1.2 Decision Making in Markets Flashcards
Unit 1 AOS 2
Market
Where buyers and sellers come together to exchange goods and services at a price and quantity determined by the market mechanism.
Perfectly competitive market system
- No barriers of entry and exit
- A large number of firms
- Consumer sovereignty
- A homogenous product
- Perfect resource mobility
- Perfect information
Monopolistic market system
- Absence of barriers to entry and exit
- A large number of firms
- Many buyers and many sellers
- Differentiated products
Oligopolistic market system
- Significant barriers of entry
- Dominance of the industry by a small number of firms
- Differentiated or homogenous products
- Firms are interdependent (price wars)
Monopoly market system
- High barriers to entry
- Single or dominant firm in the market
- Firms are independent
- Firm is price maker
- No close substitutes
- No consumer sovereignty
Market power
The ability of firms to influence the market price of a good or service by affecting supply or demand for it. Can control price through its influence rather than competition. Perfectly competitive markets have none.
Effect of market power on prices
Can set prices due to ownership of a large market share, control over critical resources, barriers to entry that prevent new competitors from entering the market.
Effect of market power on resource allocation
Can lead to under allocation of scarce resources into the market, causing shortages and rising prices and have power to set prices above market equilibrium. Make abnormal profits.
Demand
The demand of a consumer indicates quantity of a good/service the consumer is willing and able to buy at different possible prices, ceteris paribus, negative relationship between price and demand.
The demand curve
Every price has an associated quantity demanded (ceteris paribus). Change in non-price factors cause a shift left/right of the demand curve.
Factors of demand
- Change in disposable income
- Price of other products (substitutes and complements)
- Tastes and preferences (marketing and media)
- Demographic (population, age structure, and income distribution)
- Interest rates, seasonal change, government policy
Movement along the demand curve
When price changes due to a change in supply, the quantity demanded either expands (price decrease) or contracts (price increase).
Shifts of the demand curve
Changes in demand cause the curve to shift and don’t result in an increase in price, rather more or less is demanded at the same price. An increase or decrease in demand where demand has changed for any given price.
Supply
The supply of a firm indicates quantities of a good/service a firm is willing and able to supply to the market at a given price, during a particular time period, ceteris paribus.
Market supply
For a good or service includes the quantities supplied by all participants in the market for the specific good or service.