Perfect Competition

Perfect competition is a very unrealistic market structure. We'll discuss the characteristics of it later, but for now we have to understand that it is a theoretical concept. If the world was perfect then in most cases we'd have markets operating 'perfectly'. The world isn't perfect and therefore actually seeing perfect competition in reality is a long shot. The major assumption we make is that firms are price takers. By this we mean that each firm alone has no influence over the market price because of their relative size. They take the price they can get as given and perceive it to be constant. Therefore the demand curve for a firm in perfect competition is horizontal - the can sell as much as they want but only at the market set price. Any higher and they wouldn't sell a thing, any lower and they'd make a loss in the long run.

Here we have a typical perfect competition scenario in the short run. On the left is the market where the market price is determined by the supply and demand for the good. The firm, on the right, takes the market price as given and as their price. Average revenue and marginal revenue is the same as the demand curve because we are looking at a constant price for the good. Production takes place at the point where MC = MR, anywhere before this point and more profit can be made, anywhere after this point and profit falls. If you look at the diagram, at the point MC = MR, the average cost is below the average revenue. This means profit is available, which is shown by the yellow area. In the short run the supernormal profit will be (AR-AC) x Qe.

Now, above I've just said that AR and MR are the same as demand because price is constant. You want proof I hear? Sure thing. Average revenue = Total revenue / Quantity. Total revenue is actually price x quantity. Therefore average revenue can be re-written as (price x quantity) / quantity. Quantity cancels out leaving price ~ average revenue = price. Marginal revenue = the change in total revenue / the change in quantity. Substituting in what total revenue actually is we have the change in (price x quantity) / change in quantity. The change in quantity cancels out leaving price ~ marginal revenue = price. Boom!

But, we have only discussed the short run. These supernormal profits don't go unnoticed - they attract new firms into the industry. Supply now shifts out.

The price falls due to the increase in supply. On the right diagram we can see that it's fallen to the point where MC = MR = AC. This means that supernormal profit is no longer being made, it has been competed away. At this point no more firms will enter the industry because there won't be the pull of supernormal profits. Therefore, in the long run there is no supernormal profit to be made in a perfectly competitive market.

It seems risky to the normal person, producing right on the point of breaking even. This is true to a certain extent. Shocks to the system could cause demand to fall, what would happen to the firm then?

Here we have the case of a fall in demand in the market causing a fall in price. The firm was initially producing where MC = MR = AC, but now the fall in price means that if they produce at MC = MR they will actually be making a super-normal loss. This point would be below average costs and therefore the enclosed area on the right hand diagram would be loss. Would they carry on producing? Surprisingly, yes, in this case the firm would. To understand this we have to look at the breakdown of the costs. In the short run we know capital is fixed and labour is variable. Therefore the average variable cost for the firm in a simple world would be labour costs / quantity. As long as the average revenue (demand curve) is greater than the average variable costs then the firm will continue producing. This means they can cover the costs of labour and make some contribution to the fixed costs. If they couldn't cover the average variable costs it would be better for the firm to stop producing, lay off all the workers and only lose the fixed costs.

Some other things we can state is that the short run supply curve for a firm in a perfectly competitive market is the marginal cost curve until the point where price equals average variable cost. As we said above, below that point the firm will stop supplying the market. In the long run the firms supply curve is horizontal at the minimum average cost.

All we need to do now is sum up whether perfect competition is a good thing. It definitely has its advantages, they are as follows:

·         It's efficient - production occurs at the lowest average cost which is the most efficient point.

·         Competition - competition in an industry forces firms to be more efficient.

·         Price is influenced by demand - the market is essentially run by consumers, it responds to their behaviour.

·         No supernormal profits in the long run.

It really has few disadvantages though. You could state the fact that it isn't realistic as a disadvantage, I guess. In real life it would be rare to find a market with freedom of entry/exit, identical products, price taking firms, etc. One point that could be made about the lack of super-normal profit is the lack of innovation. Innovation tends to be fueled by profit, without profit there is little room for firms to innovate. Innovation is one thing that can lead to a more efficient market, so in perfect competition once the efficient point is reached it will not be made any more efficient. Comprende?

