Perfect and imperfect competition. antitrust policy. Perfect, imperfect and pure competition: characteristics and differences Types of competition perfect and imperfect competition

Competition- this is a struggle between participants in economic activity for the best conditions for production and marketing. Distinguish between perfect and imperfect competition.

Perfect competitionmeans that with full mobility (mobility) of resources and goods, there are many sellers and buyers of absolutely identical products who have complete market information and cannot impose their will on each other. The market of perfect competition is in fact an abstraction, since hardly even one of the real markets corresponds to the described essence. If at least one of the conditions is violated, then imperfect competition. In markets of imperfect competition, the degree of imperfection (i.e., the ability to dictate terms) depends on the type of market.

There are four main models (structures) of the market from the point of view of competition: these are pure competition, pure monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly (the last three refer to imperfect competition).

Pure competition characterized by a large number

of firms producing homogeneous (identical) products, the share of each firm on the market is very small, so they cannot influence the price, there are no barriers to entry into the market. Examples are markets for agricultural products dominated by farms, foreign exchange markets, since the conditions are close to those of a market of perfect competition.

Pure monopolymeans that there is the only company in the industry that produces a unique product that has no substitutes; entry into the industry is actually blocked, the control of the company over the price is significant, the maximum possible in market conditions. Examples include the gas, water, electricity, transport, and utilities sectors. The barriers to new entrants to one or another of these industries are almost insurmountable. Monopoly is natural and artificial.

Natural monopoly arises either when the production of a product requires unique natural conditions, or when the existence of several producers in the industry is impractical. An artificial monopoly is created by collusion of producers.

Along with a pure monopoly, there is also pure monopsony.It is carried out when there is only one buyer in the market. Monopoly is beneficial to the seller, and monopsony provides privilege to the buyer. There is also a bilateral monopoly, when there is one seller and one buyer in the industry. Such a situation, for example, is possible in the production of military products, when there is one manufacturer and one customer for these products - the state. At the same time, the situation on the domestic market is considered. However, pure monopoly and pure monopsony are rare.

Monopolistic competitioncharacterized by a large number of firms producing differentiated products. Differentiated productsAre products that satisfy the same need but differ in quality, brand, packaging, after-sales service, etc. Each firm has a small market share, barriers to market entry are easy to overcome, and the ability of an individual firm to influence prices is narrowly limited. Examples include the manufacture of clothing, footwear, books, retail, etc.

Oligopolymeans that there are few (several) firms on the market that produce the same or differentiated products, the share of each firm on the market is significant, and it is difficult to enter the industry. An oligopoly is characterized by a significant influence of an individual firm on the prices of goods and strong interdependence firms in their market behavior. Examples include the metallurgical, automotive, and household appliance industries.

The transition to imperfect competition, monopolistic and oligopolistic structures took place in a market economy at the end of the 19th century. based on the concentration and centralization of production and capital as a result of competition itself. The reasons for the emergence of monopolies include:

Economies of scale: the result is natural monopolies - industries in which the existence of a single firm is economically rational, since products can be produced by one firm at lower average costs than if it were produced by several firms;

Scientific and technological progress, i.e. mastering new products, technologies, etc .;

Exclusive ownership of any production resource, for example, the establishment of control over all oil fields;

Exclusive rights granted to the firm by the state.

Monopolies, seeking to maximize profits, can reduce production and raise the prices of goods, which is contrary to the interests of buyers and society as a whole.

A competitive market environment must be protected from the emergence of a pure monopoly or oligopoly. This can only be achieved with government intervention, through the conduct of antimonopoly policy.

Antimonopoly Policy includes support for small and medium-sized businesses, the dissemination of scientific and technical information, admission within reasonable limits of competition from foreign firms, the adoption and implementation of antitrust legislation. One of the first antitrust laws appeared in the United States in 1890 (the Sherman Act). Antimonopoly legislation covers two main areas:

Regulates the structure of the industry - market sharecontrolled by one firm, and mergers firms, first of all, horizontal (in one industry) and vertical(along the technological chain from the extraction of raw materials to their processing and delivery of finished products to the consumer);

Pursues unfair competitionfor example, price collusion, purchase of assets of one company by another through dummies, etc.

The main purpose of using public funds is to achieve the optimal combination of various types of competition and prevent some of them from suppressing others and thereby weaken the overall efficiency of the competitive environment. The formation of normally functioning competitive markets requires an appropriate legislative framework and public institutions, an effective monetary policy, measures to protect the interests of national producers in the world market. In modern Russian conditions, the problem of protecting the competitive environment is quite acute, since the monopoly in many industries has been preserved since the times of the USSR. On March 22, 1991, the RSFSR Law “On Competition and Restriction of Monopolistic Activity in Commodity Markets”, the first regulatory act in Russia aimed at developing competition, was adopted. Changes and additions are constantly made to this law as the market situation changes. The last changes were made on July 26, 2006. The Law and its amendments define the concepts of monopoly high and low prices, the concept of "dominant position" of an economic entity, etc. The law prohibits such entities from abusing their market position. Article 10 of the Law is focused on the suppression of unfair competition. Article 17 - on the prevention of monopoly and oligopoly mergers. An extreme measure applied to business entities abusing their dominant position is the forced separation of business entities, as defined in Article 19.

The main difficulties in applying antitrust laws are to determine the size of the market in which the company accused of monopoly operates and to prove the fact of unfair competition.

Improving production, reducing production costs, automating all processes, optimizing the structure of enterprises - all this is an important condition for the development of modern business. What's the best way to get businesses to do all this? Market only.

The market refers to the competition that arises between enterprises that produce or sell similar goods. If there is a high level of healthy competition, then in order to exist in such a market, it is necessary to constantly improve the quality of the goods and reduce the level of overall costs.

Perfect competition concept

Perfect competition, examples of which are given in the article, is the complete opposite of monopoly. That is, this is a market in which an unlimited number of sellers operate, who deal with the same or similar goods and at the same time cannot influence its price.

At the same time, the state should not influence the market or engage in its complete regulation, since this can affect the number of sellers, as well as the volume of products on the market, which is immediately reflected in the price per unit of goods.

Despite the seemingly ideal conditions for doing business, many experts are inclined to believe that perfect competition cannot exist for a long time in the market. Examples that confirm their words have happened more than once in history. In the end, the market became either an oligopoly or some other form of imperfect competition.

can lead to decline

This is due to the fact that prices are constantly decreasing. And if the human resource in the world is large, then the technological one is very limited. And sooner or later, enterprises will move to the fact that all fixed assets and all production processes will be modernized, and the price will still fall due to the attempts of competitors to conquer a larger market.

And this will already lead to functioning on the verge of the break-even point or below it. The situation can be saved only by influence from outside the market.

The main features of perfect competition

The following features can be distinguished that a market of perfect competition should have:

A large number of sellers or manufacturers of products. That is, all the demand that is on the market should not be covered by one or several enterprises, as in the case of monopoly and oligopoly;

Products in such a market must be either homogeneous or interchangeable. It is understood that sellers or manufacturers produce such a product that can be completely replaced by the products of other market participants;

Prices are set only by market means and depend on supply and demand. Pricing should not be influenced by the government or specific sellers or manufacturers. The price of a product should be determined by the level of demand as well as supply;

There should be no barriers to entry or entry into the market of perfect competition. Examples can be very different from the sphere of small business, where special requirements are not created and special licenses are not needed: atelier, shoe repair services, etc .;

There should be no other outside influences on the market.

Perfect competition is extremely rare

In the real world, examples of firms with perfect competition cannot be cited, since there is simply no market that operates by such rules. There are segments that are as close as possible to its conditions.

To find such examples, it is necessary to find those markets in which small businesses mainly operate. If any firm can enter the market where it operates, and it is also easy to leave it, then this is a sign of such competition.

Examples of perfect and imperfect competition

If we talk about imperfect competition, then monopoly markets are its bright representative. Enterprises that operate in such conditions have no incentive to develop and improve.

In addition, they produce such goods and provide such services that cannot be replaced by any other product. This explains the poorly controlled, established non-market way. An example of such a market is the whole sector of the economy - the oil and gas industry, and the monopoly company is OJSC Gazprom.

An example of a perfect competition market is the car repair service. There are a lot of different service stations and auto repair shops both in the city and in other settlements. The type and amount of work performed are almost the same everywhere.

It is impossible in the legal field to artificially raise the prices of goods if there is perfect competition on the market. Examples confirming this statement, everyone has seen in his life repeatedly in the ordinary market. If one seller of vegetables raised the price of tomatoes by 10 rubles, while their quality is the same as that of competitors, then buyers will stop buying from him.

If at can influence the price by increasing or decreasing supply, then in this case such methods are not suitable.

With perfect competition, you cannot raise the price on your own, as a monopolist enterprise can do

Due to the large number of competitors, it is impossible to simply increase the price, since all customers will simply switch to purchasing the corresponding goods from other enterprises. Thus, an enterprise can lose its market share, which will entail irreversible consequences.

In addition, in such markets there is a decrease in the prices of goods by individual sellers. This is in an attempt to “win back” new market shares to increase income levels.

And in order to reduce prices, it is necessary to spend less raw materials and other resources on the production of one unit of production. Such changes are possible only due to the introduction of new technologies and other processes that can reduce the cost of doing business.

In Russia, markets that are close to perfect competition are not developing fast enough

If we talk about the domestic market, perfect competition in Russia, examples of which are found in almost all areas of small business, is developing at an average pace, but it could have been better. The main problem is the weak support of the state, since so far many laws are focused on supporting large producers, who are often monopolists. In the meantime, the small business sector remains without special attention and the necessary funding.

Perfect competition, examples of which are given above, is the ideal form of competition from the side of understanding the criteria for pricing, supply and demand. Today, no economy in the world can find such a market that would meet all the requirements that must be observed in perfect competition.

Department of Economic Theory

Course work

"Competition: essence, perfect and imperfect competition and market models. Monopoly in Russia."

Manager: Executor:

ph.D. in Economics, 1st year student of FEiF

associate Professor EF-13

Prokhorov S.S. Shevlyagina E.A.

St. Petersburg

Introduction ................................................. .................................................. ............................ 2

I. Competition, its essence and meaning. Types of competition ...................................... 3

The concept of competition and its role in the economy ........................................... .... 3

Types of competition ................................................ ........................................... 4

II. Market models ................................................ .................................................. ............. 5

Perfect competition ................................................ .............................. 7

Monopolistic competition ................................................ ................. 14

Oligopoly ................................................. .................................................. ... 19

Monopoly. Monopoly in Russia ............................................... ................ 24

Conclusion ................................................. .................................................. ...................... 32

List of used literature ............................................... ............................... 35

At the end of the 20th century, our country embarked on the path of transition from a planned economy to a market system, an integral part of which is competition as a necessary condition for the development of entrepreneurial activity.

