure that there are producers remaining in the market. The government will have created a situation where to simply maintain the milk market requires active management.

2. There are several factors that contribute to the price elasticity of demand. One factor...
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