Sam.

Preferential Trading Arrangements

Preferential trading arrangements refer to such things as trade blocs. Trade restrictions are held with the rest of the world but lower restrictions or none with member states. There are three types of preferential trading arrangement:

• Free Trade Area - This is when member states remove tariffs and quotas with one another. However, restrictions on trade with non-member states are kept individual to each nation.
• Customs Union - This is the same as above, but in addition there are common external restrictions on trade with non-member states. 
• Common Markets - This takes it one step further and the members operate as a single market. This means as well as the features of the above arrangements there is also a common taxation system, common laws regarding production, employment and trade, free movement of labour and capital and no special treatment by governments to their own domestic industries. Additionally to this, we sometimes see fixed exchange rates between members and common macroeconomic policies. 

Next we move on to trade creation and trade diversion, which come as a result of preferential trading arrangements. First, trade creation. This is when consumption shifts from a high-cost producer to a low-cost producer as a result of of joining the customs union. Normally this is due to obtaining the goods cheaper from other members of the union. As with most things, this can be modeled on a diagram! 

Trade Creation Diagram

This is it, the trade creation diagram. Let's explain it a bit. SDom and DDom are the domestic supply and demand of a good. Before the EU, the country had to pay at the 'PEU + tariff' price so domestic production was at Q2 and domestic demand was at Q1. The imports here were the difference between Q1 and Q2. With the joining of the EU, the price was now the PEU price, lower than before. This meant domestic supply had fallen to Q4 and domestic demand had risen to Q3. So the new imports level is the difference between Q3 and Q4, which is higher than before. Thus, trade has been created. 

Trade diversion works in very much the opposite way. This is when consumption shifts from a lower cost producer outside the customs union to a higher cost producer inside it. There is a net loss in world efficiency now the higher cost producer is being used. 

Trade Diversion Diagram

This is the trade diversion diagram. The country was initially paying price P1 for the good, meaning they consumed at Q1 and produced at Q2. Price falls to P2 because of the joining of the EU. We can see here, that consumer surplus has improved. The original consumer surplus at price P1 has now increased to include the areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the diagram. We also notice a loss of producer surplus by area 1 which will be the fall in profits. No tariffs are paid out anymore, so the areas 3 and 5 are lost to the government in terms of revenue. This leaves an overall net gain of areas 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 - 1 - 3 - 5 = 2 + 4 - 5. Here we can decide whether the trade diversion has been beneficial or detrimental. If the size of area 5 which we have lost is greater than the size of areas 2 plus 4 which we've gained then there is a net loss, otherwise we've achieved a net gain. 

If there are high external tariffs or a small cost difference between goods produced inside and outside of the union then a customs union is likely to lead to trade diversion.

In the long term, a customs union could have advantages and disadvantages, I'll name a few of both:

• Advantages:
• Increased market size - allows firms to potentially exploit economies of scale to lower costs.
• Better terms of trade with world markets because of the power of the customs union.
• Increased competition which will stimulate efficiency and bring costs down.
• Disadvantages:
• Resources may flow to the geographical centre for the lower transport costs leaving depressed regions on the edge of the union.
• Mergers will be encouraged which will boost monopoly powers.
• Diseconomies of scale.
• The administration costs of maintaining the union.

The basics of preferential trading arrangements in one blog post, tadaaa! Thank you for reading, keep sharing and following the blog! Thanks guys, have a good day.

Sam.

European Economic Issues: Background to the EU

The European Union we know today was formed back in 1957 wen the Treaty of Rome was signed and it came into operation on the 1st of January. It was initially called the European Economic Community. Initially, it had six member states whom had started to integrate their economies as early as 1952 with the European Coal and Steel Community which removed trade restrictions between the countries in an attempt to gain economies of scale and be able to compete with the U.S.A. Most internal tariffs had been abolished and common external tariffs introduced by 1968. However, the European Union at this point was still a 'customs union' rather than a 'common market' because restrictions were still in place on trade (legal, administrative and fiscal).

