1. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 1 of 18 PowerPoint Lectures for Principles of Microeconomics, 9e By Karl E. Case, Ray C. Fair & Sharon M. Oster ; ;

2. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 2 of 18

3. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 3 of 18 15 Monopolistic Competition Fernando & Yvonn Quijano Prepared by: PART III MARKET IMPERFECTIONS AND THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

4. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 4 of 18 15 CHAPTER OUTLINE Monopolistic Competition Industry Characteristics Product Differentiation and Advertising How Many Varieties? How Do Firms Differentiate Products? Advertising Price and Output Determination in Monopolistic Competition Product Differentiation and Demand Elasticity Price/Output Determination in the Short Run Price/Output Determination in the Long Run Economic Efficiency and Resource Allocation PART III MARKET IMPERFECTIONS AND THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

5. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 5 of 18 Monopolistic Competition  FIGURE 13.2 Characteristics of Different Market Organizations

6. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 6 of 18 Industry Characteristics monopolistic competition A common form of industry (market) structure in the United States, characterized by a large number of firms, no barriers to entry, and product differentiation. TABLE 15.1 Percentage of Value of Shipments Accounted for by the Largest Firms in Selected Industries, 2002 Industry DesignationFour Largest Firms Eight Largest Firms Twenty Largest Firms Number of Firms Travel trailers and campers384558733 Games, toys394863732 Wood office furniture344356546 Book printing335468560 Curtains and draperies1725381,778 Fresh or frozen seafood142448529 Women’s dresses182348528 Miscellaneous plastic products610186,775 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1997 Census of Manufacturers, Concentration Ratios in Manufacturing. Subject Series EC92m315, June, 2001.

7. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 7 of 18 Product Differentiation and Advertising How Many Varieties? product differentiation A strategy that firms use to achieve market power. Accomplished by producing products that have distinct positive identities in consumers’ minds.

8. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 8 of 18 Product Differentiation and Advertising How Do Firms Differentiate Products? horizontal differentiation Products differ in ways that make them better for some people and worse for others. behavioral economics A branch of economics that uses the insights of psychology and economics to investigate decision making.

9. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 9 of 18 Product Differentiation and Advertising How Do Firms Differentiate Products? commitment device Actions that individuals take in one period to try to control their behavior in a future period. vertical differentiation A product difference that, from everyone’s perspective, makes a product better than rival products.

10. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 10 of 18 An Economist Makes Tea Bottled iced tea is a classic example of a monopolistically competitive market. None of the brands are exactly alike. Nor are the teas priced the same. Goldman and Nalebuff discovered that sugar beyond some point adds little taste, yet comes at a health cost—more calories. Given consumers’ new awareness of healthy and natural foods, Honest Tea became an overnight success. Product Differentiation and Advertising How Do Firms Differentiate Products?

11. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 11 of 18 Product Differentiation and Advertising Advertising TABLE 15.2 Total Advertising Expenditures in 2006 Billions of Dollars Newspapers$49.0 Television66.8 Direct mail59.6 Yellow pages14.4 Internet15.0 Radio19.1 Magazines24.0 Total247.9

12. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 12 of 18 TABLE 15.3 Domestic Advertising Spending by Category in 2006 in Billions of Dollars RankCategory2006 1Automotive$19.8 2Retail19.1 3Telecommunications11.0 4Medicine & remedies9.2 5General services8.7 6Financial services8.7 7Food, beverages, & candy7.2 8Personal care5.7 9Airlines, hotels, car rental, travel5.4 10Movies, recorded video, & music5.4 11Restaurants5.3 12Media5.1 13Government, politics, religion3.5 14Insurance3.5 15Real estate3.1 16Apparel2.9 17Computers, software2.5 18Home furnishings2.2 19Beer, wine, & liquor2.1 20Education1.9 Product Differentiation and Advertising Advertising

13. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 13 of 18 Product Differentiation and Advertising The advocates of spirited competition believe that differentiated products and advertising give the market system its vitality and are the basis of its power. They are the only ways to begin to satisfy the enormous range of tastes and preferences in a modern economy. Product differentiation also helps to ensure high quality and efficient production, and advertising provides consumers with the valuable information on product availability, quality, and price that they need to make efficient choices in the marketplace. The Case for Advertising Advertising

14. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 14 of 18 Product Differentiation and Advertising The bottom line, critics of product differentiation and advertising argue, is waste and inefficiency. Enormous sums are spent to create minute, meaningless, and possibly nonexistent differences among products. Advertising raises the cost of products and frequently contains very little information. Often, it is merely an annoyance. Product differentiation and advertising have turned the system upside down: People exist to satisfy the needs of the economy, not vice versa. Advertising can lead to unproductive warfare and may serve as a barrier to entry, thus reducing real competition. The Case Against Product Differentiation and Advertising Advertising Open Questions There are strong arguments on both sides of the advertising debate, and even the empirical evidence yields to conflicting conclusions.

15. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 15 of 18 Can Information Reduce Obesity? Policy makers have been working to increase the level of information that consumers have about products. In the early 1990s, the Food and Drug Administration passed rules requiring most processed foods sold in grocery stores to carry nutrition labels. The current hot topic in the labeling area involves restaurant meals. With growing obesity in the United States, many policy makers think that one way to fight the problem is to require calorie and fat labeling in restaurants. Product Differentiation and Advertising Advertising

16. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 16 of 18 Price and Output Determination in Monopolistic Competition Product Differentiation and Demand Elasticity  FIGURE 15.2 Product Differentiation Reduces the Elasticity of Demand Facing a Firm The demand curve that a monopolistic competitor faces is likely to be less elastic than the demand curve that a perfectly competitive firm faces. Demand is more elastic than the demand curve that a monopolist faces because close substitutes for the products of a monopolistic competitor are available.

17. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 17 of 18 Price and Output Determination in Monopolistic Competition Price/Output Determination in the Short Run  FIGURE 15.3 Monopolistic Competition in the Short Run In the short run, a monopolistically competitive firm will produce up to the point MR = MC. At q 0 = 2,000 in panel a, the firm is earning short-run profits equal to P 0 ABC = $2,000. In panel b, another monopolistically competitive firm with a similar cost structure is shown facing a weaker demand and suffering short-run losses at q 1 = 1,000, equal to CABP 1 = $1,000.

18. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 18 of 18 Price and Output Determination in Monopolistic Competition Price/Output Determination in the Long Run  FIGURE 15.4 Monopolistically Competitive Firm at Long-Run Equilibrium As new firms enter a monopolistically competitive industry in search of profits, the demand curves of profit-making existing firms begin to shift to the left, pushing marginal revenue with them as consumers switch to the new close substitutes. This process continues until profits are eliminated, which occurs for a firm when its demand curve is just tangent to its average total cost curve.

19. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 19 of 18 Economic Efficiency and Resource Allocation Because entry is easy and economic profits are eliminated in the long run, we might conclude that the result of monopolistic competition is efficient. There are two problems, however. First, once a firm achieves any degree of market power by differentiating its product (as is the case in monopolistic competition), its profit-maximizing strategy is to hold down production and charge a price above marginal cost. Second, the final equilibrium in a monopolistically competitive firm is necessarily to the left of the low point on its average total cost curve.

20. CHAPTER 15 Monopolistic Competition © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Principles of Economics 9e by Case, Fair and Oster 20 of 18 REVIEW TERMS AND CONCEPTS monopolistic competition product differentiation vertical differentiation behavioral economics commitment device horizontal differentiation