N.

GREGORY MANKIW
PRINCIPLES OF

ECONOMICS
Eight Edition

CHAPTER Monopolistic
16 Competition
PowerPoint Slides prepared by:
V. Andreea CHIRITESCU
Eastern Illinois University
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 Monopolistic Competition, Part 1
• Imperfect competition
– Between perfect competition and
monopoly
– Oligopoly
– Monopolistic competition
• Oligopoly
– Few sellers
– Offer similar or identical products

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 Monopolistic Competition, Part 2
• Concentration ratio
– Percentage of total output in the market
supplied by the four largest firms
• Oligopolies, highly-concentrated
industries (concentration ratio %)
– Major household appliances (90%)
– Tires (91%), Light bulbs (92%)
– Soda (94%)
– Wireless telecommunications (95%)
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 Monopolistic Competition, Part 3
• Monopolistic competition
– Many sellers
– Product differentiation
• Not price takers
• Downward sloping demand curve
– Free entry and exit
• Zero economic profit in the long run

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 Figure 1 The Four Types of Market Structure

Economists who study industrial organization divide markets into four types—monopoly,
oligopoly, monopolistic competition, and perfect competition.
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 Short Run Equilibrium
• Profit maximization
– Produce the quantity where marginal
revenue = marginal cost
– Price: on the demand curve
– If P > ATC: profit
– If P < ATC: loss
– Similar to monopoly

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 Figure 2 Monopolistic Competitors in the Short Run

Monopolistic competitors, like monopolists, maximize profit by producing the quantity at which
marginal revenue equals marginal cost. The firm in panel (a) makes a profit because, at this
quantity, price is greater than average total cost. The firm in panel (b) makes losses because, at
this quantity, price is less than average total cost.

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 Long Run Equilibrium, Part 1
• If firms are making profit in short run
– New firms - incentive to enter the market
– Increase number of products
– Reduces demand faced by each firm
• Demand curve shifts left
– Each firm’s profit declines until: zero
economic profit

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 Figure 3 A Monopolistic Competitor in Long Run

In a monopolistically competitive market, if firms are making profits, new firms enter, causing
the demand curves for the incumbent firms to shift to the left. Similarly, if firms are making
losses, some of the firms in the market exit, causing the demand curves of the remaining firms
to shift to the right. Because of these shifts in demand, monopolistically competitive firms
eventually find themselves in the long-run equilibrium shown here. In this long-run equilibrium,
price equals average total cost, and each firm earns zero profit.

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 Long Run Equilibrium, Part 2
• Zero economic profit
– Demand curve
• Tangent to average total cost curve
• At quantity where marginal revenue =
marginal cost
– Price = average total cost
– Price exceeds marginal cost

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 Long Run Equilibrium, Part 3
• Monopolistic versus perfect competition
– Monopolistic competition
• Quantity: not at minimum ATC (excess
capacity)
• P > MC, markup over marginal cost
– Perfect competition
• Quantity: at minimum ATC (efficient scale)
• P = MC

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 Figure 4 Monopolistic versus Perfect Competition

Panel (a) shows the long-run equilibrium in a monopolistically competitive market, and panel (b)
shows the long-run equilibrium in a perfectly competitive market. Two differences are notable. (1)
The perfectly competitive firm produces at the efficient scale, where average total cost is
minimized. By contrast, the monopolistically competitive firm produces at less than the efficient
scale. (2) Price equals marginal cost under perfect competition, but price is above marginal cost
under monopolistic competition.
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 Welfare of Society
• Sources of inefficiency
– Markup of price over marginal cost
• Deadweight loss of monopoly pricing
– Too much or too little entry
• Product-variety externality (positive
externality on consumers)
• Business-stealing externality (negative
externality on existing firms)

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 Advertising, Part 1
• Incentive to advertise
– When firms sell differentiated products
and charge prices above marginal cost
– Advertise to attract more buyers
• Advertising spending
– Highly differentiated goods: 10-20% of
revenue
– Industrial products: Little advertising
– Homogenous products: No advertising
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 Advertising, Part 2
• Debate over advertising
– Wasting resources?
– Valuable purpose?
• The critique of advertising
– Firms advertise to manipulate people’s
tastes
• Psychological rather than informational
• Creates a desire that otherwise might not
exist

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 Advertising, Part 3
• The critique of advertising
– Impedes competition
– Increase perception of product
differentiation
• Foster brand loyalty
– Makes buyers less concerned with price
differences among similar goods

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 Advertising, Part 4
• The defense of advertising
– Provide information to customers
• Customers - make better choices
• Enhances the ability of markets to allocate
resources efficiently
– Fosters competition
• Customers - take advantage of price
differences
– Allows new firms to enter more easily

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 Advertising and the price of eyeglasses, Part 1
• What effect does advertising have on the
price of a good?
– Consumers – view products as being
more different than they otherwise would
• Markets less competitive
• Firms’ demand curves less elastic
• Higher prices

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 Advertising and the price of eyeglasses, Part 2
• What effect does advertising have on the
price of a good?
– Consumers – easier to find firms with the
best prices
• Markets – more competitive
• Firms’ demand curves more elastic
• Lower prices

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 Advertising and the price of eyeglasses, Part 3
• 1972, economist Lee Benham
• States that prohibited advertising
– Average price = $33 ($248 in 2012
dollars)
• States that did not restrict advertising
– Average price = $26 ($196 in 2012
dollars)
• Advertising
– Reduced average prices
– Fosters competition
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 Advertising, Part 5
• Advertising as a signal of
quality
– Little apparent information
– Real information offered – a
signal
• Willingness to spend large
amount of money
• = signal about quality of the
Is it rational for
product consumers to be
– Content of advertising = impressed that
Jennifer Aniston is
irrelevant endorsing this
product?
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 Advertising, Part 6
• Brand names
– Spend more on advertising and charge
higher prices than generic substitutes

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 Advertising, Part 7
• Critics of brand names
– Products – not differentiated
– Irrationality: consumers are willing to pay
more for brand names
• Defenders of brand names
– Consumers – information about quality
– Firms – incentive to maintain high quality

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 Table 1 Monopolistic Competition: Between
Perfect Competition and Monopoly
Empty cell Empty cell Market Structure Empty cell

Empty cell Perfect Competition Monopolistic Monopoly

Competition
Features that all three market Empty cell Empty cell Empty cell
structures share
Goal of firms Maximize profits Maximize profits Maximize profits

Rule for maximizing profit M R = MC M R = MC M R = MC

Can earn economic profits in the Yes Yes Yes

short run?
Features that monopolistic Empty cell Empty cell Empty cell
competition shares with monopoly

Price taker? Yes No No

Price P = MC P > MC P > MC
Produces welfare-maximizing level Yes No No
of output?

Features that monopolistic Empty cell Empty cell Empty cell

competition shares with perfect
competition

Number of firms Many Many One

Entry in the long run? Yes Yes No
Can earn economic profits in the No No Yes
long run?

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