PARKIN

MICROECONOMICS
Thirteenth Edition, Global Edition
14 MONOPOLISTIC
COMPETITION
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
 Define and identify monopolistic competition
 Explain how a firm in monopolistic competition
determines its price and output in the short run
and the long run
 Explain why advertising costs are high and why
firms in monopolistic competition use brand
names

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 What Is Monopolistic Competition?

Monopolistic competition is a market structure in which

 A large number of firms compete.
 Each firm produces a differentiated product.
 Firms compete on product quality, price, and marketing.
 Firms are free to enter and exit the industry.

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 What Is Monopolistic Competition?

Large Number of Firms

The large number of firms in the market implies that:
 Each firm has a small market share and so limited
market power to influence the price of its product.
 Each firm is sensitive to the average market price but
pays no attention to the actions of others. So no one
firm’s actions directly affect the actions of others.
 Collusion or conspiring to fix prices is impossible.

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 What Is Monopolistic Competition?

Product Differentiation
A firm in monopolistic competition practices product
differentiation if the firm makes a product that is slightly
different from the products of competing firms.

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 What Is Monopolistic Competition?

Competing on Quality, Price, and Marketing

Product differentiation enables firms to compete in three
areas: quality, price, and marketing.
 Quality includes design, reliability, and service.
 Because firms produce differentiated products, the
demand for each firm’s product is downward sloping.
But there is a tradeoff between price and quality.
 Because products are differentiated, a firm must market
its product. Marketing takes the two main forms:
advertising and packaging.

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 What Is Monopolistic Competition?

Entry and Exit

There are no barriers to entry in monopolistic competition,
so firms cannot make an economic profit in the long run.
Examples of Monopolistic Competition
Producers of audio and video equipment, clothing, jewelry,
computers, and sporting goods operate in monopolistic
competition.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
The Firm’s Short-Run Output and Price Decision
A firm that has decided the quality of its product and its
marketing program produces the profit-maximizing quantity
(the quantity at which MR = MC).
Price is determined from the demand for the firm’s product
and the highest price that the firm can charge for the profit-
maximizing quantity.
Figure 14.1 shows a firm’s economic profit in the short run.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
The firm in monopolistic
competition operates like
a single-price monopoly.
The firm produces the
quantity at which MR
equals MC and sells that
quantity for the highest
possible price.
It makes an economic
profit (as in this example)
when P > ATC.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
Profit Maximizing Might
Be Loss Minimizing
A firm might incur an
economic loss in the short
run.
Here is an example.
At the profit-maximizing
quantity, P < ATC and the
firm incurs an economic
loss.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
Long Run: Zero Economic Profit
In the long run, economic profit induces entry.
And entry continues as long as firms in the industry make
an economic profit—as long as (P > ATC).
In the long run, a firm in monopolistic competition
maximizes its profit by producing the quantity at MR = MC.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
As firms enter the industry, each existing firm loses some
of its market share.
The demand for its product decreases.
The decrease in demand decreases the quantity at which
MR = MC and lowers the maximum price that the firm can
charge to sell this quantity.
As new firms enter, the firm's price and quantity fall until
P = ATC and each firm earns zero economic profit.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
Figure 14.3 shows a
firm in monopolistic
competition in long-run
equilibrium.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
Monopolistic Competition and Perfect Competition
Two key differences between monopolistic competition and
perfect competition are
Excess capacity
Markup
A firm has excess capacity if it produces less than the
quantity at which ATC is a minimum.
A firm’s markup is the amount by which its price exceeds
its marginal cost.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
In long-run equilibrium,
firms in monopolistic
competition produce less
than the efficient scale—
the quantity at which ATC
is a minimum.
They operate with excess
capacity.
The downward-sloping
demand curve for their
products drives this result.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
Firms in monopolistic
competition operate with
positive markup.
Again, the downward-
sloping demand curve for
their products drives this
result.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
In contrast, firms in
perfect competition have
no excess capacity and no
markup.
The perfectly elastic
demand curve for their
products drives this result.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
Is Monopolistic Competition Efficient?
Price equals marginal social benefit.
The firm’s marginal cost equals marginal social cost.
Because price exceeds marginal cost, marginal social
benefit exceeds marginal social cost, so ...
in the long run, the firm in monopolistic competition
produces less than the efficient quantity.

