CHAPTER 14Government and the Markets
In the last chapter, we saw that a seller's price, output, promotional strategy, profit, and efficiency are all influenced by the type of market it is in and degree of competition it faces. Obviously, markets and competition play an important role in economic decision making and in determining the well-being of businesses and households.
Economies where decisions are made primarily by individual businesses and households are built on the philosophy that free markets and competition should be at the foundation of economic activity. Although the U.S. economy is based on this philosophy, historically government has intervened in the operation of markets in several important ways. In this chapter, we discuss government intervention and focus on the two essential ways government influences competition and market forces in the United States: antitrust enforcement and regulation.
We typically find a wide range of views on the appropriateness of government intervention. Some people feel that current intervention is too extensive; others feel that it is inadequate. Some people hold that government intervention is not achieving its intended results or that it creates an unjustified administrative or financial ...
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