Assumptions of the Perfect Competition

Perfect competition is a model of the market based on the assumption that a large number of
firms produce identical goods consumed by a large number of buyers. The model of perfect
competition also assumes that it is easy for new firms to enter the market and for existing
ones to leave. And finally, it assumes that buyers and sellers have complete information about
market conditions.

As we examine these assumptions in greater detail, we will see that they allow us to work
with the model more easily. No market fully meets the conditions set out in these
assumptions. As is always the case with models, our purpose is to understand the way things
work, not to describe them. And the model of perfect competition will prove enormously
useful in understanding the world of markets.

Assumptions of the Model

The assumptions of the model of perfect competition, taken together, imply that individual
buyers and sellers in a perfectly competitive market accept the market price as given. No one
buyer or seller has any influence over that price. Individuals or firms who must take the
market price as given are called price takers. A consumer or firm that takes the market price
as given has no ability to influence that price. A price-taking firm or consumer is like an
individual who is buying or selling stocks. He or she looks up the market price and buys or
sells at that price. The price is determined by demand and supply in the market—not by
individual buyers or sellers. In a perfectly competitive market, each firm and each consumer
is a price taker. A price-taking consumer assumes that he or she can purchase any quantity at
the market price—without affecting that price. Similarly, a price-taking firm assumes it can
sell whatever quantity it wishes at the market price without affecting the price.

You are a price taker when you go into a store. You observe the prices listed and make a
choice to buy or not. Your choice will not affect that price. Should you sell a textbook back to
your campus bookstore at the end of a course, you are a price-taking seller. You are
confronted by a market price and you decide whether to sell or not. Your decision will not
affect that price.

To see how the assumptions of the model of perfect competition imply price-taking behavior,
let us examine each of them in turn.

Identical Goods

In a perfectly competitive market for a good or service, one unit of the good or service cannot
be differentiated from any other on any basis. A bushel of, say, hard winter wheat is an
example. A bushel produced by one farmer is identical to that produced by another. There are
no brand preferences or consumer loyalties.

The assumption that goods are identical is necessary if firms are to be price takers. If one
farmer’s wheat were perceived as having special properties that distinguished it from other
wheat, then that farmer would have some power over its price. By assuming that all goods
and services produced by firms in a perfectly competitive market are identical, we establish a
necessary condition for price-taking behavior. Economists sometimes say that the goods or
services in a perfectly competitive market are homogeneous, meaning that they are all alike.
There are no brand differences in a perfectly competitive market.

A Large Number of Buyers and Sellers

How many buyers and sellers are in our market? The answer rests on our presumption of
price-taking behavior. There are so many buyers and sellers that none of them has any
influence on the market price regardless of how much any of them purchases or sells. A firm
in a perfectly competitive market can react to prices, but cannot affect the prices it pays for
the factors of production or the prices it receives for its output.

Ease of Entry and Exit

The assumption that it is easy for other firms to enter a perfectly competitive market implies
an even greater degree of competition. Firms in a market must deal not only with the large
number of competing firms but also with the possibility that still more firms might enter the
market.

Later in this chapter, we will see how ease of entry is related to the sustainability of economic
profits. If entry is easy, then the promise of high economic profits will quickly attract new
firms. If entry is difficult, it won’t.

The model of perfect competition assumes easy exit as well as easy entry. The assumption of
easy exit strengthens the assumption of easy entry. Suppose a firm is considering entering a
particular market. Entry may be easy, but suppose that getting out is difficult. For example,
suppliers of factors of production to firms in the industry might be happy to accommodate
new firms but might require that they sign long-term contracts. Such contracts could make
leaving the market difficult and costly. If that were the case, a firm might be hesitant to enter
in the first place. Easy exit helps make entry easier.

Complete Information

We assume that all sellers have complete information about prices, technology, and all other
knowledge relevant to the operation of the market. No one seller has any information about
production methods that is not available to all other sellers. If one seller had an advantage
over other sellers, perhaps special information about a lower-cost production method, then
that seller could exert some control over market price—the seller would no longer be a price
taker.

We assume also that buyers know the prices offered by every seller. If buyers did not know
about prices offered by different firms in the market, then a firm might be able to sell a good
or service for a price other than the market price and thus could avoid being a price taker.

The availability of information that is assumed in the model of perfect competition implies
that information can be obtained at low cost. If consumers and firms can obtain information
at low cost, they are likely to do so. Information about the marketplace may come over the
internet, over the airways in a television commercial, or over a cup of coffee with a friend.
Whatever its source, we assume that its low cost ensures that consumers and firms have
enough of it so that everyone buys or sells goods and services at market prices determined by
the intersection of demand and supply curves.

The assumptions of the perfectly competitive model ensure that each buyer or seller is a price
taker. The market, not individual consumers or firms, determines price in the model of
perfect competition. No individual has enough power in a perfectly competitive market to
have any impact on that price.