1. Perfect Competition Efficiency

2. General Equilibrium and the Efficiency of Perfect Competition Input and output markets cannot be considered as if they were separate entities or as if they operated independently. Although it is important to understand the decisions of individual firms and households and the functioning of individual markets, we now need to add it all up, look at the operation of the system as a whole. partial equilibrium analysis The process of examining the equilibrium conditions in individual markets and for households and firms separately. general equilibrium The condition that exists when all markets in an economy are in simultaneous equilibrium. efficiency The condition in which the economy is producing what people want at least possible cost.

3. General Equilibrium Analysis An Early Technological Advance: The Electronic Calculator Cost Saving Technological Change in the Calculator Industry In the 1970s and 1980s, major technological changes occurred in the calculator industry. In 1975, 18.1 million calculators were sold at an average price of £62. As technology made it possible to produce at lower costs, cost curves shifted downward. As new firms entered the industry and existing firms expanded, output rose and market price dropped. In 1983, 30.9 million calculators were produced and sold at an average price of under £30. £

4. General Equilibrium Analysis Market Adjustment to Changes in Demand Adjustment in an Economy with Two Sectors Initially, demand for X shifts from DX to DX. This shift pushes the price of X up to PY creating profits. Demand for Y shifts down from DY to DY, pushing the price of Y down to PY and creating losses. Firms have an incentive to leave sector Y and an incentive to enter sector X. Exiting sector Y shifts supply in that industry to SY, raising price and eliminating losses. Entry shifts supply in X to SX thus reducing and eliminating profits. ££

5. General Equilibrium Analysis Formal Proof of a General Competitive Equilibrium Economic theorists have struggled with the question of whether a set of prices that equates supply and demand in all markets simultaneously can actually exist when there are literally thousands and thousands of markets. If such a set of prices were not possible, the result could be continuous cycles of expansion, contraction, and instability.

6. Allocative Efficiency and Competitive Equilibrium Pareto Efficiency Pareto efficiency or Pareto optimality A condition in which no change is possible that will make some members of society better off without making some other members of society worse off.

7. Allocative Efficiency and Competitive Equilibrium The Efficiency of Perfect Competition The three basic questions discussed previously included: 1. What gets produced? What determines the final mix of output? 2. How is it produced? How do capital, labour, and land get divided up among firms? In other words, what is the allocation of resources among producers? 3. Who gets what is produced? What determines which households get how much? What is the distribution of output among consuming households? To demonstrate that the perfectly competitive system leads to an efficient, or Pareto optimal, allocation of resources, we need to show that no changes are possible that will make some people better off without making others worse off.

8. Allocative Efficiency and Competitive Equilibrium The Efficiency of Perfect Competition Efficient Allocation of Resources among Firms The assumptions that factor markets are competitive and open, that all firms pay the same prices for inputs, and that all firms maximize profits lead to the conclusion that the allocation of resources among firms is efficient. You should now have a greater appreciation for the power of the price mechanism in a market economy. Each individual firm needs only to make input use decisions by looking at its own labour, capital, and land productivity relative to their prices. But because all firms face identical input prices, the market economy achieves efficient input use between firms. Prices are the instrument of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” allowing for efficiency without explicit coordination or planning.

9. Allocative Efficiency and Competitive Equilibrium The Efficiency of Perfect Competition Efficient Distribution of Outputs among Households We all know that people have different tastes and preferences and that they will buy very different things in very different combinations. As long as everyone shops freely in the same markets, no redistribution of final outputs among people will make them better off. If you and I buy in the same markets and pay the same prices and I buy what I want and you buy what you want, we cannot possibly end up with the wrong combination of things. Free and open markets are essential to this result.

10. Allocative Efficiency and Competitive Equilibrium The Efficiency of Perfect Competition Producing What People Want: The Efficient Mix of Output The condition that ensures that the right things are produced is P = MC. The Key Efficiency Condition: Price Equals Marginal Cost Society will produce the efficient mix of output if all firms equate price and marginal cost.

11. Allocative Efficiency and Competitive Equilibrium The Efficiency of Perfect Competition. Efficiency in Perfect Competition Follows from a Weighing of Values by Both Households and Firms

12. Key Terms • efficiency • externality • general equilibrium • Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality • partial equilibrium analysis • private goods • Alllocative efficiency condition in perfect competition: PX = MCX