Monopolistic competition
Monopolistic competition is a type of imperfect competition such that many producers sell products that are differentiated from one another and hence are not perfect substitutes. In monopolistic competition, a firm takes the prices charged by its rivals as given and ignores the impact of its own prices on the prices of other firms. In the presence of coercive government, monopolistic competition will fall into government-granted monopoly. Unlike perfect competition, the firm maintains spare capacity. Models of monopolistic competition are often used to model industries. Textbook examples of industries with market structures similar to monopolistic competition include restaurants, cereal, clothing, shoes, and service industries in large cities. The "founding father" of the theory of monopolistic competition is Edward Hastings Chamberlin, who wrote a pioneering book on the subject, Theory of Monopolistic Competition. Joan Robinson published a book The Economics of Imperfect Competition with a comparable theme of distinguishing perfect from imperfect competition.
Monopolistically competitive markets have the following characteristics:
- There are many producers and many consumers in the market, and no business has total control over the market price.
- Consumers perceive that there are non-price differences among the competitors' products.
- There are few barriers to entry and exit.
- Producers have a degree of control over price.
- The principal goal of the firm is to maximize its profits.
- Factor prices and technology are given.
- A firm is assumed to behave as if it knew its demand and cost curves with certainty.
- The decision regarding price and output of any firm does not affect the behavior of other firms in a group,i.e., impact of the decision made by a single firm is spread sufficiently evenly across the entire group. Thus, there is no conscious rivalry among the firms.
- Each firm earns only normal profit in the long run.
- Each firm spends substantial amount on advertisement. The publicity and advertisement costs are known as selling costs.
Characteristics of monopolistic competition
There are six characteristics of monopolistic competition :- Product differentiation
- Many firms
- Freedom of Entry and Exit
- Independent decision making
- Some degree of market power
- Buyers and sellers do not have perfect information
Product Differentiation
Many firms
There are many firms in each MC product group and many firms on the side lines prepared to enter the market. A product group is a "collection of similar products". The fact that there are "many firms" gives each MC firm the freedom to set prices without engaging in strategic decision making regarding the prices of other firms and each firm's actions have a negligible impact on the market. For example, a firm could cut prices and increase sales without fear that its actions will prompt retaliatory responses from competitors.How many firms will an MC market structure support at market equilibrium? The answer depends on factors such as fixed costs, economies of scale and the degree of product differentiation. For example, the higher the fixed costs, the fewer firms the market will support.
Freedom of Entry and Exit
Like perfect competition, under monopolistic competition also, the firms can enter or exit freely. The firms will enter when the existing firms are making super-normal profits. With the entry of new firms, the supply would increase which would reduce the price and hence the existing firms will be left only with normal profits. Similarly, if the existing firms are sustaining losses, some of the marginal firms will exit. It will reduce the supply due to which price would rise and the existing firms will be left only with normal profit.Independent decision making
Each MC firm independently sets the terms of exchange for its product. The firm gives no consideration to what effect its decision may have on competitors. The theory is that any action will have such a negligible effect on the overall market demand that an MC firm can act without fear of prompting heightened competition. In other words, each firm feels free to set prices as if it were a monopoly rather than an oligopoly.Market power
MC firms have some degree of market power. Market power means that the firm has control over the terms and conditions of exchange. An MC firm can raise its prices without losing all its customers. The firm can also lower prices without triggering a potentially ruinous price war with competitors. The source of an MC firm's market power is not barriers to entry since they are low. Rather, an MC firm has market power because it has relatively few competitors, those competitors do not engage in strategic decision making and the firms sells differentiated product. Market power also means that an MC firm faces a downward sloping demand curve. The demand curve is highly elastic although not "flat".Imperfect information
No sellers or buyers have complete market information, like market demand or market supply.| Number of firms | Market power | Elasticity of demand | Product differentiation | Excess profits | Efficiency | Profit maximization condition | Pricing power | |
| Perfect Competition | Infinite | - | Perfectly elastic | - | Yes/No | Yes | P=MR=MC | Price taker |
| Monopolistic competition | Many | Low | Highly elastic | High | Yes/No | No | MR=MC | Price setter |
| Monopoly | One | High | Relatively inelastic | Absolute | Yes | No | MR=MC | Price setter |
Inefficiency
There are two sources of inefficiency in the MC market structure. First, at its optimum output the firm charges a price that exceeds marginal costs, The MC firm maximizes profits where marginal revenue = marginal cost. Since the MC firm's demand curve is downward sloping this means that the firm will be charging a price that exceeds marginal costs. The monopoly power possessed by a MC firm means that at its profit maximizing level of production there will be a net loss of consumer surplus. The second source of inefficiency is the fact that MC firms operate with excess capacity. That is, the MC firm's profit maximizing output is less than the output associated with minimum average cost. Both a PC and MC firm will operate at a point where demand or price equals average cost. For a PC firm this equilibrium condition occurs where the perfectly elastic demand curve equals minimum average cost. A MC firm's demand curve is not flat but is downward sloping. Thus in the long run the demand curve will be tangential to the long run average cost curve at a point to the left of its minimum. The result is excess capacity.Socially undesirable aspects compared to perfect competition
- Selling costs: Producers under monopolistic competition are spending huge amounts on advertising and publicity. Much of this expenditure is wasteful from the social point of view. The producer can reduce the price of the product instead of spending on publicity.
- Excess Capacity: Under Imperfect competition, the installed capacity of every firm is large, but not fully utilized. Total output is, therefore, less than the output which is socially desirable. Since production capacity is not fully utilized, the resources lie idle. Therefore, the production under monopolistic competition is below the full capacity level.
- Unemployment: Idle capacity under monopolistic competition expenditure leads to unemployment. In particular, unemployment of workers leads to poverty and misery in the society. If idle capacity is fully used, the problem of unemployment can be solved to some extent.
- Cross Transport: Under monopolistic competition expenditure is incurred on cross transportation. If the goods are sold locally, wasteful expenditure on cross transport could be avoided.
- Lack of Specialization: Under monopolistic competition, there is little scope for specialization or standardization. Product differentiation practiced under this competition leads to wasteful expenditure. It is argued that instead of producing too many similar products, only a few standardized products may be produced. This would ensure better allocation of resources and would promote economic welfare of the society.
- Inefficiency: Under perfect competition, an inefficient firm is thrown out of the industry. But under monopolistic competition inefficient firms continue to survive.
Problems
Another concern is that monopolistic competition fosters advertising and the creation of brand names. Advertising induces customers into spending more on products because of the name associated with them rather than because of rational factors. Defenders of advertising dispute this, arguing that brand names can represent a guarantee of quality and that advertising helps reduce the cost to consumers of weighing the tradeoffs of numerous competing brands. There are unique information and information processing costs associated with selecting a brand in a monopolistically competitive environment. In a monopoly market, the consumer is faced with a single brand, making information gathering relatively inexpensive. In a perfectly competitive industry, the consumer is faced with many brands, but because the brands are virtually identical information gathering is also relatively inexpensive. In a monopolistically competitive market, the consumer must collect and process information on a large number of different brands to be able to select the best of them. In many cases, the cost of gathering information necessary to selecting the best brand can exceed the benefit of consuming the best brand instead of a randomly selected brand. The result is that the consumer is confused. Some brands gain prestige value and can extract an additional price for that.
Evidence suggests that consumers use information obtained from advertising not only to assess the single brand advertised, but also to infer the possible existence of brands that the consumer has, heretofore, not observed, as well as to infer consumer satisfaction with brands similar to the advertised brand.