Question

Is it possible for a perfectly competitive firm to be maximizing profits, but not achieving resource allocative efficiency?

Answer 1

it is not possible for a perfectly competitive firm to be maximizing profits, but not achieving resource allocative efficiency because resource allocative efficiency occurs at the point where price and marginal cost are equal to each other and in the perfect competition at the point of profit maximization the marginal cost is equal to the marginal revenue and price. so it is not possible for the firm to achieve maximized profit but not to achieve resource allocative efficiency.