Economics Dictionary of Arguments

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Competition: Competition is a rivalry or contest between individuals or groups striving for a common goal, often involving effort, skill, or resources.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

William J. Baumol on Competition - Dictionary of Arguments

Sobel I 17
Competition/Baumol/Sobel/Clemens: Since the days of Adam Smith, the key concern in thinking about the differences among market types is the level of competition among firms, which is thought to be a force that disciplines the behaviour of businesses. Put simply, when firms are in greater competition With other firms they tend to provide better prices, quality, and customer service, and be more innovative and effcient. As is best summarized by noted economist William Baumol in his presidential address to the American Economic Association, „standard analysis leaves us With the impression that there is a rough continuum, in terms of desirability of industry performance, ranging from unregulated pure monopoly as the [worst] arrangement to perfect competition as the ideal, with [desirability] increasing as the number of firms expands. „(Baumol, 1982: 2)(1)
Sobel/Clemens: At one extreme on this continuum of competition are markets or industries described as having "perfect competition" (lots of firms competing with identical products), while at the other are markets that are a monopoly (dominated by one firm).
>Perfect competition
.
Generally, economists also consider two additional markets in the middle of the continuum often called "monopolistic competition" (lots offirms competing but with products or services that are differentiated from one another) and "oligopoly" (a few large rival firms).
>Monopolistic competition.
Each market has specific properties that identify and differentiate it. But, for simplicity's sake, as Baumol states, we can generally conclude simply that markets with more small firms are better (or more effcient) than those with fewer large firms.
SchumpeterVsBaumol/SchumpeterVsTradition: Joseph Schumpeter was one of the first economists to question this standard description and indeed viewed this traditional framework as being somewhat misleading.
>Competition/Schumpeter.

1. Baumol, William J. (1982). Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure. American Economic Review 72, 1: 1–15. , as of September 4, 2019.

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

EconBaum I
William J. Baumol
John C. Panzar
Robert D. Willig,
Contestable markets and the theory of industry structure New York 1982

EconBaum II
William J. Baumol
David F. Bradford
Optimal departures from marginal cost pricing 1970

Sobel I
Russell S. Sobel
Jason Clemens
The Essential Joseph Schumpeter Vancouver 2020


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