During the years of the planned economy, competition was not given due attention in our country. It was announced about the complete elimination of competition as a remnant of the capitalist system and its replacement by conflict-free (with the winners and without the losers) socialist competition. Thanks to this, the Russian economy has become a system of highly monopolized industries. This has led to low production efficiency, prohibitively high costs, and, in some industries, deep technological lag behind advanced scientific and technological developments.

Today we understand that the fiercer the competition in the domestic market, the better prepared national firms are to fight for markets abroad, and the more advantageous consumers are in the domestic market both in terms of prices and product quality. After all, competitive products should have such consumer properties that would distinguish them favorably from similar products of competitors. It is competition that turns the country's economic system into a self-regulating apparatus, not without reason Adam Smith called it "the invisible hand of the market."

With the transition of Russia to market methods of management, the role of competition in the economic life of society has increased significantly. At the same time, maintaining a competitive environment in the Russian Federation, as in developed countries, has now become an important task of state regulation of the economy. This means that the study of competition, its role in the development of market relations is currently the most important task of economic research in our country.

One of the main problems of the transitional period of the Russian economy, which has not yet been resolved, is the formation of competitive markets in the context of a decline in production and a crisis of non-payments that has engulfed all industries and regions of the country.

The problem of natural monopolies remains unresolved. Together, forming the industrial infrastructure of the state, they are the basis for the revitalization and further development of domestic industry, the development of the real sector of the economy. Therefore, the task of ensuring their financial stability is of particular importance.

Since the beginning of the 90s, these problems have become acute for Russia. The success of economic transformations to a large extent depends on a balanced, verified system of government regulation of monopoly processes and competitive relations.

The problems of improving competition in the Russian market, increasing the competitiveness of Russian goods, and fighting monopoly are extremely urgent in modern Russia.

The purpose of this work is to consider the concept of competition, its influence on the behavior of a firm and on the economy as a whole, to characterize various models of markets depending on the level of competition in them, to consider the problem of monopolization of the country's economy and to determine the main ways to solve this problem.

The most powerful factor dictating the general conditions for the functioning of a particular market is the degree of development of competitive relations on it. Etymologically the word competition goes back to Latin concurrentia, meaning collision, competition.

Market competition is called the struggle for limited consumer demand, waged between firms in the available parts (segments) of the market. Competition is a rivalry between market participants for the best conditions for the production, purchase and sale of goods. Competition is an adversarial work between commodity producers for the most profitable spheres of capital investment, sales markets, sources of raw materials, and at the same time a very effective mechanism for regulating the proportions of social production. It is generated by objective conditions: the economic isolation of each producer, his dependence on market conditions, confrontation with other commodity owners in the struggle for consumer demand.

Competition fulfills the most important function in a market economy - it forces producers to take into account the interests of the consumer, and hence the interests of society as a whole. In the course of competition, the market selects from a variety of products only those that consumers need. They are the ones who manage to sell. Others remain unclaimed, and their production is reduced. In other words, outside the competitive environment, an individual satisfies his own interests, regardless of others. In a competitive environment, the only way to realize one's own interest is to take into account the interests of other persons. Competition is a specific mechanism by which the market economy solves fundamental issues what? as? for whom to produce?

The development of competitive relations is closely related to the splitting of economic power. When it is absent, the consumer is deprived of a choice and is forced to either completely agree to the conditions dictated by the manufacturer, or completely remain without the benefit he needs. On the contrary, when economic power is split and the consumer deals with many suppliers of similar goods, he can choose the one that best suits his needs and financial capabilities.

Competition is essential in society. It stimulates the activity of independent units. Through it, commodity producers, as it were, control each other. Their struggle for the consumer leads to lower prices, lower production costs, improved product quality, and increased scientific and technological progress. At the same time, competition exacerbates the contradictions of economic interests, greatly enhances economic differentiation in society, causes the growth of unproductive costs, and encourages the creation of monopolies. Competition can turn into a destructive force for the economy without the administrative intervention of state structures. To curb it and keep it at the level of a normal stimulator of the economy, the state in its laws determines the "rules of the game" of its rivals. These laws fix the rights and obligations of producers and consumers of products, establish principles and guarantees for the actions of competitors.

Competition is the rivalry of business entities to achieve the highest results in their own interests. Therefore, competition exists wherever there is rivalry between the subjects to ensure their interests. As an economic law, competition expresses the causal relationship between the interests of business entities in competition and the results in economic development.

With competition in the marketplace, manufacturers are constantly striving to lower their production costs in order to increase profits. The result is increased productivity, lower costs, and the company can lower prices. Competition also encourages manufacturers to improve the quality of their products and constantly increase the variety of products and services offered. T. about. manufacturers are forced to constantly compete with competitors for buyers in the sales market by expanding and improving the range of high-quality goods and services offered at lower prices. The consumer benefits from this.

Historically, competition arose in the context of simple commodity production. Each small producer in the process of competition sought to create for himself the most favorable conditions for the production and sale of goods to the detriment of the rest of the participants in the market exchange. As the dependence of small commodity producers on the market increases and market fluctuations in prices for the goods they produce, the competition intensifies. There is a possibility of strengthening the economy, employing hired workers, exploiting their labor, capitalist competition arises. In modern conditions, competition also acts as an important means of production development and exists in various forms.

According to the methods of implementation, competition can be divided into price and non-price.

Pricing competition involves the sale of goods at lower prices than competitors. Reducing the price is theoretically possible either by reducing production costs or by reducing profits. Small and medium-sized firms often settle for small profits to stay in the market. Large enterprises can afford to give up making a profit for some time in order to ruin their competitors with the help of cheap products and force them out of the market. This method of ousting competitors from the market (the method of competition) is also known as the “price war”. At one time, the American monopoly "Coca-Cola" used it when invading the markets of Latin America, later in the same way Japanese firms promoted their goods to the United States and Western Europe. Recently, interest in price competition has revived again due to the introduction of technologies that save resources and, consequently, reduce costs.

Non-price competition is based on offering products of higher quality, with greater reliability and durability, using advertising methods and other methods of sales promotion.

Intra- and intersectoral competition is distinguished by industry affiliation.

Intraindustry competition - competition between entrepreneurs who produce similar goods for better conditions of production and sale, for obtaining super-profits.

Intersectoral competition is competition between entrepreneurs employed in various industries, due to the profitable investment of capital, the redistribution of profits. Since the rate of profit is influenced by various objective factors, its value in different industries is different. However, every entrepreneur, regardless of where his capital is used, seeks to get a profit on him no less than other entrepreneurs. This leads to the flow of capital from one industry to another: from industries with a low rate of return to industries with a high one.

Competition is also subdivided into perfect (free) and imperfect (monopolistic).

For perfect competition is characterized by freedom from any kind of regulation: free access to factors of production, free pricing, etc. With this competition, none of the market participants can have a decisive influence on the conditions for the sale of goods.

Monopolistic competition differs mainly in that monopolies have the ability to influence the conditions for the sale of goods.

These two types of competition will be discussed in more detail in the following chapters.

¨ The main features of the market of perfect competition

It should be borne in mind that the above-mentioned features of perfect competition are not fully inherent in any of the industries. In its pure form, the conditions of perfect competition do not occur in reality, that is, perfect competition is nothing more than a model of an ideal market economy. Such models, reflecting phenomena in a "sterile pure" form, serve as an important tool for economic analysis. Individual industries can only approximate the model to one degree or another.

Let us consider in sequence the main features of perfect competition.

With perfect competition, neither sellers nor buyers influence the market situation due to the smallness and multiplicity of all market participants. Sometimes both of these sides of perfect competition are combined, speaking of the atomistic structure of the market. This means that there are a large number of small sellers and buyers in the market, just as any drop of water consists of a gigantic number of tiny atoms.

At the same time, purchases made by the consumer (or sales by the seller) are so small in comparison with the total volume of the market that the decision to decrease or increase their volumes does not create either surplus or deficits. The aggregate size of supply and demand simply "does not notice" such small changes. So, if one of the countless beer stalls in Moscow closes, the capital's beer market will not become scarce, just as there will not be a surplus of this drink if one more “point” appears in addition to the existing ones.

For competition to be perfect, the goods offered by firms must meet the condition of product homogeneity. This means that the products of firms in the minds of buyers are homogeneous and indistinguishable, i.e. the products of different enterprises are completely interchangeable (they are full substitute goods). The economic meaning of this provision is as follows: the goods are so similar to each other that even a small increase in prices by one producer leads to a complete switch of demand for the products of other enterprises.

Under these conditions, no buyer would be willing to pay a hypothetical firm more than he would pay its competitors. After all, the goods are the same, customers do not care which company they buy from, and they, of course, opt for the cheapest. That is, the condition of product homogeneity actually means that price differences are the only reason why a buyer can choose one seller over another. That is why, in conditions of perfect competition, there is no reason for the existence of non-price competition.

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that one seller of potatoes on the "collective farm" market will be able to impose on buyers a higher price for his product if other conditions of perfect competition are met. Namely, if there are many sellers, and their potatoes are exactly the same. Therefore, it is often said that in perfect competition, each individual selling firm “gets the price” prevailing in the market.

The next condition for perfect competition is the absence of barriers to entry and exit from the market. When there are such barriers, sellers (or buyers) begin to behave like a single corporation, even if there are many of them and they are all small firms. In history, this is how medieval guilds (workshops) of merchants and artisans acted, when, according to the law, only a member of the guild (workshop) could produce and sell goods in the city.

Nowadays, similar processes are going on in criminalized areas of business, which, unfortunately, can be observed in many markets in large cities in Russia. All sellers follow well-known informal rules (in particular, they keep prices at least at a certain level). Any outsider who decides to bring down prices and simply trade "without permission" has to deal with bandits. And when, say, the Moscow government sends disguised police officers to the market to sell cheap fruit (the goal is to force the criminal “owners” of the market to prove themselves, and then arrest them), then it is fighting to remove barriers to entry into the market.

On the contrary, typical of perfect competition no barriers or freedom to enter to the market (to the industry) and leave it means that resources are completely mobile and move without problems from one activity to another. Buyers freely change their preferences when choosing products, and sellers easily switch production to produce more profitable products.

There are no difficulties with the termination of operations in the market. Conditions do not force anyone to stay in the industry if it is not in their interests. In other words, the absence of barriers means absolute flexibility and adaptability of the perfect competition market.

The final condition for a perfectly competitive marketplace is that information about prices, technology, and probable profits is freely available to everyone. Firms have the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to changing market conditions by shifting their resources. There are no trade secrets, unpredictable development of events, unexpected actions of competitors. That is, decisions are made by a firm in conditions of complete certainty about the market situation or, which is the same, in the presence of perfect information about the market.

The above conditions actually predetermine that, with perfect competition, market entities are not able to influence prices.

Market subjects in conditions of perfect competition can influence the general situation only when they act in agreement. That is, when some external conditions induce all sellers (or all buyers) of the industry to make the same decisions. In 1998, the Russians experienced this for themselves, when in the first days after the devaluation of the ruble, all grocery stores, without saying a word, but understanding the situation in the same way, together began to overstate prices for goods of the “crisis” assortment - sugar, salt, flour, etc. Although the increase in prices was not economically justified (these goods rose in price much more than the ruble depreciated), sellers managed to impose their will on the market precisely as a result of the unity of their position.

