Competition in an Oligopolistic Market

Competition in an Oligopolistic Market Oligopoly is a market system that is intermediate between monopoly and perfect competition. It is a type of market that is dominated by only a number of firms. These firms control the prices of the commodities they sell and the industry they dominate is characterized by significant barriers to entry.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Competition in an Oligopolistic Market specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Oligopolistic markets are also characterized by similarities of the products they sell and thus the firms practicing oligopoly are normally interdependent in terms of policy formulation and competition strategies. The competition strategies are normally meant to make the minor differences in their products attractive to their customers so that the particular firm may have a competitive edge. Examples of oligopoly markets here in the United States are the automobile and the steel industry (Friedman 11 14). Since oligop oly is characterized by a few numbers of firms in the industry, each individual firm must predict the response of rival firms before it formulates output or pricing strategies. This leads to the aforementioned interdependence and thus the firms are forced to engage in what is termed as non-price competition. This kind of competition involves differentiation of virtually similar products by using means that are not price-based for fear of price wars. Therefore, companies achieve their competitive advantage by investing in promotions, improvement of the quality of their goods and services, offering of special services like delivery, provision of their goods/services at locations that are convenient for the consumers etc (Hannaford 1). Firms in oligopoly markets also practice price discrimination to maximize on their profits or win a larger proportion of the customer base. As mentioned earlier, the firms in oligopoly engage in the manufacture and/or sale of goods that are not easy to m anufacture. The goods may be difficult to manufacture due to large capital requirement like in the automobile industry, unavailability of raw materials like in the steel industry, etc. The above stated reasons act as barriers to entry together with a number of other factors. Since the products are normally of high value, the industry is characterized with a high elasticity of demand. It is this elasticity of demand that makes price discrimination possible in these markets. For instance, different people pay different amounts of money for the same car depending on the amount they are willing to pay for the car and their skills in bargaining. The above described price discrimination is one of three possible price discrimination strategies. It is known as first degree price discrimination. The other price discrimination strategies used by oligopoly markets are second and third degree price discrimination.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Second degree price discrimination involves charging of higher prices for larger quantities of goods while third degree price discrimination is the most common and it depends on the firm’s understanding of its market. The latter takes many different forms and it is the one commonly used for achievement of competitive advantage by oligopolies (Pietersz 1). Some of the possible forms it may take include the ranking of customers into groups depending on their income and selling goods to different groups at different prices. The competitive strategies used by oligopoly markets have a lot of effects on the industry. For instance, price discrimination leads to the reduction of consumer surplus and thus it negatively affects the welfare of the consumer. On the other hand, the extraction of consumer surplus makes the firms make supernormal profits which are in the interests of the firms. Such price discrimination is, therefore, advantageous to the firms since the primary concern of any business enterprise is profit maximization. Some firms may also set prices below cost for some customers in a bid to have a competitive edge in terms of market share. This kind of price discrimination will be advantageous to the consumers and disadvantageous to the suppliers. Similarly, non-price competition has a lot of influence on consumer behavior in an oligopoly market. Consumers tend to prefer goods that have been promoted and those that are convenient in terms of delivery or those goods, whose minor details, like color, match the preferences of the consumers. Non-corporative strategic behavior also has numerous effects on the industry. It mostly results to unhealthy competition between the involved firms and tends o be advantageous to the consumers (Friedman 19). As evidenced in the discussion above, oligopolistic firms have a major challenge in laying down competitive strategies and policies. This is b ecause price competition in this industry is disastrous and can, possibly, drive all the firms out of business. The firms also sell virtually identical products and this magnifies the difficulty that they face in achieving a competitive edge. As mentioned earlier, the firms settle for competition strategies like non-price competition, non-corporative strategic behavior etc. This is normally due to the interdependence of the firms. These competition strategies have the aforementioned injurious and beneficial effects on the consumers and the suppliers. It is therefore of, essence, that oligopolistic firms set policies and competitive strategies that are beneficial to both the firms and their consumers. Friedman, James. Oligopoly Theory. New York. Barnes Noble.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Competition in an Oligopolistic Market specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Hannaford, Steve. â€Å"Oligopoly Watch.† 2007- May 10, 2010. Web. Pietersz, Graeme. â€Å"Oligopoly.† 2006- May 10, 2010, https://moneyterms.co.uk/oligopoly/

