The Critical Problem Faced by a Firm in an Oligopoly

This graph is specific to an oligopoly and shows the change in quantity demanded in relation to the change in price for both elastic and inelastic goods. Total Revenues will be increased, if the firm decreases their price but increase their quantity. Due to the fact that the costs remain the same, the revenue line on the graph can be seen to be steeper than the costs meaning that the profit is higher. The graph therefore also indicates the point where the firm is able to make the most amount of profit, in relation to the price they set and the quantity they produce.

could then result in perfect competition in the supply of products. Firms would be price

d) (2 pts.) Why do we see that the strategy that results is not the strategy that offers both players the best financial

There are many models of market structure in the field of economics. They include perfect competition on one end, monopoly on the other end, and competitive monopoly and oligopoly somewhere in the middle. In this paper, we will focus on the oligopoly structure because it is one of the strongest influences in the United States market. Although oligopolies can also be global, we will focus strictly on the United States here. We will define oligopoly, give key characteristics important to the oligopoly structure, explain why oligopolies form, then give an example of an oligopoly in today’s economy. Finally, we will discuss the benefits and costs in this type of market structure.

Monopolistic competition and Oligopoly are considered imperfectly competitive markets that are a result of few to many firms offering differentiated products. Differentiation of products impede substitution, which allow producers to earn higher than normal profits and thereby enhance shareholder wealth (Byrd, J., Hickman, K., & McPherson, M., 2013). Oligopolies are highly interdependent, with actions of one firm will resulting in a reaction from another. The interdependence results in higher efficiency as a necessity to compete with rivals. According to Claessens "greater development, lower costs, enhanced efficiency and a greater and wider supply resulting from competition will lead to greater [financial] access (2009).

Due to uncertainty, firms may want to ensure a stable amount of profit, collusion may be an option for them.

The article “Beyond United: How oligopolies hurt Americans’ pocketbooks” written by James Downie for The Washington Post discusses the financial issues that arise from oligopoly control. The article explains how, because of mergers, the airline industry has gone from nine major companies to just four. The author argues, “Travelers can’t avoid higher fairs and fees unless they choose not to fly” (Downie). Downie brings attention to the growing profits for the consolidated airline companies while consumers pay the same or higher prices. He also explains how the drug industry operates as an oligopoly with only three companies controlling 75 percent of the market. These three companies control drug prices and touch every wallet in America. Downie

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.

When companies are making decisions, the companies do not worry about how the rivals will react, in part to each company’s actions are unlikely to affect its rivals to a great extent hence they are independent. In addition, there is perfect knowledge in the market hence new companies have the freedom to enter into the industry. The companies are also profit maximizers, producing output where marginal revenue equals marginal cost; the profit maximising condition. Companies in a

Within the realm of industrial economics, a central focus is on equilibrium in oligopoly models, and the questions arise of how the firms would find the equilibrium and whether they will choose it. The efforts of this essay are devoted to a discussion of Cournot and Bertrand models of competition, two fundamental single-period models that form the basis for multi-period models (Friedman, 1977). Firstly the essay will give an introduction to the properties of the Cournot and Bertrand models of competition and examine their implications to the relationship between structure and performance. Then it will

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.

The firm would be unwilling to produce at any point off of its best response curve as profits would suffer the only point both firms can achieve this is at Cournot equilibrium. The profits made under the Cournot model are above perfect competition but below the maximum they could be when collusion between firms exists (see fig4 in appendix) which is what encourages firms to collude. In summary the Cournot model shows how firms set there quantities based off what they think the other firm will do, which is the strategic element in the model (Carlton & Perloff, 2005).

This is an argument between the conceptuality and the practicality of Nash equilibrium in Economics. To understand it we need to first look into what economics is about, which is the study of social and human interaction and rational decision making quantitatively. Nash equilibrium can act as a tool to provide an insight into such interaction. In the first part of this essay, I am going to evaluate why the statement ‘economics without the concept of Nash equilibrium is conceptually flawed’ is true, by looking into the importance of rationality in economics and the mechanism of the Nash equilibrium. In the second part, I am going to assess why the argument for ‘Economics with the concept of Nash equilibrium is practically useless’ is true

In micro-economics market failure is characterized by resource misallocation and subsequent Pareto inefficiency. Just as the invisible hand falters, so is the case that the unregulated markets are incapable of solving all economic problems. In laissez-faire economy, market models mainly monopolistic, perfect competition and oligopoly are expected to efficiently allocate resources for the “welfare benefit” of the society. However individualistic and selfish private interests divert the public benefits thereby prompting government intervention to correct the imperfection which may lead to disastrous economic impact. Although corrective intervention policies by government may not necessarily address the underlying imperfection induced by

If for example, the planned aggregate expenditure was lower than the output of the companies, they would see their stocks rise above what they had anticipated. As this accumulation of inventories is computed within the total expenditure, it would be fulfilled that the GDP is equal to the demand, but the level of production would not be of equilibrium. In fact, in the following periods, the companies would adjust their production downwards to give rise to the unwanted increase in inventories. The balance would be reached when production ended up at a level equal to the planned expenditure.