Firms operating in conditions of perfect competition (they are called competitive) perceive the level of equilibrium price prevailing in the market as a given one, which cannot be influenced by any of the firms. Such firms are called price takers (from the English price - price, take - to accept), in contrast to firms - price makers (make - to do), which influence the level of market prices.

The world market of frozen fish can serve as an example of a market that by its conditions is close to the conditions of perfect competition. One fish catching firm accounts for 0.0000107% of the world's fish catch. This means that an increase in the volume of fish catch by one firm even by 2 times would lead to a decrease in the world fish price by only 0.00254%, i.e., it would practically not affect its level. Agriculture is also considered one of the industries closest to perfect competition.

¨ A firm in perfect competition

To begin with, let's define how the demand curve for the products of a firm operating in conditions of perfect competition should look like. First, the firm takes the market price, that is, the latter is a given value for it. Second, the firm acts on the market with a very small part of the total amount of goods produced and sold by the industry. Consequently, the volume of its production will not affect the market situation in any way and this set price level will not change with an increase or decrease in output.

Obviously, in such conditions, the demand curve for the firm's products will look like a horizontal line (see Fig. 1). Whether the firm releases 10 units, 20 or 1, the market will absorb them at the same price P.

From an economic point of view, the price line parallel to the abscissa means the absolute elasticity of demand. In the event of an infinitely small decrease in price, the firm could expand its sales indefinitely. With an infinitesimal increase, the sales price of the enterprise would be reduced to zero.

The presence of an absolutely elastic demand for the company's products is usually called the criterion of perfect competition. As soon as such a situation develops in the market, the firm begins to behave like a perfect competitor. Indeed, the fulfillment of the criterion of perfect competition sets many conditions for the firm for its activity in the market, in particular, it determines the patterns of income generation.

The income (revenue) of a firm is called payments that come in its favor when selling products. Like many other indicators, economics calculates income in three varieties. Total income (TR) call the entire amount of revenue that the firm receives. Average income (A R) reflects revenue per unit of product sold, or (which is the same) total revenue divided by the number of products sold. Finally, marginal income (MR) represents the additional income earned from the sale of the last unit sold.

A direct consequence of the fulfillment of the criterion of perfect competition is that the average income for any volume of output is equal to the same value - the price of the goods, and that the marginal income is always at the same level. For example, if the market price of a loaf is 8 rubles, then a bread stall acting as a perfect competitor accepts it regardless of the volume of sales (the criterion of perfect competition is met). Both 100 and 1000 loaves will be sold at the same price each. Under these conditions, each additionally sold loaf will bring the stall 8 rubles. (marginal income). And the same amount of revenue will be on average for each sold loaf (average income). Thus, equality is established between the average income, marginal income and price (AR \u003d MR \u003d P). Therefore, the demand curve for the products of an individual enterprise in conditions of perfect competition is both the curve of its average and marginal revenue.

As for the total income (total revenue) of the enterprise, it changes proportionally to the change in output and in the same direction (see Fig. 1). That is, there is a direct, linear relationship: T R \u003d P Q .

If the stall in our example sold 100 loaves of 8 rubles each, then its proceeds, of course, will amount to 800 rubles.

Graphically, the curve of total (gross) income is a ray drawn through the origin with a slope: tg a \u003d DTR / DQ \u003d MR \u003d P.

That is, the slope of the gross income curve is equal to the marginal income, which in turn is equal to the market price of the product sold by the competitive firm. From this, in particular, it follows that the higher the price, the steeper the straight line of gross income will go up.

The goal of any firm is to maximize profits. Profit (p) is the difference between total income (TR) and total costs (p) for the sales period:

p \u003d TR - TC \u003d PQ - TC.

It is easy to see that of the three variables on the right-hand side of the equality, the main lever for controlling the volume of profit for the firm is the volume of production. Indeed, the price (P) is a constant under conditions of perfect competition, that is, it does not change. This is an external condition of the firm's activities, which must be reckoned with, and not a factor that can be controlled. As for costs (TS), they themselves largely depend on the volume of production. In other words, in conditions of perfect competition, the most important decisions of the firm are primarily associated with the establishment of the optimal volume of production. But first you need to find a criterion for the expediency of production.

Like many other indicators, this criterion is not the same for the short and long term.

If we talk about the long term, then it is obvious that such the criterion will be the presence of non-negative economic profit (p\u003e 0). If economic losses appear in the long run, the owners of the company resort to liquidating it, i.e. to the closure and sale of property. However, even if the owners of a loss-making company do not want to close it (say, stubbornly hoping for an improvement in the future), the closure is often carried out against their will. Indeed, in order to continue production, a long-term unprofitable firm has to make loans that it is unable to repay. Sooner or later, such a policy leads to bankruptcy (or insolvency), that. e. to the inability of the enterprise to pay its obligations. After the firm is declared bankrupt (in court), the former owners are removed from the management of it, and the property is sent to cover debts to creditors.

The institution of bankruptcy is one of the most important mechanisms for ensuring the social responsibility of entrepreneurs in a market economy. Possessing freedom of entrepreneurship, that is, the right exclusively at their discretion to make any (legal) economic decisions, capitalists must pay for possible mistakes by losing their property. The threat of bankruptcy and the associated compulsory deprivation of property disciplines the entrepreneur, keeps him from adventurous projects, failure to fulfill obligations to partners, careless attraction of borrowed funds without the possibility of returning them.

In Russia, after the 1998 default, a wave of bankruptcies swept the country. In 1998, the arbitration courts initiated more than 4.5 thousand bankruptcy cases - many times more than in all previous years combined. The list of large enterprises that went bankrupt is impressive: in metallurgy it is the legendary ZapSib, Volzhsky Pipe Plant, KMK, etc. Soviet-era audio equipment manufacturer Vega (Berdsk), Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant, Irbit Motorcycle Plant. Even in the "prosperous" oil industry, the bankruptcy procedure of the country's fifth largest company, Sidanko, has begun. ...

At first glance, it may seem that making a profit will determine the decision on the feasibility of production in the short term. However, in reality the situation is more complicated. Indeed, in the short term, part of the company's costs is permanent and does not disappear when production stops. For example, the rent for the land on which the plant is located will have to be paid regardless of whether the plant is idle or operating. In other words, losses to the company are guaranteed even in the event of a complete cessation of production.

The firm will have to weigh when the losses are smaller. In the event of a complete shutdown of the plant, there will be no income, and the expenses will exactly equal the fixed costs. If production continues, variables will be added to fixed costs, but income from product sales will also appear.

Thus, in unfavorable conditions, the decision to temporarily halt production is made not at the moment of the disappearance of profits, but later, when losses from production begin to exceed the value of fixed costs. The criterion for the expediency of production in the short term is that losses do not exceed the amount of fixed costs. (| p |< TFC).

This theoretical position is fully consistent with economic practice. Nobody stops production when losses occur temporarily. During the 1998 financial crisis. the share of unprofitable industrial enterprises in Russia increased, for example, to 51%. But hardly anyone would have considered the best way out of the difficult situation to stop half of the country's industry.

Thus, for a firm operating in the short term, three options are possible:

1. production for the sake of maximizing profits;

2. production for the sake of minimizing losses;

3. termination of production.

A graphic interpretation of all three options is shown in Fig. 2.

The figure shows the standard dynamics of the gross total costs of a certain firm and three variants of curves (more precisely, direct) gross income, which will develop: TR1 - at a high level of prices for the company's products, TR2 - at an average price level and TR3 - at a low one. As noted, the gross income curve rises steeper the higher the prices.

It is easy to see that the gross income curve only in the first case (TR1) turns out to be in a certain part of it above the gross cost curve (TC). It is in this case that the firm will make a profit, and will choose the level of production where the profit is maximum. Graphically, this will be the point (Q1) where the TR1 curve will be higher than the TC curve by the maximum distance. The amount of profit (p1) is highlighted in Fig. 2 with a bold line.

In the second case (TR2), the income curve along its entire length is below the costs, that is, there can be no profit. However, the gap between both curves - and this is how the size of the loss is graphically reflected - is not the same. The losses are significant in the beginning. Then, as production grows, they decrease, reaching their minimum (p2) with the release of Q2 units of output. And then they begin to grow again. It is obvious that the release of Q2, units of production in these conditions is optimal for the company, since it ensures that it minimizes losses.

Finally, in the third case, the gap between costs and income (curve TR3) only grows with production growth. In other words, losses increase monotonically. In this situation, the firm is better off stopping production, resigning itself to the inevitable losses in this case in the amount of gross fixed costs (p3).

However, the termination of production does not mean the liquidation of the enterprise (firm) itself. It's just that the company is forced to temporarily stop production. It will stand until the market price increases to such a level that production begins to acquire some meaning. Or the firm will become convinced of the long-term nature of the price decline and finally cease to exist.

Examples of such situations are temporary stoppages of Russian enterprises for several months or even years, which, unfortunately, is not uncommon during the years of reforms. It stops production of AZLK (Moskvich), then ZIL, or even a manufacturer of seemingly hot goods - the factory near Moscow Mars, which produces chocolate bars. Against this background, there is no need to talk about the countless stops of small businesses.

In comparison with those described in theory, temporary production stops in Russia have a certain specificity. Namely, the low price, as a rule, is not formally the reason for them. The fact is that according to our law, the sale of products below the cost price is simply prohibited, that is, not only the situation P< АVСmin, но и куда более мягкий случай АТСmin > P\u003e AVCmin can never add up. The factory always charges a price above this level.

But the objective law of economics cannot be abolished with the help of a legal norm. When the real market price falls below the cost, the enterprise stops buying the products at the higher price assigned to it. In these conditions, the company usually goes to the latent forms of lowering prices. Namely, he agrees to delay payment, accepts, in barter transactions, less favorable proportions of exchanging his products for other goods, etc. The main thing is that a lot of unsold products accumulate in the warehouse.

Stopping the enterprise in these conditions allows saving on variable costs (temporarily not paying salaries, not buying raw materials, etc.). And during this time, wait for the receipt of money from their debtors and sell off the surplus of finished products.

Until now, we have talked about competition exclusively as a positive factor, but one should not idealize the market of perfect competition. Indeed, not a single type of imperfect competition possesses a set of properties characteristic of a perfect one: the minimum level of costs, the optimal allocation of resources, the absence of deficits and surpluses, and the absence of excess profits and losses. In fact, when economists talk about self-regulation of the market, which automatically brings the economy to the state of optimum - and this tradition goes back to Adam Smith, we can talk about perfect competition and only about it.

At the same time, perfect competition is not without a number of disadvantages:

1. Small businesses, typical of this type of market, often fail to use the most efficient technique. The point is that economies of scale are often only available to large firms.

