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Showing posts with the label Y13 Micro

What is contestable market theory and limit pricing and does the coffee market being more contestable help customers?

The contestable market theory is an economic theory that proposes that a market is competitive as long as it is easy for firms to enter and exit. According to this theory, even if there are only a few firms in a market, if it is easy for new firms to enter and existing firms to exit, the market will behave competitively. This is because the threat of new entrants and the possibility of existing firms exiting will provide an incentive for firms to keep prices low and quality high in order to remain competitive. Watch this video for an explanation of contestable markets for CIE A2 and all you need to know: Limit pricing is a common pricing strategy that involves setting prices at a level that is low enough to deter new firms from entering a market, but high enough to cover the costs of existing firms. Firms may use limit pricing in order to protect their market share and prevent new entrants from gaining a foothold in the market. Prices are set at ATC = AR when the market is perfectly co

Rational Economic Agents?

So, given a choice, the people in this video all select the chocolate over a bar of silver. Is this a rational decision? You can sense a couple of them assessing (and rationalising) the utility they will derive from the chocolate bar. Or was there something else at play here? Mark Dice, the guy in the video, clearly knew the silver was worth $150 USD and you can tell a few of those approached felt there was a catch and went for the recognisable choice. Did they just want to get away? Does the fact that it is a free gift still mean that  asymmetric information  plays a role? Did he lead them?