Many policies were in place at this point that made the EU a very integrated economy, these include:

• Common Agricultural Policy - Includes common high prices for farm products and import duties to bring foreign food up to EU prices.
• Regional Policy - Grants to firms and local authorities in deprived regions.
• Competition Policy - For example, Article 81 of the Amsterdam Treaty says that agreements between firms cannot be made if it will affect competition in trade between member states. 
• Taxation - VAT is the standard form of indirect tax through the EU.

A further move towards making the EU a single market came in 1987 with the Single European Act. This aimed to remove any extra barriers and form a common market by 1992 using the principle of mutual recognition. This meant that if a firm could do something under the rules of one EU country that firm could do it in all EU countries. It stopped individual governments from making special rules that would keep competition from other EU countries out. In June 1997, the 'Action Plan' aimed to remove any remaining barriers before the launch of the euro currency in January 1999. The 'Internal Market Scoreboard' was published every six months to show the progress made towards the abandonment of restrictions. The last two nations joined the EU in 2007: Bulgaria and Romania to make it 27 members. 

The EU now consists of 27 states. These states are classed into different categories depending on the population of the countries. For example, 6 'big' nations are part of the EU. A 'big' nation in terms of population means that the population is greater than 35 million. Germany and the United Kingdom are two of these 6 'big' countries. Next comes the mid-sized countries of which there are two: Romania (22 million) and the Netherlands (16 million). Smaller than these still are the 'small' countries with a population of between 8 and 11 million, this category includes Greece and Belgium. Finally the rest of the countries are referred to as 'tiny' nations making up less than 5% of the EU25's population between them. Examples of these 'tiny' nations are Denmark and Finland.

As with population, the EU nations can also be categorised based on their income per capita. This is GDP divided by population and is a good way of comparing the wealth of a country with another. 12 countries fall into the 'high' income category. As you'd expect, Germany and the U.K are in this category as well as the likes of Denmark and Italy. 7 countries are classed as medium income; Greece, Portugal and Cyprus are examples of this. The rest of the EU nations fall under the low income band. Luxembourg is the richest country when looking at income per capita, they have an income per capita that's more than double France. The poorer countries have generally done better economically since joining the EU. Here is a graph to show the income per capita figures graphically, taken from the Eurostat website.

Source: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/graph.do?tab=graph&plugin=1&pcode=tec00114&language=en&toolbox=sort


The economies in the EU are very uneven in their sizes. For example, the following six nations together make up over 80% of the EU's economy: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The rest of the countries are once again sorter into categories such as 'small', 'tiny' and 'minuscule' depending on the size of their economy. 'Small' is an economy that accounts for between 1% and 3% of the EU's overall economy. Sweden and Belgium, for example. 'Tiny' is an economy that accounts for less than 1% of the EU's overall economy and Hungary and Belgium fall under this title. Finally, 'minuscule' refers to an economy that makes up less than one tenth of 1% of the EU's economy (Latvia, Estonia, Malta).

EU countries tend to most of their trading with, well, themselves. Roughly two thirds of imports of exports are to or from Western Europe. Exports to North America make up roughly 10% of the total and to Asia even less, around 8%. About 80% of these EU exported goods are industrial goods.

The EU's budget has to balance each year. The four sources of funding for the budget are tariff revenue, agricultural levies, VAT resource and GNP based (A tax paid by members based on their GNP). All countries tend to contribute roughly 1% of their GDP to the EU budget, meaning it's not a 'progressive' tax. Germany and the United Kingdom are at the top of the spectrum of countries that donate a lot more than they receive in benefit from being part of the EU, whereas Spain and Greece gain a lot more in benefits than they donate to the EU. The majority of the EU budget is spent on agriculture, roughly 46%, hence the Common Agricultural Policy we hear a lot about.

That's a rough insight into the background and habits of the EU. I wanted to lay some foundations for some of the posts on European economic issues that are to come. Thank you for reading, stay tuned!

Sam.