2. The market of perfect competition does not stimulate scientific and technological progress. Indeed, small firms usually lack the funds to finance the lengthy and costly research and development activities.

3. A purely competitive economy may not provide an adequate range of consumer choice or new product development. Pure competition leads to standardization of products, while other market structures (for example, monopolistic competition and often oligopoly) generate a wide range of types, styles and quality shades of any product. This product differentiation expands the range of free choice of consumers and at the same time allows the most complete satisfaction of the customer's preferences. Critics of pure competition also point out that because it is not progressive in the development of new production techniques, this market model is not conducive to improving existing products and creating new ones.

Thus, for all its merits, the market of perfect competition should not be idealized. The small size of companies operating in the market of perfect competition makes it difficult for them to operate in a modern world saturated with large-scale technology and permeated with innovation processes.

¨ Common features of imperfect competition

The vast majority of real markets are markets of imperfect competition. They got their name due to the fact that competition, and hence the spontaneous mechanisms of self-regulation (the "invisible hand" of the market) act on them imperfectly. In particular, the principle of the absence of surpluses and deficits in the economy is often violated, which just testifies to the efficiency and perfection of the market system. As soon as some goods are excessive and some are not enough, it can no longer be argued that all available resources of the economy are spent only on the production of the necessary goods in the required quantities.

The prerequisites for imperfect competition are:

1. a significant market share of individual manufacturers;

2. the presence of barriers to entry into the industry;

3. heterogeneity of products;

4. imperfection (inadequacy) of market information.

As we will see later, each of these factors separately and all of them together contribute to the deviation of the market equilibrium from the point of equality of supply and demand. So, the only manufacturer of a certain product (monopolist) or a group of large firms that have conspired among themselves (cartel) are able to maintain inflated prices without risking losing customers - all the more there is nowhere else to take this product.

As in the case of perfect competition, in imperfect markets, one can distinguish the main criterion that allows one or another market to be classified in this category. The criterion of imperfect competition is a decrease in the demand and price curve with an increase in the firm's output. Another wording is often used: the criterion of imperfect competition is the negative slope of the demand curve ( D) for the company's products.

Thus, if in conditions of perfect competition the volume of a firm's output does not affect the price level, then in conditions of imperfect competition such an influence exists (this can be clearly seen in Fig. 3).

The economic meaning of this regularity is that a firm can sell large volumes of products with imperfect competition only by reducing prices. Or put another way: the behavior of the firm is significant across the industry.

Indeed, in perfect competition, the price remains the same, no matter how many products the firm produces, because its size is negligible in comparison with the total market capacity. Whether the mini-bakery doubles, keeps at the same level or stops baking bread altogether, the general situation on the food market in Russia will not change in any way and the price of bread will retain its value.

On the contrary, the existence of a relationship between the volume of production and the level of prices directly indicates the importance of the firm on the scale of the market. If, say, AvtoVAZ cuts the supply of Zhiguli by half, there will be a shortage of cars and prices will jump. And this is the case with all varieties of imperfect competition. Another question is that the importance of a company can be attributed not only to size, but also other factors, in particular, the uniqueness of the products. But the relationship between the volume of output and the level of prices is always observed if this is indeed a market of imperfect competition.

¨ Main features of the market of monopolistic competition

Monopolistic competition is one of the forms of imperfect competition. Monopolistic competition is a market structure in which a large number of firms produce interchangeable goods and services.

First of all, attention is drawn to the very term "monopolistic competition". He says that within the framework of this market structure, the features inherent in monopoly and perfect competition, which are antipodes, are combined. Monopolistic competition is related to perfect competition by a large number of sellers who simultaneously act on the market for a given product or service. But they offer not the same, but differentiated products, that is, different interchangeable products that satisfy the same need (different types of soap, toothpaste, clothing models, economics textbooks, etc.). Each type of product in a relatively small size can be produced by small firms. For example, there are many companies on the toothpaste market, but each of them produces a separate type of it and is a monopolist in its production. Any such firm has a competitor who is trying to take away the consumer from it and offer him a different kind of toothpaste. Therefore, all companies that produce toothpaste are competitors, despite the fact that they sell different types of it. It is no coincidence that they pursue an active advertising policy.

Using its position as a relative monopolist, the firm can afford to increase the price of its products, which cannot be done by a competitive firm under the threat of complete loss of customers. In the context of the offer of differentiated products, many of the buyers will still not leave the market, since the seller takes into account their individual needs. For example, women of fashion will not stop sewing clothes from "their" tailor, even if he slightly increases prices; the client of the hairdressing salon will also not leave "his" master in such a case. Unlike an oligopolist, a firm acting in a monopolistic competition does not take into account the competitors' response to its actions, since in a large number of firms this is impossible.

There are many firms operating on the market, and among them there are either no large ones at all, or they do not have decisive advantages over small ones and are adjacent to them. The barriers to entering such a market are relatively low: to open a workshop for the production of upholstered furniture or a fashionable hairdressing salon, large capital is not needed, and it is difficult for competitors to prevent this. Leaving the market is usually not difficult - there are always buyers who are ready to buy a small business.

Why, then, under such liberal conditions prevailing in the markets of the type described, the competition is still not perfect? The reason lies in the variety, product differentiation.

The product produced by each company is somewhat different from the products of other companies. Any of the manufacturers occupies a kind of “mini-monopolist” position (the only manufacturer of a specific narrow variety of a given product) and has a certain power in the market.

Each firm operating in a monopolistic competitive environment controls only a small share of the total market for the product concerned. However, product differentiation leads to the fact that the single market breaks up into separate, relatively independent parts (they are called market segments). And in such a market segment, the share of even a small company can become very large.

The enormous difficulties of Russian enterprises in adapting to the conditions of a market economy is a generally recognized fact. In some cases, the source of the problem lies in the low differentiation of their products.

The fact is that in the Soviet era, enterprises produced everything according to uniform standards and technologies. Moreover, the assortment was extremely narrow: about a dozen varieties of cars were produced in the country, about the same number of TVs, sausages, cheese, etc. Due to this, in a market economy, domestic enterprises were doomed to a tough competitive confrontation.

Product differentiation arises due to the existence of differences between them in quality, service, advertising. Let's take a closer look at each of these product differentiation factors.

First of all, we emphasize that quality is not a one-dimensional characteristic, i.e. is not limited to evaluation, bad or good. Even the basic consumer properties of the simplest products are surprisingly diverse. So, toothpaste should: a) clean the teeth, b) disinfect the oral cavity, c) strengthen the enamel of the teeth, d) strengthen the gums, e) be pleasant to the taste, etc.

And all these properties can be harmoniously combined in one product only as an exception. In many cases, gaining in some property of the product inevitably leads to loss in another. In this example, the addition of effective detergents and disinfectants to the paste irritates the gums; the best medicinal pastes rarely taste good. Therefore, the selection of priorities in the main consumer qualities opens up opportunities for a wide variety of products. And they all become unique in their own way: one paste strengthens the gums better, the other tastier, etc.

Additional consumer properties can also serve as a basis for differentiation, i.e. those features of the product that affect the ease or convenience of its use (for example, different packaging sizes, package differences, etc.).

At the same time, practice shows that in a mature, saturated market, it is additional properties that determine the fate of goods. This, in particular, can be easily traced by observing the zigzags of the market development in post-reform Russia. Let's say, in the conditions of the commodity shortage of 1991-1992. butter, if it appeared on sale, usually came in bulk or in random packages, namely in the form in which the given consignment of humanitarian aid arrived. With the saturation of the market by 1997, bright foil packages with 200, 250 and 500 g of butter were typical, and occasionally there were solid (in plastic boxes) and souvenir packaging (kegs of Vologda oil). Manufacturers tried to improve the chances of selling their products by creating additional conveniences for customers: someone needs a small pack, someone needs a large one, and someone wants to take away a souvenir from Russia. Rush demand after the devaluation of 1998 sharply reduced the market saturation and returned to the shelves half-forgotten bulk oil.

An important quality characteristic of a product is its location. For retail and many services, it is generally critical. So, if the network of gas stations is rare, then the nearest gas station automatically becomes a monopolist in the area.

Finally, even imaginary qualitative differences between products can serve as the basis for product differentiation. It has long been known, in particular, that a significant percentage of smokers on test trials are unable to distinguish "their" brand from others, although they always buy only it. Thus, from the point of view of consumer market behavior, it does not matter whether the products are actually different. The main thing is to think so to him.

Differences in service unite the second (after quality) large group of product differentiation factors. The fact is that for a wide group of products, especially for technically complex consumer goods and many industrial goods, there is a long-term nature of the relationship between the seller and the buyer. An expensive car must work properly, not only at the time of purchase, but also throughout its entire service life.

The full service cycle includes pre-sales service (assistance in choosing the right product; for industrial goods, this often involves a whole research); service at the time of purchase (check, delivery, adjustment) and after-sales service (warranty and post-warranty repairs, making ongoing improvements, advice on optimal operation).

Each of these operations can be performed to a different extent (or not performed at all). As a result, one and the same product, as it were, decomposes into a whole spectrum of varieties that differ sharply in their service characteristics and therefore turn into completely different goods. This phenomenon can currently be observed, in particular, on the Russian computer market, where a few types of computers are offered on different terms and at very different prices.

The third major group of product differentiation factors is related to advertising.

Secondly, it contributes to the formation of new needs. An example is the promotion of disposable diapers for babies on the Russian market. It was advertising that revealed their convenience for parents and benefits for the child, instantly creating a significant market.

Third, advertising creates product differentiation where there is no real difference between them. As already noted, in the cigarette market many qualitative differences are imaginary. Quite real differences in the advertising presentation of the goods are often hidden behind the imaginary differences in quality.

Product differentiation provides firms with well-known monopolistic advantages. But the situation has another interesting side. Earlier we said that access to an industry in which conditions of monopolistic competition have developed is relatively free. Now let's clarify this formulation: entry into such a market is not blocked by any other barriers, with the exception of the obstacles associated with product differentiation.

In other words, product differentiation not only creates advantages for the company, but also helps to protect them from competitors: it is not so easy to accurately repeat the subtle taste of the famous liqueur, or at least find an equivalent answer to a successful advertising campaign. Therefore, firms deliberately create and support differentiation, thereby achieving additional profits for themselves and along the way (regardless of their will - remember the principle of the "invisible hand") providing a variety of goods on the country's market.

¨ Role of non-price competition

In no other market structure does non-price competition play such an important role as in monopolistic competition.

Of the two main types of competition - price and non-price - our enterprises on extremely unfavorable conditions for themselves were involved in the most severe of them, namely, in price competition. Firms that conduct price competition try to attract consumers by setting prices lower than those of the rival. Accordingly, the size of profit is reduced, and if the price falls below costs, then losses appear. At the same time, domestic enterprises (especially when trying to enter foreign markets) often have to compensate for the lag in product quality due to low prices.

