Market Structures

Instructions Review Chapters 11–13 in Essential Foundations of Economics. View the media 3.4a Resource: Perfect Competition and 3.4b Resource: Different Market Structures. Next, write a two- to three-page paper (600 words minimum) examining perfect competition in the value-menu fast-food restaurant business. Address the following questions in your paper: What are the characteristics of perfect competition? Why does this type of fast-food restaurant tend to display characteristics of perfect competition? Imagine you are running a firm with the characteristics of a perfectly competitive firm. Describe how your firm would maximize its short-run profits. Why might firms in perfect competition choose to be open on Monday, typically the slowest day of the week, when their revenues do not seem to be sufficient to warrant doing so? What are the long-run benefits of running a firm in perfect competition? Under what conditions would your value-menu fast-food restaurant decide to be open on Mondays, and when would it decide not to be open on Mondays? When is losing money on Mondays still a good business decision? Explain how your experience as a manager would change if the value-menu fast-food restaurant you were in charge of operated under a different market structure―monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. For example, in each case, how would you decide what price to charge? What would your profits look like? Would consumers be better off in terms of welfare, when you compare a firm in monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly to one in perfect competition? Two sources in addition to your textbook are required for this paper.