Category: Microeconomics

An oligopoly is a market structure where only a few sellers serve the entire market. Because of their strong position in the market, these firms have the power to influence the price. That means, unlike in a market with perfect competition, they are no longer price takers, but price makers. […]

In an economic context, demand is defined as the quantity of a specific good or service that consumers are willing and able to buy over a given period of time. As you can tell, this definition looks at all consumers combined (i.e. aggregated data). However, individual consumers may have different […]

Producer Surplus describes the difference between the amount of money at which sellers are willing and able to sell a good or service (i.e. willingness to sell) and the amount they actually end up receiving (i.e. the market price). Every seller has an individual willingness to sell. That means, if […]

Consumer Surplus is defined as the difference between the amount of money consumers are willing and able to pay for a good or service (i.e. willingness to pay) and the amount they actually end up paying (i.e. the market price). Every consumer has an individual willingness to pay for a […]

Indifference curves are graphs that represent various combinations of two commodities which an individual considers equally valuable. The axes of those graphs represent one commodity each (e.g. good A and good B). Indifference curves are widely used in microeconomics to analyze consumer preferences, the effects of subsidies and taxes, and a few other concepts. […]

Taxes can be levied on buyers or sellers of any good or service. However, who actually pays a tax does not depend on who the tax is levied on. In economic theory, tax incidence – which refers to the distribution of a tax burden between buyers and sellers – only depends on […]

The prisoner’s dilemma is arguably the most famous example of game theory. It describes a situation (i.e. game) between two prisoners, who act in their own self-interest, which results in an inefficient outcome for both of them. In essence, the prisoner’s dilemma illustrates why it can be difficult to maintain cooperation […]

The Coase Theorem (named after the British economist Ronald Coase) is a famous theorem that addresses the question of how effectively private markets can deal with externalities. In essence, it states that private parties can solve the problem of externalities on their own, if they can bargain over the allocation of […]

In the long run equilibrium, firms in competitive markets make zero profit. This may seem odd, considering all the effort and time that has to be put into running a company. So why should these firms stay in business? The answer to this question lies in the definition of the […]

Externalities are defined as the positive or negative consequences of economic activities on unrelated third parties. Since the causers are not directly affected by those externalities, they will not take them into account. As a result, the social cost (or benefit) of these activities is different from their individual cost […]