On the contrary, with non-price competition, firms seek to attract a buyer not by lowering prices, but by increasing the consumer value of the product. This can be achieved in many ways: improving the quality of the product, better adapting it to the needs of a specific group of consumers, creating a fundamentally new type of product, improving service, activating advertising, etc. The basis for non-price competition is product differentiation.

Until the post-war period, of the two types of competition around the world, price prevailed. Nowadays, however, the situation has changed, and non-price competition has come to the fore. This is due to a number of advantages that this type of competition provides firms conducting it.

First, price clashes turned out to be unprofitable for all participants in the struggle, and they were especially disastrous for small and medium-sized firms. (Namely, in comparison with Western giants, most of them are Russian enterprises.) The fact is that the larger the firm, the more significant financial resources it possesses and the longer it can sell goods at lower prices. The price war in these conditions hits the most vulnerable spots of the domestic industry weakened by the crisis.

Secondly, in the conditions of a modern highly developed economy, the demands of consumers have become more complicated. The market began to accept favorably numerous and varied variations of goods, it became possible to attract consumers with increased quality, special properties of a product or service, etc. The special properties of a product are often more important than price attractiveness. That is, successful product differentiation is often a way of avoiding any competition in general, leaving for a completely free market niche.

Third, the cost of non-price competition, if properly approached, costs the firm less than the cost of price competition. Indeed, a decrease in prices below the optimal level always leads to a decrease in profits, and the decrease is the stronger, the greater the decrease in prices. The relationship between measures of non-price competition and profit is much more complex. A good ad can cost as much as a bad one. The advantage of the first over the second may well be achieved not due to expensive shooting techniques, but due to the interesting idea of \u200b\u200bthe film, its greater clarity, etc. The same goes for product enhancements: a small and therefore inexpensive design change, if well conceived, can make the product much more convenient for the consumer. As a result, the growth of competitiveness will be achieved without high costs.

Of course, it does not follow from what has been said that non-price competition is feasible at all without costs - good advertising or high quality product also cost a lot of money. But the field of activity of the firm is undoubtedly broader than with price competition. There is always hope to beat the competitor with the best ideas. Let's say, using the advantages of the Russian engineering school and the enormous scientific potential of the country.

Finally, fourthly, price competition in our time in most countries, including Russia, is limited by law. The reduction in prices should not reach the level of dumping, i.e. the price cannot fall below the cost price.

¨ The main features of the oligopolistic market

Oligopoly is one of the most common market structures in modern economies. In most countries, almost all branches of heavy industry (metallurgy, chemistry, automotive, electronics, ship and aircraft construction, etc.) have just such a structure.

An oligopoly is a market structure in which there are a small number of selling firms in the market for a product, each of which has a significant market share and has significant price control. However, one should not think that companies can literally be counted on one hand. In an oligopolistic industry, as in monopolistic competition, many small firms often operate alongside large ones. However, several leading companies account for such a large part of the total turnover of the industry that it is their activities that determine the development of events.

Formally, oligopolistic industries usually include those industries where several of the largest firms (in different countries, from 3 to 8 firms are taken as the starting point) produce more than half of all output. If the concentration of production turns out to be lower, then the industry is considered operating in conditions of monopolistic competition.

The main reason for the formation of an oligopoly is economies of scale. An industry acquires an oligopolistic structure if the large size of the firm provides significant cost savings and, therefore, if large firms in it have significant advantages over small ones.

It is customary to say that oligopolistic industries are dominated by the "big two", "big three", "big four", etc. More than half of the sales are from 2 to 10 companies. For example, in the United States, four companies account for 92% of all car production. Oligopoly is characteristic of many industries in Russia. Thus, passenger cars are produced by five enterprises (VAZ, AZLK, GAZ, UAZ, Izhmash). Dynamo steel is produced by three enterprises, 82% of tires for agricultural machines - four, 92% of soda ash - three, all production of magnetic tape is concentrated at two enterprises, motor graders - at three.

The light and food industries are in sharp contrast to them. In these industries, the largest 8 firms account for no more than 10%. The state of the market in this area can be confidently characterized as monopolistic competition, especially since the differentiation of the product in both industries is extremely high (for example, the variety of varieties of sweets that are not even produced by the entire food industry, but only one of its subsectors - the confectionery industry).

But it is not always possible to judge the structure of the market based on indicators related to the entire national economy. So, often certain firms that own an insignificant share of the national market are oligopolists in the local market (for example, shops, restaurants, entertainment enterprises). If a consumer lives in a big city, he is unlikely to go to the other end of the city to buy bread or milk. Two bakeries located in the area of \u200b\u200bhis residence may be oligopolistic.

Of course, the establishment of a quantitative border between oligopoly and monopolistic competition is largely arbitrary. After all, these two types of markets have other differences from each other.

Products on the oligopolistic market can be either homogeneous, standardized (copper, zinc, steel), or differentiated (cars, household electrical appliances). The degree of differentiation affects the nature of competition. For example, in Germany, usually car factories compete with each other in certain classes of cars (the number of competitors reaches nine). Russian car factories practically do not compete with each other, since most of them are highly specialized and turn into monopolists.

An important condition affecting the nature of individual markets is the height of the barriers that enclose the industry (the size of the initial capital, the control of existing firms over new technology and new products using patents and technical secrets, etc.).

The fact is that there can never be many large firms in an industry. Already the multi-billion dollar value of their factories is a reliable barrier to entry of new companies into the industry. In the normal course of events, the firm gradually grows larger, and by the time an oligopoly takes shape in the industry, a narrow circle of the largest firms has already been defined. In order to invade it, you must immediately have such an amount that the oligopolists have gradually invested in the business over the decades. Therefore, history knows only a very small number of cases when a giant company was created “from scratch” through one-time huge investments (Volkswagen in Germany can be considered an example, but the investor in this case was the state, i.e. in the formation of this company played a large role non-economic factors).

But even if funds were found to build a large number of giants, they would not be able to work profitably in the future. After all, the market capacity is limited. There is enough consumer demand to absorb the products of thousands of small bakeries or auto repair shops. However, no one needs metal in the quantities that thousands of giant domains could smelt.

There are significant restrictions on the availability of economic information in this market structure. Each market participant carefully protects trade secrets from their competitors.

A large share in output, in turn, provides oligopolistic firms with a significant degree of market control. Already each of the firms individually is large enough to influence the position in the industry. So, if an oligopolist decides to reduce production, this will lead to higher prices in the market. In the summer of 1998, AvtoVAZ took advantage of this circumstance: it switched to work in one shift, which led to the resorption of unsold car stocks and allowed the plant to raise prices. And if several oligopolists begin to pursue a common policy, then their joint market power will come close to that of a monopoly.

A characteristic feature of the oligopolistic structure is that firms, when forming their pricing policy, must take into account the reaction of competitors, that is, all producers operating in the oligopolistic market are interdependent. With a monopolistic structure, such a situation does not arise (there are no competitors), with perfect and monopolistic competition - also (there are too many competitors, and it is impossible to take into account their actions). Meanwhile, the reaction of competing firms can be different and difficult to predict. Suppose a household refrigerator company decides to cut its prices by 15%. Competitors may react to this in different ways. First, they can reduce prices by less than 15%. In this case, this company will increase the sales market. Secondly, competitors can also reduce prices by 15%. The volume of sales will increase for all firms, but due to lower prices, profits may decrease. Third, a competitor can declare a “price war,” that is, reduce prices even more. Then the question will arise whether to accept his challenge. Usually large companies do not enter into a “price war” between themselves, as its outcome is difficult to predict.

Oligopolistic interdependence is the need to take into account the reaction of competing firms to the actions of a large firm in an oligopolistic market.

Any model of oligopoly must proceed from taking into account the actions of competitors. This is an additional significant limitation that must be taken into account when choosing a behavior pattern for an oligopolistic firm. Therefore, there is no standard model for determining the optimal production volume and product price for an oligopoly. We can say that determining the pricing policy of an oligopolist is not only science, but also art. The subjective qualities of a manager, such as intuition, the ability to make non-standard decisions, take risks, courage, decisiveness, etc., play an important role here.

¨ Varieties of oligopoly

The oligopolistic structure can be very different, each of its varieties leaves an imprint on the development of the company's pricing policy. The number and size of firms in the industry, the nature of products, the degree of technology renewal, etc. play a role. Consider some of the options for the market behavior of oligopolistic firms.

Uncoordinated oligopoly in which firms do not enter into any contacts with each other and do not consciously try to find a point of equilibrium that suits everyone.

Cartel (or conspiracy) of firms , which does not eliminate their production and marketing independence, but provides for an agreement between them on a number of issues. First of all, cartel agreements include uniform, monopoly high prices at which cartel members are obliged to sell their goods on the market.

The cartel agreement also provides for the division of the sales market. This means that each cartel member undertakes to sell their goods, for example, only in certain territories.

In addition, in order to be able to maintain high prices, the supply of goods on the market is often limited, and this requires a limitation of the size of production. Therefore, cartel agreements often provide for the determination of the share in the production of various goods for each member of the cartel.

Collusion can be either secret or legal. In many European countries, cartels are allowed, in Russia and the United States they are prohibited by law. There are many international cartels, the most famous of which is OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).

Suppose that the firms in the cartel decide to set a uniform price for their products. This requires constructing a marginal cost curve for the cartel as a whole. The optimal volume of production in the cartel can then be determined to maximize the total profit. In other words, the cartel acts as a monopolist. But the most difficult problem is the distribution of sales among the parties to the cartel agreement. In an effort to maximize profits, the cartel must set quotas in such a way that the total costs are minimal. But in practice, it is rather difficult to carry out such quotas. The problem is solved through complex negotiations, during which each firm seeks to "bargain" for itself the best conditions, to outsmart partners. Firms with higher costs often manage to obtain large quotas, which does not allow solving the problem of maximizing profits. In fact, markets are usually divided geographically or according to the prevailing sales volume.

Cartel creation faces major obstacles. It's not just antitrust laws. An agreement is often difficult to reach due to the large number of firms, significant differences in the range of products, and the level of costs. Usually a cartel member is tempted to break the agreement and make a big profit. Due to legal prohibition, cartels do not officially exist in modern Russia. However, the practice of one-time price fixing is widespread. Suffice it to recall how periodically there is a shortage of butter or sunflower oil, or gasoline on the consumer market. And how then these goods reappear with greatly increased prices at the same time for all sellers.

Often, various associations try to carry out functions close to cartel on a more permanent basis: tea importers, juice producers, etc. In October 1998, for example, the State Antimonopoly Committee of the Russian Federation launched an investigation into the increase in gasoline prices by members of the Moscow Fuel Association, which unites about 60 companies that own gas stations and controls 85-90% of gasoline sold in Moscow.

However, the future raises even greater concern in this sense. The high concentration of production, the inability to win customers by market methods, the close contacts of all enterprises in the main industries that developed in the pre-reform era, and a number of other factors favor the massive emergence of cartels. If the development of events really follows this scenario, the economy could be severely damaged. Its prevention is therefore an important task of state economic policy.

