levo

Markets and Market Research

Perfect competition and monopolistic competition

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

Main features of perfect competition, main features of monopolistic competition and markets close to monopolistic competition.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Explain why location matters so much to a firm in monopolistic competition.

Key term

What happens in perfect competition if existing firms are earning high profits?

Key term

Give examples of markets close to monopolistic competition.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name the main features of perfect competition.

    Model answer

    There are very many small buyers and sellers, the product is identical whoever supplies it, buyers and sellers have perfect information, and firms can enter and leave the market freely.

  2. 2

    Why is a firm in perfect competition a price taker?

    Model answer

    Its output is a tiny part of the market and its product is identical to everyone else's, so charging more sells nothing while charging less is unnecessary.

  3. 3

    What happens in perfect competition if existing firms are earning high profits?

    Model answer

    New firms enter freely, market supply rises, and the price is driven down until only normal profit remains.

  4. 4

    Why is perfect competition described as a theoretical model?

    Model answer

    No real market meets all its conditions, because products are almost always differentiated in some way and information is never perfect.

  5. 5

    Which real markets come closest to perfect competition?

    Model answer

    Markets for standardised commodities such as wheat, currencies and some raw materials come closest, because the product is essentially identical and prices are known to everyone.

  6. 6

    How must a firm in a highly competitive market compete if it cannot set its price?

    Model answer

    It must reduce its own costs to survive at the market price, since it cannot raise revenue by charging more.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Enterprise and Starting a Business
Markets and Market Research
Marketing
People in Business

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Gross profit = − cost of sales.
revenueprofitexpenses

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AShort-term disruption depresses the early figures.
BThe benefits build up as people become proficient.
CAn early judgement is usually too harsh.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Need means something essential for survival, such as food, water or shelter.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Markets and Market Research, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.