Monopolistic Competition

1. Monopolistic Competition Mr. Barnett UHS AP Microeconomics

2. 0 INTRODUCTION: Between Monopoly and Competition Two extremes • Perfect competition: many firms, identical products • Monopoly: one firm In between these extremes: imperfect competition • Oligopoly: only a few sellers offer similar or identical products. • Monopolistic competition: many firms sell similar but not identical products.

3. Comparing Perfect & Monop. Competition number of sellers many many free entry/exit yes yes long-run econ. profits zero zero the products firms sell identical differentiated firm has market power? none, price-taker yes D curve facing firm horizontal downward-sloping 0 Perfect competition Monopolistic competition

4. Comparing Monopoly & Monop. Competition number of sellers one many free entry/exit no yes long-run econ. profits positive zero firm has market power? yes yes D curve facing firm downward-sloping (market demand) downward-sloping close substitutes none many 0 Monopoly Monopolistic competition

5. Market Niche

6. The more a firm is able to differentiate its products from those of competitors, the greater its ability to set the price above marginal cost. • Market Niche • Too narrowly defined, the firm may not be able to attract enough customers • Too broad and the firm faces greater competition. Product differentiation can be real or perceived.

7. Real Product Differentiation

8. Perceived Product Differentiation

9. Perceived Product Differentiation • The value of advertising is that it tells you the exact opposite of what the advertiser actually thinks. … If Coke and Pepsi spend billions of dollars to convince you that there are significant differences between these products, both companies realize that Pepsi and Coke are virtually identical. If the advertisement strongly suggests that Nike shoes enable athletes to perform amazing feats, Nike wants you to disregard the fact that shoe brand is unrelated to athletic ability. If Budweiser runs an elaborate advertising campaign stressing the critical importance of a beer's "born-on" date, Budweiser knows this factor has virtually nothing to do with how good a beer tastes. If an advertisement shows a group of cool, attractive youngsters getting excited and high-fiving each other because the refrigerator contains Sunny Delight, the advertiser knows that any real youngster who reacted in this way to this beverage would be considered by his peers to be the world’s biggest nerd. And so on. On those rare occasions when advertising dares to poke fun at the product – as in the classic Volkswagen Beetle campaign-- it’s because the advertiser actually thinks the product is pretty good.”

10. Differentiation • Increase firm’s costs BUT • consumers focus more on the features of the product than the product’s price making the product demand more inelastic • Firms benefit • Able to set price above marginal cost • Consumers benefit • Choice between differentiated products

12. 0 Monopolistic Competition and Monopoly • Short run: Under monopolistic competition, firm behavior is very similar to monopoly. • Long run: In monopolistic competition, entry and exit drive economic profit to zero. • If profits in the short run: New firms enter market, taking some demand away from existing firms, prices and profits fall. • If losses in the short run:Some firms exit the market,remaining firms enjoy higher demand and prices.

15. Why Monopolistic Competition Is Less Efficient than Perfect Competition 1.Excess capacity The monopolistic competitor operates on the downward-sloping part of its ATC curve, produces less than the cost-minimizing output. Under perfect competition, firms produce the quantity that minimizes ATC. 2.Markup over marginal cost Under monopolistic competition, P > MC. Under perfect competition, P = MC. 0

16. 0 Monopolistic Competition and Welfare • Monopolistically competitive markets do not have all the desirable welfare properties of perfectly competitive markets. • Because P > MC, the market quantity is below the socially efficient quantity. • Yet, not easy for policymakers to fix this problem: Firms earn zero profits, so cannot require them to reduce prices.