Cartel-like market structure (or "playing by the rules"), in which firms deliberately make their behavior understandable and predictable for competitors, thereby facilitating the achievement of equilibrium in the industry or a state close to it.

Firms do not enter into agreements with each other, but subject their behavior to certain unwritten rules. This policy, on the one hand, avoids legal liability arising from anti-cartel legislation. On the other hand, to reduce the risk of an unpredictable reaction from competitors, i.e. protect yourself from the main danger inherent in an uncoordinated oligopoly. Playing by the rules makes it easier to achieve oligopolistic equilibrium.

The most commonly used "playing by the rules" technique is price leadership. It consists in the fact that all major price changes are first carried out by one firm (usually the largest), and then they are repeated in similar sizes by the rest of the companies. The price leader is virtually alone in determining prices (and hence the volume of production) for the entire industry. But he does it in such a way that the new prices will suit the rest. After all, if they are unprofitable to competitors, then they simply will not follow the leader and the industry will move into a state of uncoordinated oligopoly, which is dangerous for all participants. It is no coincidence that the leader often “probes” the attitude of competitors, publicizing in advance the size of the forthcoming change and listening to the reaction of other firms.

Price leadership is very common in the West, and today it can be observed in Russia, for example, in the automotive industry. The Russian automotive industry is a classic example of oligopoly. There are few independent car manufacturers in the country (about a dozen), and even fewer large firms that have a significant impact on the market. So, in the production of passenger cars there are only three of them - AvtoVAZ, GAZ and AZLK.

In 1991-1992. the leader in prices for passenger cars has always been the largest manufacturer - AvtoVAZ. AZLK and GAZ followed him. It was a time of hyperinflation, when everything became more expensive. The speed of price increases was critical. And AvtoVAZ set a very fast pace. There were economic opportunities for this. With the onset of social stratification, almost the first purchase of rich people was the car. In addition, new private firms bought many cars, where mobility is the main guarantee of success.

AvtoVAZ's leadership in prices actually boiled down to their fastest possible increase, which was quite satisfactory for other manufacturers as well. At the turn of 1993, however, AZLK and GAZ refused to repeat the next doubling of prices after the leader. The fact is that Zhiguli at that time were competitive abroad and AvtoVAZ could focus on higher prices abroad. Having inflated prices within the country and, accordingly, having lost some of the Russian consumers, he did not lose anything - the freed cars were exported and brought even large profits to the plant. On the contrary, the sales of "Muscovites" and "Volga" abroad were small. Their producers were forced to reckon more with the purchasing power of Russians. And they stopped raising prices.

VAZ-2109 has become noticeably more expensive than the Volga and almost three times more expensive than the Moskvich. As a result, AvtoVAZ had its first sales problems. The lesson was not in vain: in the same 1993, the growth rate of prices for "Zhiguli" fell sharply.

The main factor in the following years was the gradual loss of the international competitiveness of Russian cars. At first, Zhiguli had to leave foreign markets. Then, despite protective customs duties, foreign cars began to squeeze them in Russia as well.

A new turn of the situation was caused by the devaluation of the ruble. It made foreign cars unaffordably expensive and opened the way for raising prices for domestic cars. Frightened by recent sales difficulties, AvtoVAZ this time refused to take the lead in their increase. It was taken over by AZLK, which by that time had managed to significantly improve the quality of the machines it produced. Thus, the price leadership system has been restored in the industry.

¨ Main features of monopoly

Monopoly is the clearest manifestation of imperfect competition. Strictly speaking, under the conditions of market monopolization, the very existence of competition can be recognized only with great reservations. After all, competition implies the division of economic power, the consumer's choice. That is why the competition between manufacturers for consumer demand begins, and the desire to best satisfy his needs arises. Under the conditions of monopoly, consumers are confronted by a single giant producer. Whether the consumer wants it or not, he compelled use the products of the monopolist, agree to its price terms, etc.

The monopolist's omnipotence is aided by the uniqueness (irreplaceability) of the latter's products. Can a resident of Moscow or Vladivostok voluntarily refuse the services of a monopoly supplier of electricity, replacing it with something in the household? Are the coal enterprises of Kuzbass capable of transporting their products without the help of the railway? The negative answer to such questions is obvious, as well as the fact that such a situation allows the monopolist to dictate its terms from a position of strength.

Strengthens the power of the monopolist over the market and the completeness of the information available to him. Serving of all consumers of the industry, he knows exactly the size of the market, he can quickly and with absolute accuracy track changes in sales volumes and, of course, is aware of the details of the prices that he himself sets.

It is clear that the combination of all these circumstances creates an exceptionally beneficial environment for the monopolist and favorable preconditions for obtaining superprofits. It is obvious, however, that these advantages would instantly disappear if at least one more competing manufacturer appeared in the industry. The monopolist would immediately have to move from dictating the consumer to scrupulous consideration of the consumer's needs and interests.

The current generation of Russians, who have experienced the collapse of state monopoly on their own experience, can easily find a lot of everyday examples of such changes. Stale bread, for example, which until recently reigned supreme in bakeries, instantly became a rarity after the monopoly supply system was replaced by competition from a mass of independent bakeries.

That is why the monopolistic structure of the market, where it exists, is protected by the whole system practically irresistible barriers to the invasion of the industry by independent competitors. The main barriers that exist in the monopolistic industry are:

1. the advantages of large-scale production (up to natural monopoly);

2. legal barriers (monopoly ownership of sources of raw materials, land, rights to scientific and technological achievements, state-sanctioned exclusive rights);

3. unfair competition.

Let's take a closer look at these types of barriers.

As in the oligopolistic market, in a monopolized industry only large enterprises . The only chance of a monopoly is where size creates large cost advantages. This theory has been repeatedly verified by practical experience.

The fact is that the high profits of monopolists have always been the envy of small companies. In the history of many countries, attempts have been recorded by small firms under one name or another to create a cartel (an association, association, commission on standards, etc., since cartels are officially prohibited in most countries) and by joint efforts to dictate their terms to suppliers and consumers.

In modern Russia, for example, such steps were taken by tea importers and juice producers. The outcome of these attempts, however, has always been disappointing for their organizers. Since the costs of this organization were not lower than those of small producers, nothing prevented new, independent firms from entering the industry and successfully competing with the cartel, and disgruntled members of the association itself (such would necessarily appear) quietly and with impunity to leave it.

Industries where large enterprises have lower costs than competitors are a different matter. This creates a high barrier for anyone wishing to enter the industry. , and under favorable circumstances for the leading firms, it allows them to completely monopolize the market. An example of such a company is the Russian enterprise "Center im. Khrunicheva "- manufacturer of heavy space rockets" Proton ".

Besides economic barriers, monopoly is usually protected by legal barriers (legal) , and often they play a decisive role.

The most common source of legal barriers is property rights. If a certain firm owns, for example, unique sources of raw materials, land with special properties, etc., this automatically creates the preconditions for a monopoly. It is only important that the product produced using the named natural resources is itself unique and irreplaceable.

Intellectual property rights are also legally protected. So, a properly executed and registered invention (confirming this document is called a patent) gives its owner a monopoly on the production of the corresponding product for a certain time. The owner of a patent can exercise his monopoly right alone, or he can provide it to other persons for a fee in full or in part (issue a license). For example, it can sell a license for the production and sale of a patented product in a certain country on the condition of paying a certain percentage of the price from each unit of goods sold.

On the contrary, the absence of a patent deprives the inventor of all privileges. This is how the legal nature of this barrier is manifested: there is a patent - there is a right, no patent - no rights. For our country, this circumstance is of great importance, since almost all inventions of the Soviet era are not protected by international patents and up to now are used by foreigners free of charge.

With manifestations unfair competition the state is fighting in the toughest way. The fact is that a large manufacturer has a lot of advantages in the fight against smaller competitors, in fact, they amount to the use of brute force. Using such methods, you can force the bank to suspend lending to competitors, the railways - the transportation of their goods (this is what John D. Rockefeller once did), etc. There is an opportunity to oust a competitor and establish a monopoly even where it would never have been formed in an honest way.

An important type of unfair competition is dumping - the deliberate sale of products below cost in order to drive out a competitor. A large firm - a potential monopoly - has large financial reserves. Therefore, it is able to trade for a long time at a loss at low prices, forcing a competitor to do the same. When the latter fails and goes bankrupt, the monopolist will raise prices again and compensate for its losses.

In Russia, the problem of monopolization of the economy is very acute. The main feature of the monopolization of the Russian market is that it has developed as the "heir" of the state monopoly of the socialist economy.

The socialist economy was a single national economic complex, in which each enterprise was not completely autonomous, but was an integral part of the nationwide superstructure. At the same time, the satisfaction of the needs of the entire country in this or that type of product was often entrusted to only one or two factories. Thus, at the end of the 1980s, more than 1100 enterprises were complete monopolists in the production of their products. Even more often there was a situation when the number of manufacturers throughout the giant country did not exceed 2-3 factories. In total, out of 327 product groups produced by the country's industry, 290 (89%) were subject to strong monopolization.

Thus, if in countries with market economies monopolization usually took place through the organizational combination of initially independent companies, then socialist monopoly was based on the deliberate creation of only one producer (or a very narrow group of producers).

The beginning of market reforms in our country led to a sharp increase in monopolistic tendencies. This was partly due to the collapse of the USSR and the weakening of economic ties between the former Soviet republics. New monopolists were added to the old monopolists, namely, enterprises that were not the only producers within the entire Union, but became such in the reduced territory.

However, the change in economic conditions was of much greater importance. Thanks to them, the consequences of monopolization and its impact on the economy have sharply increased. The fact is that the transformation of Russian factories into private enterprises has created a powerful incentive for obtaining monopoly profits. And the freedom to set prices and choose production volumes gave firms the means to achieve this goal. All three of the most important consequences of monopolization (understatement of production, overstatement of prices, obtaining monopoly superprofits), hitherto held back by the socialist state, burst out. At the same time, the old vice of Soviet monopoly producers - inefficiency - persisted wherever the monopoly remained. Strengthening manifestations of monopoly, in turn, negatively affected the overall course of reforms in the country.

Using their monopoly power, the monopolists sharply limited the supply. A deliberate decrease in output, combined with an increase in prices by Russian monopoly enterprises, was the most important microeconomic reason for the particular depth of the crisis in Russia.

¨ Natural monopolies

In some industries, the rule applies without any restrictions: the larger the scale of production, the lower the costs. This creates the prerequisites for strengthening one single manufacturer in such an industry. This state of the market is a monopoly - a situation fraught with a number of major problems for the economy. In this case, however, monopoly arises due to natural reasons: the technological characteristics of production are such that a single producer serves the market more efficiently than several competing firms are able to do. Economists call such a monopoly natural, or technological. Various types of infrastructure are a classic example of this.

Indeed, it is not economically feasible to build two alternative airports or lay two competing railways next to each other.

