Given two producers with the supply function P=40+2Q, what is the overall market supply function?

To derive the overall market supply function when two producers supply the same good, you need to combine their individual supply functions. In this particular case, each producer has the supply function represented by P = 40 + 2Q. This indicates that for each additional quantity (Q) supplied by one producer, the price (P) increases by 2.

When you have two identical producers supplying the same product, you add their quantities supplied at any given price. If one producer produces Q, together they produce 2Q because both are supplying Q at the same market price.

To find the overall market supply function, start with the individual supply equation. The individual supply from both producers can be expressed as:

P = 40 + 2(Q1 + Q2)

If Q1 and Q2 are equal and both equal to Q (representing the quantity supplied by each), it follows that:

P = 40 + 2(Q + Q) = 40 + 4Q

However, since the derived function needs to express the quantities in terms of the combined output of both producers and if we consider symmetry, when assessing individual contributions we essentially double the Q component. Here, it seems confusion arose. If we simply needed the collective influence