How Market Structures Determine the Pricing and Output of Businesses

When there is a large increase in the price of a product in the short run it results in inelastic demand because there is little time to adjust to the increase and find an alternative product. Let’s say the consumer uses the local bus service to go to work. On the way to work one day he notices that the prices of transportation will double beginning tomorrow. In the short time he may be forced to continue paying the higher prices until he can find alternative transportation. As time passes, the consumer can make alternative choices such as carpooling, working from home, or riding a bike to work; therefore, the cost increase for the transportation would be elastic.

Price elasticity that relates to demand is determined by many factors. Price elasticity is measured by the change in price and the response from consumer demand. The demand of a good or service will vary the price in the item. The most important factor to determine the price elasticity of demand is necessity. If a good is a necessity, the demand will seldom change and the price is able to be adjusted. The demand is the most important due to the freedom it provides for price adjustment and inventory control. With necessity comes an inelastic price. Other factors such as the

Oligopolistic markets, such as supermarkets or car manufacturing, can be defined in terms of market structure or in terms of market conduct.

Elastic demand or “elasticity means the extent to which the quantity demanded changes when there’s a change in the price of a good” (Thinkwell, 2013). A product is considered elastic when the change in price increases the percentage change in quantity demanded. When

5) Elasticity – elastic; as price changes, acceptable price is a key criterion when consumers decide on a product.

Elasticity means flexible, and means there are substitute for that product. An elastic product would be Diet coke, when the price of Diet coke goes up, others would drink other kind of sodas, such as Diet Pepsi.

In the field of microeconomics, the market structure of an organization determines the performance of the organization within the industry. There are different types of market structures practiced today. Among these market structures include the perfect competition structure (Miller, Vandome, & McBrewster, 2009). In perfect competition structure, the competition happens between numerous small firms against each other. In this practice, there is optimum production by the firms socially at the minimum cost per unit possible. There is no barrier to entry in this structure, hence new companies and organizations can join easily. The

Elasticity is a measure of the responsiveness of demand to changes in the price of a good or service. In the case of Steam Scot, when the price rises from 4 to 5, demand falls from 60,000 to 40,000 units. The original equilibrium market price of 4 pounds resulted in demand of 60,000 units and this generated revenue of 240,000 pounds. When the prices increased to 5 pounds the resulting demand is 40,000 units, and this generates total revenue of 200,000 pounds. When market price changes from 4 pounds to 5 pounds 40,000 pounds of revenue are lost in this indicates an elastic price elasticity of demand.

Based on the above description, forms of elasticity will affect business decisions and pricing strategies differently depending on the nature and type of products or services being offered. Business organizations whose product offerings have elastic and perfectly elastic price elasticities of demand should not attempt to raise prices of their products because it will cause the quantity demanded and consequently total revenues to drop drastically. Businesses can there use the price elasticities of demand to determine whether the proposed changes in their prices will raise or reduce their total revenue. The following expression may be useful in helping business organizations to determine the impacts of elasticities on their total revenues based on the suggested price changes.

If the product coast a large percentage of the average consumer’s income, people will pay more attention to sale prices because they may be afraid of a fact that if the price keeps rising, they can’t afford it because it is expensive and costs most of their income. It is common that we spend more than $200 on one pair of Nike shoes, which are quite expensive. However, the price of bread is low. Furthermore, one pair of Nike shoes costs more percentage of clients’ income than a piece of bread. If the price declines, people would like to buy more Nike shoes because they can’t afford it in normal time. However, people won’t buy too much bread than before because the bread may go rancid quickly. So people are more sensitive to the price of Nike shoes. As a consequence, all Nike shoes sold in Canada have more elasticity than all bread sold in Canada.

Market structure is when an industry has a number of firms making identical products. An industry’s market structure depends on the how many firms are in that in industry and how they will compete in the market.

Elasticity : rising or falling price lead changes in quantity of demand, and the quantity of supply and this so-called elasticity

When the price of a good rises the quality demanded falls, if we think about how much does it falls. To figure out by how much it falls we must calculate the price elasticity of demand which is calculate by how responsive demand is to rise in price. Also, the price elasticity of supply measures the responsiveness of quantity supplied to a change in price.

When price elasticity of demand is elastic, the coefficient will be greater than one. When a percent price change occurs quantity demanded responds strongly there will be a large change in quantities consumers purchase. There is price sensitive in this scenario. If price elasticity of demanded is inelastic the coefficient will be less than one. When a percent price change occurs quantity demanded does not respond strongly then there is a slight change in quantities consumers will purchase. There a weak price sensitive in this scenario. Lastly, if price elasticity of demanded is unit elastic the coefficient will be equal to one. Whenever there is a percent change in price there is an equally matched percent change in quantity demanded. This scenario is rare.

The organization and characteristics of a specific market where a company operates is referred to as market structure. While markets can basically be classified by their degree of competitiveness and pricing, there are four types of markets i.e. perfect competition, monopolistic competition, monopoly, and oligopoly. In perfect competition markets, many firms are price takers whereas monopolistic competition markets are characterized by the ability of some firms to have market power. In contrast, oligopoly markets are those in which few firms can be price makers while monopoly market is where one firm can be a price maker.