It makes no sense to split up natural monopolies either. For example, even if the railway network monopolized by one company is divided into several regional sections and transferred to the ownership of independent companies, the natural source of monopoly will still not be eliminated. From city A to city B it will still be possible to drive only one road. As a result, the single market for transportation services will be divided into a number of local ones. Instead of one monopoly, there will be several (each in its own area). The level of competition will not increase. Moreover, due to the difficulties in coordinating the work of regional companies, the total costs of the railway industry may increase.

The macroeconomic aspect of the problem is also important. Infrastructure networks, which are natural monopolies, ensure the interconnection of economic entities and the integrity of the national economic system. They don't speak for nothing. that in modern Russia, the economic unity of the country is not least determined by unified railways, general electricity and gas supply.

Thus, the destruction of natural monopolies is unacceptable, but this does not mean that the state should not interfere in their activities, on the contrary, it should regulate the activities of natural monopolies in order to avoid abuses on their part.

¨ Antitrust Policy Principles

Monopoly is associated with a whole bunch of sharply negative consequences for the country's economy: underproduction, overpriced, inefficient production. The client of a monopoly firm is forced to put up with high prices, agree with poor quality products, their obsolescence (slowdown in technical progress), lack of service and other manifestations of neglect of consumer interests. Even more dangerous is the fact that the monopoly completely blocks the self-regulation mechanisms of the market.

The omnipotence of the monopolist, due to the insurmountable barriers on the way to the industry, is not threatened, even in the long term. The market alone is unable to solve this problem. In these conditions, the situation can only be improved by the state pursuing a deliberate antimonopoly policy. It is no coincidence that in our time there is not a single developed country (and Russia in this sense is no exception) where there would be no special antimonopoly legislation and there would be no special authority to oversee its implementation.

At the same time, the implementation of antimonopoly policy is associated with a number of objective difficulties. As already noted, industries in which it is possible to establish a monopolistic structure are characterized by a large optimal size of the enterprise, i.e. a minimum of average long-term costs is achieved with very large production volumes. Small-scale production in potentially monopoly industries is highly inefficient. Assembling cars in tiny factories cannot achieve the same low costs as on the assembly line of AvtoVAZ.

And this is far from a special case. You can talk about impossibility, transformation of a monopolized industry into an industry of perfect competition as a general rule. This kind of transformation is hampered by economies of scale. Even if the state insists on its own and, despite rising costs, will forcibly impose small-scale production, artificially formed dwarf enterprises will turn out to be uncompetitive internationally. Sooner or later they will be crushed by foreign giants.

For these reasons, direct fragmentation of monopoly firms in developed market economies is quite rare. The usual goal of antitrust policy is not so much to combat monopolists as such, but to limit monopoly abuse.

The question is especially acute regarding natural monopolies. Their high economic efficiency makes crushing them absolutely unacceptable. As monopolists, these structures try to solve their problems primarily by raising tariffs and prices. The consequences of this for the country's economy are the most destructive. Production costs in other industries are increasing, non-payments are growing, and interregional ties are paralyzed.

At the same time, the natural nature of the monopoly position, although it creates opportunities for effective work, does not at all guarantee that these opportunities will be realized in practice. Indeed, in theory, RAO UES of Russia could have lower costs than several competing electricity firms. But where are the guarantees that it wants to keep them at a minimum level, and, say, will not increase the costs of the company's top management.

The main way to combat the negative aspects of natural monopolies is to state control over the pricing of natural monopoly goods and the volume of their production (for example, by defining the range of consumers subject to mandatory service).

In addition to price regulation, a certain benefit - especially in our country - can be brought about by reforming the structure of natural monopolies. The fact is that in Russia, within the framework of a single corporation, both the production of natural monopoly goods and the production of such goods that are more efficient to produce in competitive conditions are often combined. This association is, as a rule, vertical integration. As a result, a giant monopoly is formed, representing the whole sphere of the national economy.

RAO Gazprom, RAO UES of Russia, the Ministry of Railways are the clearest examples of such associations. RAO Gazprom, along with the Unified Gas Supply System of Russia (ie, a natural monopoly element), includes geological exploration, production, instrument-making enterprises, design and technological structures, and social facilities (ie, potentially competitive elements). The Ministry of Railways is in charge of both infrastructure (railways, stations, information system) and non-monopoly activities (contracting and construction and repair organizations, catering establishments). RAO "UES of Russia" unites both power grids and power plants. Therefore, there is an opportunity to develop competition in those types of activities of natural monopolies where it can be achieved.

Unlike natural, artificial (or entrepreneurial) monopoly is formed in those industries where a single producer does not have increased efficiency compared to several competing firms. The establishment of a monopolistic type of market is therefore not inevitable for such an industry, although in practice it may develop if the future monopolist manages to eliminate competitors.

The use of the term "artificial monopoly" in the economic and legal literature has the following peculiarity: this concept combines the domination of a single monopolist, which is quite rare on the market, and the more widespread situation of predominance of several more or less cooperating firms in it, that is, speech at once it is about pure monopoly and about two types of oligopoly - cartel and cartel-like market structure. Such a broader interpretation of the term "monopoly" is justified by the fact that in all the above cases, the dominant firms in the market are to some extent able to act as a whole, that is, they show signs of monopoly dominance in the market.

In the case of artificial monopoly, the main direction of antimonopoly policy is to counteract the formation of such monopolies, and sometimes even to destroy the existing ones. To do this, the state uses a wide range of sanctions: these are preventive measures (for example, a ban on the merger of large firms), and various, and often very large, penalties for improper market behavior (for example, for an attempt to collusion with competitors), and direct demonopolization, i.e. That is, the compulsory splitting of the monopolist into several independent firms.

The first legislative act in the history of Russia regulating the order of the competitive behavior of firms in a market economy and containing "the rules of the" game "for competitors was adopted in March 1991. This is the law of the Russian Federation" On Competition and Restriction of Monopolistic Activity in Product Markets. " d. the text of the Law was amended and supplemented.

The main body that implements antimonopoly policy in Russia is the Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy and Business Support. Its rights and opportunities are quite broad, and its status corresponds to the position of similar bodies in other countries with market economies.

In accordance with the new interpretation of the Law, an enterprise controlling 65% or more of the commodity market can be considered an unconditional monopolist. An enterprise controlling 35-65% of the market can also be recognized as a monopolist, but for this the antimonopoly authorities must prove that there is a "dominant position" of an economic entity in the market by studying a specific market situation.

A “dominant position” gives a firm the ability to exert a decisive influence on competition, hinder market access for other business entities, or otherwise restrict the freedom of their economic activity. A list of shares has been established that are interpreted as abuse of a dominant position. They include the withdrawal of goods from circulation in order to create a deficit, the imposition of conditions that are unfavorable to the counterparty or not related to the subject of the contract, the creation of obstacles to competitors' access to the market, violation of the established pricing procedure. Agreements of economic entities that restrict competition are considered to be agreements on prices for goods and services, on prices at auctions and tenders, on dividing the market, and on restricting access to the market.

The law establishes state control over the creation, merger, takeover, transformation, liquidation of economic entities, as well as over compliance with antimonopoly legislation when acquiring shares, shares, stakes in the authorized capital of an enterprise, and forced separation of economic entities. The liability of enterprises and officials for violation of antimonopoly legislation is envisaged.

What policy is the state pursuing in relation to natural monopolies? In this case, a contradiction arises. On the one hand, firms - natural monopolists, like any monopolists, set high monopoly prices, reducing the volume of production, and receive super profits. On the other hand, as mentioned above, competition in industries with a natural monopoly is economically ineffective. Therefore, the state, while preserving natural monopolies, takes measures to limit their negative consequences for society, primarily by controlling the prices of their products.

Considerable attention is paid to combating competition-restricting practices of local authorities. In the context of an unstable economic situation in the country, regional authorities often try to support their enterprises using illegal methods. For example, under one pretext or another to prohibit the import of competing goods from other areas. This creates a monopoly position for local producers, which naturally provokes protests from the Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy. However, as in other areas of modern Russian economy and politics, the central authorities, despite the legal validity of their demands, are far from always able to overcome the resistance of the local authorities.

On the whole, the system of antimonopoly regulation in Russia is still in its infancy and requires radical improvement.

Today we can state with satisfaction that the traditionally existing gap between Russia and the developed capitalist countries in the field of competition theory and practice, at least, has ceased to deepen. The real transition to market relations objectively demanded a more serious attitude to this.

The benefits of competition are clear. With competition in the marketplace, manufacturers are constantly striving to lower their production costs in order to increase profits. The result is increased productivity, lower costs, and the company can lower prices. Competition also encourages manufacturers to improve the quality of their products and constantly increase the variety of products and services offered. T. about. manufacturers are forced to constantly compete with competitors for buyers in the sales market by expanding and improving the range of high-quality goods and services offered at lower prices. The consumer benefits from this.

However, as practice has shown, most Russian enterprises are not ready to actively compete. With the liberalization of prices and the jump in inflation, the industry found itself in a difficult situation.

During many decades of the Soviet period, the economy of our country was closed, there was no competition either between domestic producers (almost all sectors of the national economy were highly monopolized, enterprises did not have the right to independently make economic decisions), or with foreign ones. This led to low production efficiency, an excessively high level of costs, and a deep technological lag behind advanced scientific and technical developments in many sectors of the Soviet economy.

Therefore, the wave of imports that flooded the Russian market after the collapse of the USSR, instead of a positive effect, had an extremely negative impact. Most of the imported goods are produced using modern technologies at lower costs than Russian goods, as a result of which they are cheaper and often of better quality compared to domestic counterparts. In addition, our factories in a planned economy did not have a tradition of competitive struggle, and such important components as non-price competition and advertising were not developed. Thus, Russian manufacturers were simply not ready to compete with foreign ones, and many of them went bankrupt in the first years of the reform, which plunged the country into a deep crisis.

Perhaps such consequences would not have happened if the state had acted more cautiously in regulating the volume of imports, gradually increasing the level of competition in the country's domestic market, allowing domestic producers to adapt to the new conditions.

The problem of the competitiveness of Russian goods remains acute to this day, therefore, a well-thought-out, competent government policy is needed, aimed at controlling the import of goods and assisting domestic producers.

And nevertheless, the way out of the difficult financial situation can only be on the way of creating a competitive production focused on the needs of consumers. And in this sense, competition is not a destabilizing factor, but a condition for the survival of domestic production.

There is no denying the positive aspects that competition has brought to our economy. The theory of perfect competition is not as far removed from Russian reality as one might think. This is facilitated by the development of small business in our country, which, despite all the difficulties, is rapidly gaining momentum.

The fact is that the majority of Russian businessmen started their business literally from scratch: no one had large capital in the USSR. Therefore, small business has embraced even those areas that are controlled by big capital in other countries. Nowhere in the world do small firms play such a prominent role in export-import operations. In our country, many categories of consumer goods are imported mainly by millions of shuttles, i.e. not even just small, but the smallest enterprises. Likewise, only in Russia the smallest brigade firms are actively engaged in the construction for individuals and the renovation of apartments. Small wholesale trade is also a specifically Russian phenomenon.

