ECON 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Monopolistic Competition, Marginal Revenue, Perfect Competition

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26 May 2018
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#13 Tuesday 3/6 (Ch.14 Competitive Markets)
Perfect Competition
There are many small firms
They sell the same good (homogenous good), if there is product differentiation, then a firm can
monopolize its version of the product (monopolistic competition)
Firms can enter and exit (no barriers to entry)
→ Firms have no market power
No (economic) profits (in the long run)
Consumers benefit
Price is the lowest possible
MR = P
Firms are price takers
Firms can keep increasing output without affecting the market price (because they are small)
So Marginal Revenue
(MR
) = P
Example: gas station
Profit Maximization
What Q
maximizes the firm’s profit?
To find the answer, “think at the margin
.”
If MR
> MC
, then increase Q
to raise profit.
If MR
< MC, then reduce Q
to raise profit.
MC and the Firm’s Supply Decision
MR is horizontal because the price is ‘fixed’ from the point
of view of the firm, so MR is the market price
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Document Summary

They sell the same good (homogenous good), if there is product differentiation, then a firm can monopolize its version of the product (monopolistic competition) Firms can enter and exit (no barriers to entry) No (economic) profits (in the long run) Firms can keep increasing output without affecting the market price (because they are small) To find the answer, think at the margin . If mr > mc , then increase q to raise profit. If mr < mc, then reduce q to raise profit. Mr is horizontal because the price is fixed" from the point of view of the firm, so mr is the market price. If price rises to to p 2 , then the profit-maximizing quantity rises to q 2. In perfect competition firms make 0 economic profits (there is still accounting profit) Recall that economic profit is not accounting profit. It includes implicit costs like the opportunity cost of the owner"s time and money.

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