5 Common African American Stereotypes in TV and Film

5 Common African American Stereotypes in TV and Film African Americans may be scoring more substantial parts in film and television, but many continue to play roles that fuel stereotypes, such as thugs and maids. The prevalence of these parts reveals the importance of  #OscarsSoWhite and how African Americans continue to struggle for quality roles on both the small and big screens, despite having won  Academy Awards  in  acting, screenwriting,  music production and other categories. The Magical Negro Magical Negro characters have long played key roles in films and television programs. These characters tend to be African American men with special powers who make appearances solely to help white characters out of jams, seemingly unconcerned about their own lives. The late Michael Clarke Duncan famously played such a character in â€Å"The Green Mile.† Moviefone wrote of Duncan’s character, John Coffey, â€Å"He’s more an allegorical symbol than a person, his initials are J.C., he has miraculous healing powers, and he voluntarily submits to execution by the state as a way of doing penance for the sins of others. A ‘Magical Negro’ character is often the sign of lazy writing at best, or of patronizing cynicism at worst.† Magical Negroes are also problematic because they have no inner lives or desires of their own. Instead, they exist solely as a support system to the white characters, reinforcing the idea that African Americans aren’t as valuable or as human as their white counterparts. They don’t require unique storylines of their own because their lives simply don’t matter as much. In addition to Duncan, Morgan Freeman has played in some such roles, and Will Smith played a Magical Negro in â€Å"The Legend of Bagger Vance.† The Black Best Friend Black Best Friends typically don’t have special powers like Magical Negroes do, but they mainly function in films and television shows to guide white characters out of a crisis. Usually, female, the black best friend functions â€Å"to support the heroine, often with sass, attitude and a keen insight into relationships and life,† critic Greg Braxton noted in the  Los Angeles Times. Like Magical Negroes, black best friends appear not to have much going on in their own lives but turn up at exactly the right moment to coach white characters through life. In the film â€Å"The Devil Wears Prada,† for example, actress Tracie Thoms plays friend to star Anne Hathaway, reminding Hathaway’s character that she’s losing touch with her values. Also, actress Aisha Tyler played friend to Jennifer Love Hewitt on â€Å"The Ghost Whisperer,† and Lisa Nicole Carson played friend to Calista Flockhart on â€Å"Ally McBeal.† Television executive Rose Catherine Pinkney told the Times that there is a long tradition of black best friends in Hollywood. â€Å"Historically, people of color have had to play nurturing, rational caretakers of the white lead characters. And studios are just not willing to reverse that role.† The Thug There’s no shortage of black male actors playing drug dealers, pimps, con-artists and other forms of criminals in television shows and films such as â€Å"The Wire† and â€Å"Training Day.† The disproportionate amount of African Americans playing criminals in Hollywood fuels the racial stereotype that black men are dangerous and drawn to illicit activities. Often these films and television shows provide little social context for why more black men than others are likely to end up in the criminal justice system. They overlook how racial and economic injustice makes it more difficult for young black men to evade a prison term or how policies such as stop-and-frisk and racial profiling make black men targets of the authorities. They fail to ask whether black men are inherently more likely to be criminals than anyone else or if society plays a role in creating the cradle-to-prison pipeline for African American men. The Brash Woman Black women are routinely portrayed in television and film  as sassy, neck-rolling harpies  with major attitude problems. The popularity of reality television shows adds fuel to the fire of this stereotype. To ensure that programs such as â€Å"Basketball Wives† maintain plenty of drama, often the loudest and most aggressive black women are featured on these shows. Black women say these depictions have real-world consequences in their love lives and careers. When Bravo debuted the reality show â€Å"Married to Medicine† in 2013, black female physicians unsuccessfully petitioned the network to pull the plug on the program. â€Å"For the sake of integrity and character of black female physicians, we must ask that Bravo immediately remove and cancel ‘Married to Medicine’ from its channel, website, and any other media, the physicians demanded.  Black female physicians only compose 1 percent of the American workforce of physicians. Due to our small numbers, the depiction of black female doctors in media, on any scale, highly affects the public’s view of the character of all future and current African American female doctors.† The show ultimately aired and black women continue to complain that depictions of African American womanhood in the media fail to live up to reality. The Domestic Because blacks were forced into servitude for hundreds of years in the United States, it’s no surprise that one of the earliest stereotypes about African Americans to emerge in television and film is that of the domestic worker or mammy. Television shows and movies such as â€Å"Beulah† and â€Å"Gone With The Wind† capitalized on the mammy stereotype in the early 20th century. But more recently, movies such as â€Å"Driving Miss Daisy† and â€Å"The Help† featured African Americans as domestics as well. While Latinos are arguably the group most likely to be typecast as domestic workers nowadays, the controversy over the portrayal of black domestics in Hollywood hasn’t gone away. The 2011 film â€Å"The Help† faced intense criticism because the black maids helped catapult the white protagonist to a new stage in life while their lives remained static. Like the Magical Negro and the Black Best Friend, black domestics in film function mostly to nurture and guide white characters.