Shuttles, photo studio, hairdressing salons; sellers offering the same brands of cigarettes or chewing gum at metro stations and auto repair shops; typists and translators; apartment renovation specialists and peasants selling in vegetable markets - all of them are united by the approximate similarity of the offered product, negligible in comparison with the size of the market, the scale of business, the large number of sellers, that is, many of the conditions of perfect competition. Obligatory for them and the need to accept the prevailing market price. The criterion of perfect competition in the sphere of small business in Russia is met quite often.

Thus, conditions close to perfect competition exist in many sectors of the economy, where new private business dominates.

A completely different picture is observed in industries dominated by privatized enterprises. These sectors of the economy are usually highly monopolized.

The high level of monopolization and its sharply negative impact on the economy makes it necessary to conduct an antimonopoly policy in our country. Moreover, Russia needs demonopolization, i.e. a radical reduction in the number of sectors of the economy where the monopoly has been established.

The main problem and at the same time a difficulty is the specificity of the monopoly inherited from the socialist era: Russian monopolists for the most part cannot be demonopolized by downsizing.

In the West, demonopolization of giant enterprises is possible by dividing them into parts. These monopolies were formed through the amalgamation and acquisition of independent firms. The latter, at least theoretically (in practice, this is rarely done, and there is no need for this, since one hundred percent monopolists are almost never met), can be restored as independent companies. The Russian monopolists, on the contrary, were immediately built as a single plant or technological complex, which, in principle, could not be divided into separate parts without complete destruction.

Another way of demonopolization - foreign competition - was probably the most effective and effective blow to domestic monopoly. When next to the product of a monopolist on the market there is an import analogue superior in quality and comparable in price, all monopolistic abuses become impossible. The monopolist has to think about how not to be ousted from the market at all.

But the problem is that due to ill-considered monetary and customs policies, import competition in very many cases turned out to be excessively strong. Instead of limiting abuse, it effectively destroyed entire industries.

Obviously, the use of such a potent method must be very careful. Imported goods, undoubtedly, should be present on the Russian market, being a real threat to our monopolists, but should not turn into a reason for the mass liquidation of domestic enterprises.

Another way - the creation of new enterprises that compete with the monopolists - is preferable in all respects. It removes the monopoly without destroying the monopolist itself as an enterprise. Moreover, new enterprises always mean production growth and new jobs.

The problem is that in today's conditions it is difficult to implement. Due to the economic crisis, there are few domestic and foreign companies in Russia willing to invest in the creation of new enterprises. Nevertheless, state support for the most promising investment projects can give certain shifts in this regard even in crisis conditions.

Natural monopolies are a particular problem. Every now and then in the Russian press there are reports of rolling power outages, non-payments, conflicts between monopolists and consumers. Perhaps, there is no other country where natural monopolies would play as important a role as in Russia, because there is no country comparable to Russia in terms of area and population living in difficult climatic conditions. The high efficiency of natural monopolies makes it impossible to crush them. The main way to combat the negative aspects of natural monopolies is state control over the pricing of natural monopoly goods and over the volume of their production.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, these problems have become acute in Russia: without firm and consistent measures against monopoly, one cannot hope for the success of the economic reform and the transition to a market economy. The success of economic transformations to a large extent depends on a balanced, verified system of government regulation of monopoly processes and competitive relations.

At this stage, the problem of monopolization and unfair competition ceases to be purely economic - it becomes more and more political and social. Undoubtedly, in some cases the existence of a monopoly is justified and necessary, but these processes must be tightly controlled by the state to prevent abuse of its monopoly position.

Antimonopoly legislation and the activities of antimonopoly authorities play a decisive role in creating a favorable competitive environment on the market, the correct behavior of which contributes to the stabilization of the entire economy as a whole.

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Of course, you can get rid of fixed costs if you liquidate the company. But this is no longer a problem of a short-term, but a long-term period, since in the short-term period production capacities do not change, including not being liquidated.

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Economic theory. Makhovikova Galina Afanasyevna

8.2. Types of competition. Perfect and imperfect competition

Competition comes in different forms and is carried out in different ways. It can be intra-industry (between similar goods) and inter-industry (between goods of different industries).

It can be price and non-price, perfect or imperfect. Let's consider the last four types of competition in more detail.

Price competition involves the sale of goods and services at prices that are lower than those of a competitor. Reducing prices is possible either by reducing costs, or by reducing profits, which can only be afforded by large firms, or by price discrimination.

Price discrimination Is the sale of certain types of goods or services produced at the same costs at different prices to different buyers. Differences in price are determined not so much by differences in product quality or costs of production, as by the ability of the monopoly to arbitrarily set prices. For example, an airline reduces the cost of air tickets when buying them back and forth; the cinema makes discounts on tickets for children, seniors or for morning sessions; the institute reduces tuition fees for needy students, etc.

Price discrimination is possible under three conditions:

The seller must be a monopolist or have some degree of monopoly power;

The seller must be able to classify buyers into groups that have different ability to pay for the product;

The original purchaser should not be able to resell the product or service.

Price competition is often used in the provision of services (doctor, lawyer) or when transporting perishable goods from one market to another, etc.

Non-price competition is based on the sale of products of higher quality and reliability, achieved through technical superiority.

Improving product quality can be achieved:

a) either by differentiating the product itself;

b) either by differentiating the product by marketing methods;

c) either through the competition of new brands.

The differentiation of the product itself means the variety of homogeneous products by changing their design and improving the quality characteristics. These measures are aimed at winning the "loyalty" of customers, expressed in the belief of the latter that these products are "better" than competitors' products.

Product differentiation by marketing methods includes: advertising in the media, trial sales, sales promotion through dealers, and outlets.

The competition of new brands takes into account that in the conditions of technological progress, existing products of firms begin to quickly become obsolete. To stay competitive, the firm is forced to introduce new brands or rework old ones.

Depending on how the participants in market relations compete with each other, they distinguish between perfect (free) and imperfect competition and the corresponding markets: free competition and imperfect competition.

The less the influence of individual firms on the price of products, the more competitive the market is considered.

Perfect competition (free competition market) is an ideal image of competition in which:

Numerous sellers and buyers with equal opportunities and rights operate independently of each other in the market;

The exchange is carried out with standardized and homogeneous products;

Buyers and sellers have complete information about the products they are interested in;

There is the possibility of free entry and exit from the market, and its participants have no incentive to merge.

The main feature of perfect competition: none of the firms influences the retail price, since the share of each of them in the total output is insignificant.

An increase or decrease in the number of products produced by an individual firm does not have a tangible effect on the total supply and, therefore, on prices. Moreover, no seller can raise the price above the established market price without losing their customers.

Perfect competition in full is unattainable. You can only approach it. With a certain degree of convention, the competition that existed until about the middle of the 19th century can be considered free.

Historically and logically, following the analysis of the market for perfect competition, one should turn to the study of the market for imperfect competition. An outstanding contribution to the analysis of the market of imperfect competition was made by such economists as O. Cournot, E. Chamberlin, J. Robinson, J. Hicks and others. Perfect competition turns into imperfect when a monopolist appears on the market.

Therefore, it is useful to preface the consideration of imperfect competition with an analysis of the process of the formation of monopolies.

From the second half of the XIX century. under the influence of scientific and technological progress, there is a rapid process of concentration of production, which leads to the formation of large and super-large enterprises, that is, monopolies.

Monopoly (Greek monos - one, field - I sell) occurs when a separate manufacturer takes a dominant position and controls the market for a given product.

The aim of a monopoly is to obtain the maximum possible income by controlling the price or volume of production in the market. The means to an end is monopoly price, which provides profits in excess of normal.

Monopolies are formed by the merger of several companies and have the following organizational forms:

Cartel - an agreement on a quota (quantity) of products and the division of sales markets.

Syndicate is an association with the aim of organizing joint sales of products.

A trust is a monopoly in which property, production, and sales of the products of its member firms are united.

The concern is a monopoly with a single financial center for all its member firms in different industries, but with a common technology.

A conglomerate is an association based on the penetration of large corporations into industries that have no production and technological connection with the sphere of activity of the parent company.

The emergence of monopolies makes competition imperfect, that is, monopolistic (the market of imperfect competition).

Imperfect competition is understood as a market in which at least one of the conditions of free competition is not met.

This condition is primarily the product differentiation that appears in an imperfect market.

Imperfect competition is divided into three types: monopolistic competition with product differentiation, oligopoly, pure monopoly.

1. With monopolistic competition with product differentiation, a large number of buyers and sellers remain on the market. But a new phenomenon arises - product differentiation, that is, the product has such properties that distinguish it from similar competitors' products. These properties are: high quality of the product, beautiful packaging, good sales conditions, a favorable location of the store, a high level of service, a pretty saleswoman, etc.

Having such advantages, the owner of a differentiated product becomes to a certain extent a monopolist and acquires the ability to influence the price. But since the sales volume of each seller is relatively small, there are a lot of monopolistic firms and each of them has limited control over the market price - this is a distinctive feature of this type of competition. The term "product differentiation" was introduced into scientific circulation by E. Chamberlin. He associated monopoly power in the market primarily with the nature and characteristics of the goods sold and showed that market relations between the seller and the buyer depend to a large extent on the nature of the product.

2. Oligopolistic competition is represented by a market dominated by several firms (Greek oligos - few, “field” - to sell). It is characterized by the presence of either homogeneous or differentiated products, and the main feature is pricing according to the principle of leadership.

This principle assumes that most firms seek to set roughly the same price as the strongest firm in the market.

The opposite of oligopoly is oligopsony, when there are several buyers, not sellers, in the market.

3. A pure monopoly exists in the market if:

a) only one seller acts on it, who has no competitors;

b) there are no substitute products, that is, there are no close substitutes for the monopolist's product;

c) entry is blocked, i.e. entry barriers are so significant that entry of new firms into the market is impossible.

Unlike a perfect market, which is free to enter, pure monopoly does not allow new producers to emerge. This means that a pure monopolist-seller can change the price within very wide limits, and the highest price is limited only by effective demand. This means that the monopolist will receive super profits both in the short and in the long run.

However, power over the market price can be exercised not only by the seller, but also by the buyer. This phenomenon is called monopsony ("one buy"). The problems of imperfect competition were investigated by the professor of the University of Cambridge Joan Robinson.

The differences between market structures are presented in table. 8.1.

In reality, only perfect or imperfect competition does not exist. As P. Samuelson noted, "the real world ... acts as a kind of combination of elements of competition with imperfections introduced by monopolies" (P. Samuelson Economics. M., 1964, p. 499).

Particular attention should be paid to natural monopolies.

Natural monopoly is a situation in which economies of scale (for example, the railroad network or the country's energy economy) are so significant that the minimum cost is achieved only when the entire output of the industry is concentrated in the hands of one producer. Natural monopoly exists when economies of scale allow one enterprise to satisfy all market demand before returns to scale begin to decline.

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