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 Price and Output in
Monopolistic Competition
Making the Relevant Comparison
The markup (price minus marginal cost) arises from
product differentiation.
People value product variety, but product variety is costly.
The efficient degree of product variety is the one for which
the marginal social benefit from product variety equals its
marginal social cost.
The loss that arises excess capacity is offset by the gain
that arises from having a greater degree of product variety.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Product Development
We’ve looked at a firm’s profit-maximizing output decision
in the short run and in the long run, for a given product and
with given marketing effort.
To keep making an economic profit, a firm in monopolistic
competition must be in a state of continuous product
development.
New product development allows a firm to gain a
competitive edge, if only temporarily, before competitors
imitate the innovation.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Innovation is costly, but it increases total revenue.

Firms pursue product development until the marginal
revenue from innovation equals the marginal cost of
innovation.
The amount of production development is efficient if the
marginal social benefit from an innovation (which is the
amount the consumer is willing to pay for the innovation)
equals the marginal social cost that firms incur to make the
innovation.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Advertising
A firm with a differentiated product needs to ensure that
customers know that its product differs from its
competitors.
Firms use advertising and packaging to achieve this goal.
A large proportion of the price we pay for a good covers
the cost of selling it.
Advertising expenditures affect the firm’s profit in two
ways: They increase costs, and they change demand.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Selling Costs and Total Costs

Selling costs, such as advertising expenditures, fancy retail
buildings, etc. are fixed costs.
Average fixed costs decreases as output increases, so
selling costs increase average total cost at any given
quantity but do not change marginal cost.
Selling Costs and Demand
Successful advertising increases the demand for the firm’s
product.
But if all firms advertise and new firms enter, the demand
for any firm’s product will decrease.
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 Product Development and Marketing

With no advertising, this firm

produces 25 units of output
at an average total cost of
$60.
Advertising costs might
lower the average total cost
by increasing the quantity
produced and spreading
their fixed costs over the
larger output.

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 Product Development and Marketing

With advertising, the firm

can produce 100 units of
output at an average total
cost of $40.
Advertising expenditure
shifts the ATC curve
upward, but …
the firm operates at a
larger output and lower
average total cost than it
would without advertising.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Advertising might also shrink

the markup.
Figure 14.6(a) shows that
with no advertising, the
demand for a firm’s output is
not very elastic and its
markup is large.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Figure 14.6(b) shows that if

all firms advertise, the
demand for a firm’s output
becomes more elastic.
The firm produces a larger
quantity, its price falls, and
its markup shrinks.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Using Advertising to Signal Quality

Why do Coke and Pepsi spend millions of dollars a month
advertising products that everyone knows?
One answer is that these firms use advertising to signal
the high quality of their products.
A signal is an action taken by an informed person or firm
to send a message to uninformed people.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Coke is a high quality cola, and Oke is a low quality cola.

If Coke spends millions on advertising, people think “Coke
must be good.”
If it is truly good, when they try it, they will like it and keep
buying it.
If Oke spends millions on advertising, people will think
“Oke must be good.”
If it is truly bad, when they try it, they will hate it and stop
buying it.

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 Product Development and Marketing

So if Oke knows its product is bad, it will not bother to

waste millions advertising it.
And if Coke knows its product is good, it will spend millions
advertising it.
Consumers will read the signals and get the correct
message.
None of the ads need to mention the product. They just
need to be flashy and expensive.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Brand Names
Why do firms spend millions of dollars to establish a brand
name or image?
Again, the answer is to provide information about quality
and consistency.
You’re more likely to overnight at a Holiday Inn than at
Joe’s Motel because Holiday Inn has incurred the cost of
establishing a brand name and you know what to expect if
you stay there.

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 Product Development and Marketing

Efficiency of Advertising and Brand Names

To the extent that advertising and selling costs provide
consumers with information and services that they value
more highly than their cost, these activities are efficient.

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