Friday, July 19, 2024

Government Regulation Of Competitive Firms Creates Monopolies

 According to Jean Tirole, the 2014 Nobel winner in economics, monopolies undermine the efficient functioning of the market economy by influencing the prices and the quantity of products, making consumers worse off.

The popular view that a producer that dominates the market could exploit his position by raising the price above the truly competitive level is erroneous.

According to Henry Hazlitt, "In a free economy, in which wages, costs, and prices are left to the free play of the competitive market, the prospect of profits decides what articles will be made, and in what quantities-and what articles will not be made at all. If there is no profit in making an article, it is a sign that the labor and capital devoted to its production are misdirected: the value of the resources that must be used up in making the article is greater than the value of the article itself."

How can one establish whether the price of a product charged by a dominant producer is above the so-called competitive price level? How could one establish what the competitive price is supposed to be?

Murray Rothbard wrote, "In the market, there is no discernible, identifiable competitive price, and therefore there is no way of distinguishing, even conceptually, any given price as a 'monopoly price.' The alleged 'competitive price' can be identified neither by the producer himself nor by the disinterested observer."

"On the free market there is no way of distinguishing a 'monopoly price' from a 'competitive price' or a 'sub competitive price' or of establishing any changes as movements from one to the other. No criteria can be found for making such distinctions. The concept of monopoly price as distinguished from competitive price is therefore untenable."

If government officials attempt to enforce a lower price this price could wipe out the incentive to produce the product. 

https://mises.org/mises-wire/government-regulation-competitive-firms-creates-monopolies

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