ECN 001A Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Market Power, Takers, Marginal Revenue

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aquamarinehound811

14 Mar 2017

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3 years after graduating, you run your own business. You must decide how much to produce, what price to charge, how many workers to hire, etc. Characteristics of perfect competition: many buyers and many sellers, the goods offered for sale are largely the same, firms can freely enter or exit the market freely. Firms will freely enter/exit the market until there is a zero profit/loss. Bc of 1 & 2, each buyer and seller is a price taker: takes the price as given. Not a price taker if it"s a single firm. Average revenue (ar) = tr / q = p. Marginal revenue (mr) = tr / q. A competitive firm can keep increasing its output w/o affecting the market price. Each one-unit increase in q causes revenue to rise by p. If q increases by one unit revenue rises by mr cost rises by mc. If mr = mc, changing q would lower profit.

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1. Characteristics of competitive markets

The model of competitive markets relies on these three core assumptions:

1.	There must be many buyers and sellers a few players can't dominate the market.
2.	Firms must produce an identical product buyer must regard all sellers' products as equivalent.
3.	Firms and resources must be fully mobile, allowing for free entry into and exit from the industry.

The first two conditions imply that all consumers and firms are price takers. While the third is not necessary for price-taking behaviour, assume for this problem that a market cannot maintain competition in the long run without free entry.

Identify whether or not each of the following scenarios describes a competitive market, along with the correct explanation of why or why not.

Is the scenario	Competitive?
Dozens of companies produce plain white socks. Consumers regard plain white socks as identical and don't care who manufactures their socks.
In a major metropolitan area, one chain of coffee shops has gained a large market share because customers feel its coffee tastes better than that of its competitors.
Scholastik Inc. owns the U.S. copyright to a popular book series. It is the only company with the legal right to publish books in the series in the United States.
In a small town, there are two providers of broadband Internet access: a cable company and the phone company. The Internet access offered by both providers is of the same speed.

amberfly263

1. Characteristics of competitive markets

The model of competitive markets relies on these three core assumptions:

1.	There must be many buyers and sellers a few players can't dominate the market.
2.	Firms must produce identical products buyers must regard all sellers' products as equivalent.
3.	Firms and resources must be fully mobile, allowing free entry into and exit from the industry.

The first two conditions imply that all consumers and firms are price takers. While the third is not necessary for price-taking behavior, assume for this problem that a market cannot maintain competition in the long run without free entry.

Identify whether or not each of the following scenarios describes a competitive market, along with the correct explanation of why or why not.

Scenario	Competitive?
The government has granted the U.S. Postal Service the exclusive right to deliver mail.	________________
Several stores in the mall sell hooded sweatshirts. Each store's sweatshirts reflect the style of that particular store. Additionally, some makers use higher-quality cotton than others, which is reflected in the apparel's prices.
Two taxi companies serve most of the market in a big city. Consumers don't care about which taxi company they take if they decide it's worth taking a taxi, they flag down the nearest one.	_________________
There are dozens of pasta producers that sell pasta to hundreds of Italian restaurants nationwide. The restaurant owners buy from the cheapest pasta producer available to

copperhamster111

See the question and two answers, give brief your own opinion for each answer( are you agree on disagree with the answer, why?)

Q:This week, we are discussing market types. In this forum, please pick one of the market types that are presented in your textbook and provide your own definition (use your own words) and example. What do you think are the benefits vs. deficiencies of your chosen market type?

Answer 1)

Perfect Competition

This kind of market type stipulates the overall advantage that a market has. In this market, there are many sellers and buyers.These players do not control the price of commodities or services but the prices are controlled by the demand and supply of goods and services. As a result of this, no one can determine the market price of commodities because customers will switch to the next best alternative. All the market players in this sense are price takers and the customers that subscribe to these goods have a lot of experience about the goods offered. It means therefore that they have adequate information about the goods available, which means, therefore, they are aware of the prices that are being charged. All the firms that exist in this kind of market type have a relatively small market share because of the existence of so many of them. The market is also characterized by free entry and exit of firms. New firms can enter the market if they so wish and create competition to the existing firms. Due to this nature of many firms, most of them only earn enough to keep them on the market and nothing more for these firms (Makowski & Ostroy, 2001).

Answer 2)

The Oligopoly; best recognized by few sellers, identical (or similar) products, and its difficult entryinto the market. A good way to determine if a market has an oligopoly is if the change in one seller, causes its "competition" to change likewise. Automotive, cell phone industries, and aviation are some examples of markets that have an oligopoly. In the automotive industry, if one vehicle producer (lets say Chevrolet) changes the body style of its line up, other "completion" is soon to follow. Notice how cars these days are getting nicer and nicer for the base model? Research and Development is greatly valued in an industry that has an oligopoly. This is because if a seller lowers prices, they understand that its competitors will soon follow with ease. But, if they develop a better improvement over its last model in technology, it is much harder to follow than just a reduction in price.

The advantage of an oiligolpoly is that the leaders can set prices instead of take them. Which leads to those that are in charge having the ability to increase profit margins above what they would be in a truly free market.

The disadvantage is that for those looking to try to get into the market will have much difficulty because of the common huge capitol expenditures required to actually compete with the big boys.

ECN 001A Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Market Power, Takers, Marginal Revenue

ECN 001A Full Course Notes

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