Perfect Competition
Perfect competition is an idealised market structure theory used in economics to show the market under a high degree of competition given certain conditions. This essay aims to outline the assumptions and distinctive features that form the perfectly competitive model and how this model can be used to explain short term and long term behaviour of a perfectly competitive firm aiming to maximise profits and the implications of enhancing these profits further.
In a perfectly competitive market each firm is a “Price Taker” , i.e. the prices and wages are determined by the market and the firm is so small relative to the size of the market that they can have no influence over the market price. For a market to be
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This is also linked into the behaviour of the buyers in the market. Buyers are also price takers because they can purchase as much as they wish without influencing the market price. The final assumption is important when considering the long term equilibrium price of a firm in perfect competition. This assumption is that entry into the market is free and that there are no barriers to entry. Any costs incurred are incurred by all of the suppliers; an entrant will pay no additional cost for entering the firm.
In the short run the perfect competition equilibrium can be found by graphing the marginal cost (MC), average total cost (ATC) and marginal revenue (MR) curves. In perfect competition the price is equal to the average revenue, which is equal to the marginal revenue and these are all constant, giving an infinitely elastic demand curve for the firm. The demand curve is “perfectly price elastic” due to the homogeneity of the products supplied, where each supplier, as a price taker, must focus on a single price. Given this, the only choice a supplier has in the short run is how much to produce. For profit maximisation to occur marginal costs (supply curve) must equal marginal revenue (demand curve). Profit maximisation is assumed to mean the maximisation of normal economic profit (i.e. revenue that covers the
In addition, firms may want to profit maximise and gain supernormal profits because it would attract potential competitors to join their market. This is because companies such as apple, gain too much supernormal profit, it attracts other firms, such as Samsung and Orange, to join their market and share their supernormal profits. So companies may want to sacrifice their profits in the short run to prevent unwanted competitors in joining their market in order to gain supernormal profits in the long run. However this only occurs in imperfect competition because most firms only make supernormal profits in the short run and normal profits in the long run. Also a non- maximising behaviour by a firm is usually disciplined by competition in the capital market rather by competition in the goods or products market. In the capital market, if the shareholders aren’t happy with the firm’s behaviour of non profit maximising, they would sell their shares and, if a firm’s level of profits is too low, the owners may sell their business to a new owner. This would then mean managers may want to
Firm under perfect competition and the firm under monopoly are similar as the aim of both the seller is to maximize profit and to minimize loss. The equilibrium position followed by both the monopoly and perfect competition is MR = MC. Despite their similarities, these two forms of market organization differ from each other in respect of price-cost-output. There are many points of difference which are noted below.
b. Competing with different labor restrictions (or lack thereof), such as slave or child labor.
Markets differ in a variety of ways including the degree of concentration and competitiveness, a fact which is reflected in the concept of ‘market structure’. Economists’ models link the structural characteristics of a market to the behaviour of firms in that market and subsequently to their performance. A key question therefore is how far a firm’s strategic decisions are shaped by the structure of the market in which it operates.
there are a number of different buyers and sellers in the marketplace. This means that we have competition in the market, which allows price to change in response to changes in supply and demand. Furthermore, for almost every product there are substitutes, so if one product becomes too expensive, a buyer can choose a cheaper substitute instead. In a market with many buyers and sellers, both the consumer and the supplier have equal ability to influence price.
(Demand Under Perfect Competition) What type of demand curve does a perfectly competitive firm face Why
Going back to the four types of market structures we can now say that our company is approaching a monopolistic competition structure, in which there are still many buyers and sellers of products, but we have set ourselves apart from our competition with our innovations and there is no longer perfect substitution of products (Harris, McGuigan, Moyer, 2014, p. 352). In this type of structure a firm can earn profits, break even, or suffer losses. In the short run a new entrant into the
Since there are so many producers in a perfect competition market, consumers are able to be price makers and there is ample opportunity for firms to compete for their business. Consider the below graph depicting the natural efficient price equilibrium and the firm’s optimal output in the short run. The market may demand a quantity of a product where the usual efficient market would consume at the marginal revenue= marginal cost (MR=MC)
A pure competition market may be be rare in the real world, but it acts as a vital introduction into the topic of markets. To
However, with monopolistic competition the competition is very high especially, in restaurants due to a large number of firms that compete. There is a great variety of different foods from which to choose from. Although each firm produces a differentiated product monopolistic competition firms compete on product quality, price and marketing. In monopolistic there are fast food restaurants such as Taco Bell, Mcdonalds, KFC, and Burger King each fast food restaurant compete with offering and advertising different products to increase demand for their product. Perfect competition is more efficient because of several reasons firms maximize profit and produce on their supply curve, firms also minimize their average total cost of producing good and consumers get a real bargain and pay a price that is below the value they place on the good. I believe perfect competition is more efficient because it has more available substitutes and no firm can influence the market
2. Collusion is illegal in the United States, but is legal in many other parts of the world.
In oligopoly market, each firm has substantial market power with high degree of interdependence. The key for success in a oligopoly market is to gain more market share than the competitors. Increasing the price can lead to loss of market share to the competitors, so in the oligopoly market, if a firm decreases the price, the other firms will always follow, but if a firm increase the price, the other firms will not follow. The demand curve is kinked.
Perfect competition: in this competition, no participant dominates the market thus; no specific seller has the power to set the prices of homogeneous goods. This therefore makes the conditions of a perfect competitive market stricter than the rest of the market structures. In this market, AT&T should be willing to sell their services in a certain price that reciprocates to their demand to maximize profits.
A perfect competition structure has zero entry barriers with a lot of firms. This means it has a large number of competitors, with
One step away from perfect competition is monopolistic competition. This type of market structure has a number of different characteristics from the above. Which turn it into one of the most used market structures. In this scenario, companies are not all price takers and start making use of economies of scale in order to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase profits. In the scenario companies sell a differentiated product at different prices. Like in perfect competition no barriers are put to entry and newcomers a constant threat to the market keeping every player always in search for a better mean to produce and compete.