What will you learn in this chapter?
• What the features of oligopoly and monopolistic competition are.
• How to calculate the short‐run and long‐run profit‐maximizing price and quantity for a monopolistically competitive firm.
• What the welfare costs of monopolistic competition are.
• How product differentiation motivates advertising and branding.
• What the strategic production decision of firms in an oligopoly is.
• Why firms in an oligopoly have an incentive to collude, and why they might fail to do so.
• How to compare the welfare of producers, consumers, and society as a whole in an oligopoly to monopoly and perfect competition.
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1© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 1
Chapter 15
Monopolistic Competition
and Oligopoly
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 2
What will you learn in this chapter?
• What the features of oligopoly and monopolistic competition
are.
• How to calculate the short‐run and long‐run profit‐maximizing
price and quantity for a monopolistically competitive firm.
• What the welfare costs of monopolistic competition are.
• How product differentiation motivates advertising and branding.
• What the strategic production decision of firms in an oligopoly is.
• Why firms in an oligopoly have an incentive to collude, and why
they might fail to do so.
• How to compare the welfare of producers, consumers, and
society as a whole in an oligopoly to monopoly and perfect
competition.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 3
What sort of market?
What sort of market is the music industry?
Universal
31.61%
EMI
10.21%
Other firms
12.61%
Warner
18.14%
Sony
27.44%
• Dominated by four labels.
– None big enough to dominate
the industry.
– Not a monopoly market.
• Products are not standard.
– Not a perfectly competitive
market.
• Two markets lie between the
extreme models of monopoly
and perfect competition.
– Oligopoly.
– Monopolistic competition.
2© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 4
Oligopoly and monopolistic competition
• An oligopoly is a market with a few firms
selling a similar good or service.
– Strategic interactions between a firm and its rivals
have a major impact on its success.
• An individual firm’s price and quantity affect others’
profitability.
• No interaction in perfectly competitive or monopoly
markets.
– Existence of some barrier to entry.
• These barriers to entry may be overcome, but it may be
costly.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 5
Oligopoly and monopolistic competition
• Monopolistic competition describes a market with
many firms that sell similar, but differentiated,
goods and services.
– Able to earn a positive profit in the short run by selling
a differentiated product.
– Offer goods that are similar to competitors’ products
but more attractive in some ways.
• Firms have an interest in persuading customers
that their products are unique, a practice known
as product differentiation.
– This is the role of advertising and branding.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 6
Monopolistic competition in the short run
• Monopolistically competitive firms behave like a
monopolist in the short run.
– Downward‐sloping demand curve.
– U‐shaped ATC curve.
Price ($)
Elvis records (thousands)
MC
MR
ATC
D
3
0 47
Consumer surplus
Profit/producer surplus
Producer surplus
Deadweight loss
4.70
• Produce where MR = MC.
• Charge corresponding price on
demand curve.
• Firm earns profits by extracting
consumer surplus.
• Create deadweight loss.
3© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 7
Active Learning: Monopolistic competition
in the short run
In the short‐run, what price and quantity should
General Mills set for its ice cream, Häagen‐Dazs?
Price ($)
Häagen-Dazs (thousands)
MC
MR
ATC
D
0 Q1
P1
P4
P2
P3
Q2
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 8
Monopolistic competition in the long run
0
Price ($)
Elvis records (thousands)
Deadweight loss
Producer surplus
Consumer surplus
MC
MR
ATC
D
• Monopolistic and monopolistically competitive
firms are similar in the short run.
• In the long‐run, firms can enter the
monopolistically competitive market.
Positive economic profits:
• Firm entry causes range of substitutes.
• Existing firms’ demand curves shift left.
• Entry continues until there are zero
economic profits.
Negative economic profits:
• Firm exit causes fewer substitutes.
• Existing firms’ demand curves shift right.
• Exit continues until there are zero
economic profits.
Because profits are zero, this is the same
quantity as where ATC is tangent to demand.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 9
0
Monopolistic competition Deadweight
loss
Producer
surplus
Elvis records (thousands)
Price ($)
MC
MR
ATC
D
Consumer
surplus
0
Perfect competition
Price ($)
MC
ATC
P=MR
(Demand)
Elvis records (thousands)
In perfect competition,
firms produce where
ATC is lowest. This is
the efficient choice.
In monopolistic competition,
firms produce when ATC is
still decreasing.
