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Disadvantages of perfect competition
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Assignment
QUESTION:
Explain what conditions are necessary for a market to be perfectly competitive. How does a firm operating in a perfectly competitive market set its price and output? What happens in such a market if firms are able to achieve high levels of profitability?
What is perfect competition?
Perfect competition refers to a market competition in which a very large number of buyers and sellers enjoy full freedom to buy and sell a homogenous good and service and they have perfect knowledge about the market conditions, and factors of production have full freedom of mobility. Although this kind of market condition is a rare phenomenon, it can be located in local vegetables and fruit markets. Another area which was often
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PURE COMPETITION
Sometimes, a distinction is made between perfect and pure competition. The differences between two is the matter of degree. While ‘perfect competition’ has all the features mentioned above, under ‘ pure competition’ there is no perfect mobility of factors and perfect knowledge about market-conditions. That is, perfect competition less perfect mobility and perfect knowledge is pure competition ‘ pure competition’ is pure in the sense that it has absolutely no element of monopoly.
The perfect competition, is considered as a rare phenomenon in the real business world. The actual markets that approximate to the conditions of a perfectly competitive market includes markets for stocks and bonds, and agriculture market. Despite its limited scope, perfect competition model has been widely used in economic theories due to its analytical value.
How a Perfect competition market firms set its price and output –
A price taker can sell as much as it can produce at the existing market price.
So total revenue (TR) will be simply P × Q, where (P = price and Q = quantity sold). Marginal revenue (MR), the increase in total revenue for production of one additional unit, will always be equal to the market price for a price
Firms may be categorized in a variety of different market structures. Perfectly competitive, monopolistically competitive, oligopolistic,
An oligopoly is defined as "a market structure in which only a few sellers offer similar or identical products" (Gans, King and Mankiw 1999, pp.-334). Since there are only a few sellers, the actions of any one firm in an oligopolistic market can have a large impact on the profits of all the other firms. Due to this, all the firms in an oligopolistic market are interdependent on one another. This relationship between the few sellers is what differentiates oligopolies from perfect competition and monopolies. Although firms in oligopolies have competitors, they do not face so much competition that they are price takers (as in perfect competition). Hence, they retain substantial control over the price they charge for their goods (characteristic of monopolies).
A perfectly competitive market is based on a model of perfect competition. For a market to fall under this model it must have a number of firms, homogeneous products, and easy exit and entry levels into the market (McTaggart, 1992).
From a P&L standpoint, a dollar saved in vendor cost is reflected as a dollar increase in profit (and cash on hand) where as a dollar increase in sales is only marginally reflected in profit once you subtract operating cost:
Perfect competition, also known as, pure competition is defined as the situation prevailing in a market were buyers and sellers are so numerous and well informed that all elements of monopoly
No single firm can influence market price in a competitive industry; therefore a firm’s demand curve is perfectly elastic and price equals marginal revenue. Short-run profit maximization by a competitive firm can be analyzed by comparing total revenue and total cost or applying marginal analysis. A firm maximizes its short-run profit by producing that output at which total revenue exceeds total cost by the greatest amount.
Term “marginal” is extensively used and known with reference to the economics which means “extra”, whereas with economic view point the marginal cost is the cost of producing every extra unit; however the accounting terminology of “marginal” defines the cost incurred on production other than its fixed cost is the marginal cost. Simply, none of the technique is applied unless it serves the benefits and the marginal costing is used by the firms for its registered benefits. Among all its benefits the primary advantage it serves is its attempt to distinguish the fixed and variable costs, and the method only considers the related variable costs to be included in production cost and the fixed costs are thus later deducted out for ascertaining net profit. The inventory at the year-end is also valued on the bases of variable cost. With all these beneficial characteristics of the said system firms using marginal costing are clearly aware of its ...
In addition to these prerequisites, the perfect market required perfect consumer and supplier information, no rent seeking behaviour and no moral hazard existed. If these conditions were not met, market mechanisms would fail to produce the efficient allocation of resources.
...trospective revenue of the company, rendering a price floor incapable of increasing revenue, which is the goal from the beginning.
Perfect and monopolistic competition markets both share elasticity of demand in the long run. In both markets the consumer is aware of the price, if the price was to increase the demand for the product would decrease resulting in suppliers being unable to make a profit in the long run. Lastly, both markets are composed of firms seeking to maximise their profits. Profit maximization occurs when a firm produces goods to a high level so that the marginal cost of the production equates its marginal
The Perceived Demand Curve for a Perfect Competitor and Monopolist (Principle of Microeconomics, 2016). A perfectly competitive firm (a) has multiple firms competing against it, making the same product. Therefore the market sets the equilibrium price and the firm must accept it. The firm can produce as many products as it can afford to at the equilibrium price. However, a monopolist firm (b) can either cut or raise production to influence the price of their products or service. Therefore, giving it the ability to make substantial products at the cost of the consumers. However, not all monopolies are bad and some are even supported by the
Markets have four different structures which need different "attitudes" from the suppliers in order to enter, compete and effectively gain share in the market. When competing, one can be in a perfect competition, in a monopolistic competition an oligopoly or a monopoly [1]. Each of these structures ensures different situations in regards to competition from a perfect competition where firms compete all being equal in terms of threats and opportunities, in terms of the homogeneity of the products sold, ensuring that every competitor has the same chance to get a share of the market, to the other end of the scale where we have monopolies whereby one company alone dominates the whole market not allowing any other company to enter the market selling the product (or service) at its price.
At prices lower than the market price, e.g. 2Op, the quantity demanded will exceed the quantity supplied, giving rise to a condition known as a sellers’ market. This is illustrated in Figure I I .3.
In a perfectly competitive market, the goods are perfect substitutes. There are a large number of buyers and sellers, and each seller has a relatively small market share. Perfect competition has no barriers to information regarding prices and goods, meaning there is no risk-taking behaviour – sellers and buyers are rational. There is also a lack of barriers for entry and exit.
A monopoly is “a single firm in control of both industry output and price” (Review of Market Structure, n.d.). It has a high entry and exit barrier and a perceived heterogeneous product. The firm is the sole provider of the product, substitutes for the product are limited, and high barriers are used to dissuade competitors and leads to a single firm being able to ...