competition
Quick Summary
In economics, competition refers to the dynamic interplay between firms within a market. This can range from perfect competition, where numerous small firms offer identical products and no single firm can influence prices, to monopolistic competition, where firms differentiate their products, allowing for some price control. Other market structures include oligopoly, with a few dominant firms, and monopoly, where a single supplier controls the market.12
Competition is influenced by factors such as the number of sellers, product differentiation, and the ease of new firms entering the market. Public policy, known as competition policy or antitrust policy, aims to prevent anti-competitive practices like price-fixing and the abuse of monopoly power to ensure fair markets, efficiency, and innovation. While free markets are often seen as efficient, critics argue that government intervention is sometimes necessary to address market failures and ensure fairness.134
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- barriers to entry
…result in a decrease in competition.
Read More…result in a decrease in competition.
Read More - consumer advocacyControls on advertising
Coupled with this increased competition has been the development of more powerful media, including television and the Internet.
Read MoreCoupled with this increased competition has been the development of more powerful media, including television and the Internet.
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economic planningAssessment of planning in developed countries…measures to establish and maintain competition. The corollary was that governments should try to avoid applying detailed controls over the private sector in peacetime, since these lead to reduced efficiency.
Read More…measures to establish and maintain competition. The corollary was that governments should try to avoid applying detailed controls over the private sector in peacetime, since these lead to reduced efficiency.
Read More- money market
…that it relies upon open competition among those who are bulk suppliers of funds at any particular time and among those seeking bulk funds, to work out the best practicable distribution of the existing total volume of such funds.
Read More…that it relies upon open competition among those who are bulk suppliers of funds at any particular time and among those seeking bulk funds, to work out the best practicable distribution of the existing total volume of such funds.
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economicsThe unintended effects of markets…that he had found, in competitive markets, an instrument capable of converting “private vices” (such as selfishness) into “public virtues” (such as maximum production). But this is true only if the competitive system is embedded in an appropriate legal and institutional framework—an insight that Smith developed at length but that…
Read More…that he had found, in competitive markets, an instrument capable of converting “private vices” (such as selfishness) into “public virtues” (such as maximum production). But this is true only if the competitive system is embedded in an appropriate legal and institutional framework—an insight that Smith developed at length but that…
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economicsIndustrial organization…firms and the destruction of competition. According to this view, the giant firms compete not in price but in successful innovation, and this kind of competition has proved more effective for economic progress than the more traditional price competition.
Read More…firms and the destruction of competition. According to this view, the giant firms compete not in price but in successful innovation, and this kind of competition has proved more effective for economic progress than the more traditional price competition.
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labour economicsEmpirical, multidisciplinary analysis…market—misses the important fact that competition is a total process, pursued on many fronts, such as design, marketing, and labour productivity—of which a competitive price for labour is only one.
Read More…market—misses the important fact that competition is a total process, pursued on many fronts, such as design, marketing, and labour productivity—of which a competitive price for labour is only one.
Read More- marketization
…for marketization is that increased competition within a sector will stimulate efficiency gains. Work on reforms to public or regulated utilities suggests that the threat of competitor entry may be enough to stimulate significant efficiency gains in markets for goods and services, even without direct privatization of ownership. This logic…
Read More…for marketization is that increased competition within a sector will stimulate efficiency gains. Work on reforms to public or regulated utilities suggests that the threat of competitor entry may be enough to stimulate significant efficiency gains in markets for goods and services, even without direct privatization of ownership. This logic…
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operations researchCompetitive problemsCompetitive problems deal with choice in interactive situations where the outcome of one decision maker’s choice depends on the choice, either helpful or harmful, of one or more others. Examples of these are war, marketing, and bidding for contracts. Competitive problems are classifiable…
Read MoreCompetitive problems deal with choice in interactive situations where the outcome of one decision maker’s choice depends on the choice, either helpful or harmful, of one or more others. Examples of these are war, marketing, and bidding for contracts. Competitive problems are classifiable…
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price systemCompetition will hold the price of wire about 25 cents per pound above that of rods. A variety of such economic forces tie the entire structure of prices together.
Read MoreCompetition will hold the price of wire about 25 cents per pound above that of rods. A variety of such economic forces tie the entire structure of prices together.
Read More- restraint of trade
…of trade, prevention of free competition in business by some action or condition such as price-fixing or the creation of a monopoly. The United States has a long-standing policy of maintaining competition between business enterprises through antitrust laws, the best-known of which, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, declared illegal…
Read More…of trade, prevention of free competition in business by some action or condition such as price-fixing or the creation of a monopoly. The United States has a long-standing policy of maintaining competition between business enterprises through antitrust laws, the best-known of which, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, declared illegal…
Read More - subsidy
…soften the full force of competition, policies that require the purchase of goods from favoured producers or nations, and protective wage and price legislation.
Read More…soften the full force of competition, policies that require the purchase of goods from favoured producers or nations, and protective wage and price legislation.
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- John Maurice Clark
…associated with industrial economics and competition. He is perhaps best remembered for the introduction of the concept of workable competition, as developed in Competition as a Dynamic Process (1961). This book stresses the flexibility of the economic system, the limits to market power, and the importance of potential competition, a…
Read More…associated with industrial economics and competition. He is perhaps best remembered for the introduction of the concept of workable competition, as developed in Competition as a Dynamic Process (1961). This book stresses the flexibility of the economic system, the limits to market power, and the importance of potential competition, a…
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economic systemFrom mercantilism to commercial capitalism…company’s earnings were exposed to competition rather than protected by government monopoly.
Read More…company’s earnings were exposed to competition rather than protected by government monopoly.
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Adam SmithSociety and the invisible handThis protective mechanism is competition, an arrangement by which the passionate desire for bettering one’s condition—“a desire that comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us until we go into the grave”—is turned into a socially beneficial agency by pitting one person’s drive for self-betterment against another’s.
Read MoreThis protective mechanism is competition, an arrangement by which the passionate desire for bettering one’s condition—“a desire that comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us until we go into the grave”—is turned into a socially beneficial agency by pitting one person’s drive for self-betterment against another’s.
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