Monopolistic competition in the long run
• Similar to monopolists, monopolistically competitive firms
operate at smaller‐than‐efficient scale.
• Firms could decrease costs by producing more.
– This would decrease profits.
• Sets price at P = min(ATC) = MC.
• Efficient scale.
• Sets price at P = ATC > MC.
• Produce at smaller‐than efficient scale.
4© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 10
Monopolistic competition in the long run
• Monopolistically competitive firms face the
same situation as perfectly competitive firms
in the long‐run: Profits are driven to zero.
• Only by finding new ways to be different is it
possible for a monopolistically competitive
firm to generate profits in the long run.
• In contrast, a monopolist has far less incentive
to innovate, because there is no danger of
customers switching to a firm with newer and
better products.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 11
The welfare costs of monopolistic
competition
• Monopolistically competitive firms are inefficient.
– Firms maximize profits at a P > MC.
– Quantity is reduced.
– Deadweight loss occurs and the market does not
maximize total surplus.
• Regulation to increase efficiency is difficult.
– Regulating a lower price would mean that those firms
that could not produce at a lower cost would be forced
to leave the market.
– Consumers would get a greater quantity of similar
products at a lower price, but they would lose product
variety.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 12
Product differentiation, advertising, and
branding
• Product differentiation enables firms to maintain
economic profits in the short run.
• Firms have incentives to persuade customers that
their products cannot easily be substituted.
– Advertisement: Valuable if expanding information set;
though it generally appeals to image over reality.
– Branding: Valuable when it signals a hard‐earned
reputation; though it may perpetuate false perceptions
of product differences that represent barriers to enter.
5© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 13
Music label:
Should we promote a
new album?
Fans: Do we like
this album?
$10 million
-$5 million
Fans: Do we like
this album?
$2 million
-$50,000
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Album Profits
No
Advertising as a signal
• It is hard to distinguish real information about a
product from an ad, as firms know more about
the true quality of their products than consumers.
• Advertising may be a signal of quality in itself, as it
is costly to advertise.
• For example, music
companies typically only
promote ‘good’ albums.
– Music companies will find it
profitable to advertise
albums fans are going to
enjoy.
– Music companies will find it
unprofitable to advertise
albums fans are not going to
enjoy.
• Consumers can use
promotion efforts as a
signal of album quality.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 14
Oligopoly
• A firm in an oligopoly market competes against
a few identifiable rivals with market power.
• Oligopolists make strategic decisions about
price and quantity that take into account the
expected choices of their competitors.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 15
Oligopolies in competition
• Suppose that there are two big music labels,
Warner and Universal, selling a standardized
good—an album.
– Each firm has fixed costs of $100 million.
– Each firm has marginal costs of $0.
• If they acted like joint monopolists, they would
produce quantities where total revenue is
maximized.
• If they acted like perfectly competitive firms, they
would produce at the quantity where P = MC = 0.
6© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 16
Oligopolies in competition
• Below is the market demand for albums and each firm’s
demand curve.
Demand curve
0
Price ($)
Millions of albums
140
Demand and revenue schedule
Albums
(millions)
Price
($)
40
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
50
20
16
18
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
130
140
800
960
900
980
960
900
800
660
480
260
0
Revenue
(millions of $)
Monopoly
14
70
Monopoly
equilibrium
Perfect
competition
Perfect
competition
equilibrium
• Acting as monopolists, each sets price to maximize total profit; each produces 35M albums at $14.
• Acting as perfectly competitive firms, each sets price equal to zero; each produces 70M albums at $0.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 17
Oligopolies in competition
• Acting as joint monopolists, per firm profits are (35M x $14) ‐ $100M = $390M.
• Suppose Warner decides to produce another 5M albums
without letting Universal know.
• Profits are no longer equal between two firms.
• The larger quantity lowers the market price to $13:
Warner profits: (40M x $13) ‐ $100M = $420M.
Universal profits: (35M x $13) ‐ $100M = $355M.
• If Universal now produces another 5M albums, market price
is lowered to $12, and per firm profits are:
(40M x $12 ) – 100M = $380M
• If Warner and Universal both increased quantity again by
5M, profits would be (45M X $ 10) – 100M = $350M.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 18
Oligopolies in competition
• Each firm has an incentive to gain higher profits by
increasing quantity, but this comes at a cost of a lower
market price.
– Quantity effect: An additional unit of output sold increases
a firm’s profit if price > marginal cost.
