Rethinking Market Regulation: Helping Labor by Overcoming Economic Myths
John N. Drobak
Published:
2021
Online ISBN:
9780197578988
Print ISBN:
9780197578957
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Rethinking Market Regulation: Helping Labor by Overcoming Economic Myths
John N. Drobak
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John N. Drobak
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15–22
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Published:
June 2021
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Drobak, John N., 'The Theory of Competitive Markets', Rethinking Market Regulation: Helping Labor by Overcoming Economic Myths (
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Abstract
Chapter 2 explains how the theory of competitive markets became the benchmark for economic analysis, implicitly leading to the assumption that firms actually compete in real-world markets rather than acting as oligopolies. The chapter begins by showing how competition theoretically maximizes resource allocation and constrains the behavior of firms. Then it analyzes the assumptions that underlie the theory, emphasizing the problems that stem from the assumption of consumer sovereignty and the ability of producers to manipulate consumer preferences. It also explains how the assumption that markets are competitive became the paradigm of economic education, as advocated by Alfred Marshall, rather than recognizing the prevalence of monopolies and oligopolies, as advocated by Marshall’s successor, Joan Robinson. Finally, the chapter shows how the assumption that real-world markets are competitive is used to justify opposition to government regulation, based on the notion that competition already provides the only necessary constraints.
Keywords: competitive markets, consumer preferences, consumer sovereignty, oligopoly, resource allocation, Alfred Marshall, Joan Robinson
Subject
Competition Law
Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Rethinking Market Regulation. John N. Drobak, Oxford University Press.© Oxford University Press 2021. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197578957.003.0002
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