These article responses are centered around market structures. The structure that companies find themselves in will largely determine how they can choose the price of their products and how much revenue they earn. Notice that you will be writing a response to an article about a specific company or industry in one of the market structures. Of course, we all know by name many companies that influence our daily lives. Pick one you want to research, find a relevant article about it, and respond. The more you know about a company or industry that's important to you, the better your future consumption decisions will be.
INSTRUCTIONS
Format
- .o Do not answer the questions in turn, but instead write no more than one page (doublespaced) of prose that summarizes the article. The summary must contain your answersto the questions located below the relevant topic.
Topic 1: Monopoly topics (market power, high margins, natural monopolies, price discrimination) Question 1: Describe the article’s chosen monopoly. Which company is it and in which industry does it reside? Question 2: On which behavior/impact by/of the monopoly does the article focus? Question 3: Why is this behavior or impact interesting? Who does the behavior or impact affect? Question 4: Does the government have an opportunity to improve the market outcome? If so, what policy could it use to improve the market? If not, explain why. Question 5: Provide your normative appraisal of the monopoly’s behavior/impact; ie. is it good or bad for society (or you personally).
Topic 2: Oligopoly topics (market concentration, competitive strategies, cartels, antitrust law/behavior) Question 1: Describe the article’s chosen oligopoly. Which industry is it? Which country or countries is the oligopoly located in? Question 2: In particular, on which facet of oligopoly does the article focus? Market concentration, antitrust / cartel / collusion behavior? Question 3: Does this facet of oligopoly typically favor the firms in the oligopoly or the consumers of the oligopoly’s production? What does this tell you about the outcomes being reached in the normal form games. Question 4: Does the article predict, or can you predict, how this industry will look in the long run? Does it get more competitive or less competitive? Question 5: Provide your normative appraisal of the oligopoly’s existence/outcome; ie. is it good or bad for society (or you personally).
Topic 3: Monopolistic competition topics (product differentiation, advertising, excess capacity)
Question 1: Describe the article’s monopolistically competitive industry or firm.
Question 2: How is product differentiation achieved in this industry or firm’s products? Question 3: How pervasive is this industry or firm’s advertising? Does the advertising typically provide useful and important information about the product? Or is the advertising usually trying to convince consumers to purchase an otherwise very similar product to its competitors? Question 4: Does there appear to be long term growth in the industry? Or does it appear to be in decline? Depending on which it is, what long run effects for consumers can you predict? Question 5: Provide your normative appraisal of the monopolist competition topic in this article; ie. is it good or bad for society (or you personally)