– Price effect: An additional unit of output lowers market
price, and firm earns lower profit per unit sold.
• If the quantity effect is greater than the price effect,
firms increase their quantity sold.
– They will continue to increase output until the quantity
effect equals the price effect.
• The price effect is smaller when there are more firms.
7© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 19
Compete or collude?
• The act of working together to make decisions
about price and quantity is collusion.
• In the previous example:
– Compete: $350M each in profits.
– Collude: $390M each in profits.
• Why would these firms not always choose to
collude?
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 20
Compete or collude?
• The previous example of why firms don’t collude to make
higher profits can be understood using the prisoner’s dilemma.
• Firms earn highest profits by
colluding.
• Firms earn lowest profits by
competing.
• Each firm has an incentive to
renege on a collusion deal and
compete regardless of what the
other firm does.
• Reneging on collusion leads to
competitive equilibrium.
C
ol
lu
de
P
ro
du
ce
3
5M
C
D
s
C
om
pe
te
P
ro
du
ce
4
5M
C
D
s
Q = 80m
P = $12
Universal Music Group
Collude
Produce 35M CDs
Compete
Produce 45M CDs
W
ar
ne
r M
us
ic
Profit: $390m
Profit: $390m
Q = 90m
Profit: $320m
P = $10
Q = 70m
P = $14
Q = 80m
P = $12
Profit: $440m
Profit: $320m
Profit: $440m
Profit: $350m
Profit: $350m
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 21
Compete or collude?
• In oligopoly markets, competing is a dominant strategy
for both firms.
– A dominant strategy is one in which it is best for a firm to
follow no matter what strategy other firms choose.
• Since all firms in this game have a dominant strategy,
the result is a Nash equilibrium, an equilibrium in which
each party chooses an action that is optimal given the
choices of rivals.
– If the output decision is made repeatedly, both firms may
take an initial chance that the other will hold up its end of
an initial agreement to collude.
• This strategy often holds firms together in a cartel.
– A cartel is a group of firms who collude to make collective
production decisions.
– Cartels are mostly illegal.
8© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 22
Oligopoly and public policy
• The United States has strict laws prohibiting
anti‐competitive (colluding) behavior.
• In 1960, the U.S. government reviewed annual
bids it had received to supply heavy machinery.
– Government agencies discovered that 47
manufacturers had submitted identical bids for the
previous three years.
– The estimated cost of this cartel to U.S. taxpayers
was $175 million per year.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 23
Perfect competition
S
D
10
90
Price ($)
Competitive oligopoly
S
D
12
80
Price ($)
Consumer Surplus Producer Surplus Deadweight loss
Collusion
S
D
14
70
Price ($)
S
D
14
70
MonopolyPrice ($)
Albums (millions) Albums (millions)
Deadweight loss under varying amounts of
competition
The deadweight losses incurred can be compared
under varying amounts of competition.
• Perfectly competitive
firms have zero DWL.
• Competitive oligopolies
have some DWL, but less
than colluding
oligopolies.
• Colluding oligopolies
and monopolies have
identical DWL.
– The DWL is the
largest.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 24
Summary
• Two market structures were explored:
– Monopolistic competition.
– Oligopoly.
• Monopolistic competition describes a market with
many firms that sell goods and services that are
similar, but slightly different.
• Oligopoly describes a market with only a few firms
that sell a similar good or service
– Firms tend to know their competition.
– Each firm has some price‐setting power.
– No one firm has total market control.
9© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 25
Summary
• In monopolistically competitive markets, firms can earn
short‐run profits.
• The less substitutable a good seems, the less likely
consumers are to switch to other products if the price
increases
• This provides incentives to producers to differentiate
their products by:
– Making them truly different.
– Convincing consumers that they are different through
advertising and branding.
• Advertising and branding either explicitly gives the
desired information to the consumer or signals the
quality of their products.
© 2014 by McGraw‐Hill Education 26
Summary
• In oligopoly markets, firms make strategic price
and quantity decisions.
• By colluding, firms can maximize profits by
producing the equivalent monopoly quantity and
splitting revenues.
– Profits increase when a colluding firm deviates by
increasing quantity, which is the quantity effect.
– Profits decrease when a colluding firm deviates by
increasing quantity, which is the price effect.
• An oligopolist increases output until the quantity
effect is equal to the price effect when MC = 0.