MICRO PORTFOLIO TASK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

MICRO PORTFOLIO TASK - Essay Example The six large producers have equal share of market demand and they have successfully threatened the entry of other firms in the industry. According to the viewpoint of the researcher, the firms in the above market are in an Oligopolistic market structure. In this type of a market structure, there are two to ten sellers in the industry. The price and output decisions undertaken by each firm is on the basis of strategic behaviour. In this type of a market structure, each of the above six firms have the power to influence the market demand. This means that each firm undertakes the decision about the prices and the quantity of output to be produced on the basis of the assumption of the business decisions undertaken by the other potential rivals in the market. However, it would be interesting to note that degree competition in the above mentioned Oligopolistic market is zero. The six large firms in the above case are enjoying equal market share and hence, equal profit. This means that the firms have undertaken the decision of Cartel in the Oligopolistic market structure. ... However, on the whole, the market demand curve is downward (Manne, 2012). Figure 1: Profit of Each Firm (Source: McEachern, 2012) The above graph shows the equal profit shared by each of the firm. Cartel in the Oligopolistic market structure which occurs when the nature of the product sold by each of the firm is less differentiated. In the above case, all the firms are engaged in the production of less differentiated cereals. The Herfindahl index is the index that measures the size of each of the firms in a particular industry and comments on the level of existing competition in there. It is calculated by the sum of the squares of the market shares by each of the firm in the industry. An increase in the value of the index indicates a fall in the level of competition on the industry and a rise in the level of market power. The value of Herfindahl index for the above concerned case: Where, N= number of firms on total. So, i = 1 to 16 (6 large and 10 small). S =market share of each firm . H= (0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152+0.152) + (0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012+0.012) = 0.136 (13.6%) The value of the Herfindahl index for the above market (13.6) indicates a high degree of market concentration among the six large firms. Under such a situation if the market shares of any of the six large firms decrease or increase then the value of the index would be increasing substantially. This is the reason for which the firms in the industry have adopted the decision of Cartel in the market (Riley, 2012). (c) It has been analyzed that the level of concentration among the firms in the above industry is high. Only six firms in the industry have occupied about 90% of the aggregate market share. On