Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
Market structure, pricing, and design (JEL D4) analyses how the structure of markets shapes prices and outcomes, including market design.
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Scope
It covers competition and monopoly, monopolistic and imperfect competition, pricing and price discrimination, auctions, and market design.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- How does market structure affect prices?
- How do firms price under imperfect competition?
- How can markets be designed to allocate efficiently?
- How do auctions work?
Key concepts
- Perfect competition
- Monopoly
- Monopolistic competition
- Price discrimination
- Auctions
- Market design
Key theories
- Imperfect and monopolistic competition
- Robinson and Chamberlin independently developed the analysis of competition between monopoly and perfect competition.
History
The theory of market structure developed from the monopolistic/imperfect-competition revolution (Robinson, Chamberlin) into modern industrial organization, auction theory, and market design.
Debates
- How competitive are real markets?
- Whether most markets approximate perfect competition or are pervasively imperfect.
Key figures
- Joan Robinson
- Edward Chamberlin
Related topics
Seminal works
- robinson-1933
- chamberlin-1933
Frequently asked questions
- What is monopolistic competition?
- A market with many firms selling differentiated products, each with some pricing power — between perfect competition and monopoly.