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In economic theory, imperfect competition is the competitive situation in any market where the conditions necessary...

In economic theory, imperfect competition is the competitive situation in any market where the conditions necessary for perfect competition are not satisfied. It is a market structure that does not meet the conditions of perfect competition; compare and contrast imperfect competition and perfect competition.

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Summary: Some of the differences are related to market power that a firm has in imperfect competition but not in perfect competition. Firms do not sell identical products in imperfect competition while it is true for perfect competition. Firms in imperfect competition many times earn long run economic profits due to difficulty in entry and exit. The entire answer is given below

One of the major differences is the market power that a firm has. In perfect competition, market forces are responsible for price determination so a single firm is not empowered to charge a price of its own. In imperfect competition, however, each firm has some degree of market power because the products sold are not identical This implies that each firm faces a downward sloping demand curve and charge a price that meets the willingness to pay along this demand Then other major difference comes in terms of pricing. While perfect competition has firms charging a price equal to marginal cost at any stage, imperfect market has firms charging a price higher than the marginal cost thus, having a certain percent of mark-up Another difference is related to the ability of earning long run profits. In some of the structures in imperfect competition, firms can earn economic profits in the long run due to the presence of strong entry barriers. The same is impossible for firms in perfect competition where each firm is allowed to enter or exist costlessly in the long run, allowing the number of firms in the long run sufficient enough that none of them makes abnormal profits Firms in perfect competition do not have excess capacity because they produce at the minimum efficient scale where average total cost is minimized. In imperfect competition, firms produce at a level of output where average cost is lower than the minimum efficient scale, thus having excess capacity

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