What Is Competitive Equilibrium?
Competitive equilibrium is a condition in which profit-maximizing producers and utility-maximizing consumers in competitive markets with freely determined prices arrive atanequilibrium price. At this equilibrium price, thequantity suppliedis equal to thequantity demanded. In other words, all parties—buyers and sellers—are satisfied that they're getting a fair deal.
Key Takeaways
- Competitive equilibrium is achieved when profit-maximizing producers and utility-maximizing consumers settle on a price that suits all parties.
- At this equilibrium price, thequantity supplied by producersis equal to thequantity demanded by consumers.
- The theory serves many purposes, including as an analytical tool and a benchmark for efficiency in economics.
Understanding Competitive Equilibrium
As discussed in the law of supply and demand, consumers and producers generally want two different things. The former wants to pay as little as possible, while the latter seeks to sell its goods at the highest possible price.
That means when prices are hiked, the quantity that sellers demand tends to fall and the quantity sellers are willing to supply rises—and when prices are slashed, quantity demanded increases and quantity supplied declines.
Whenever these quantities are not in balance, a shortage or surplus occurs on the market. Under these conditions, entrepreneurs have an incentive (in the form of profit opportunities) to engage in arbitrage, or to reallocate real resources, up until the point where buyers and sellers can agree on one combination of price and quantity in the market. At this point, supply and demand curves intersect, the quantity supplied equals the quantity demanded, and the market is said to be in equilibrium.
At equilibrium prices, both buyers and sellers maximize their economic gains relative to the limits of technology and the resources they have available. Not everyone gets everything they want, but all parties in the market balance their wants against unavoidable scarcity of economic goods as best they can. Because of this, competitive equilibrium is considered a kind of ideal goal for economic efficiency.
Benefits of Competitive Equilibrium
The competitive equilibrium serves many purposes, describing how markets might settle on one price for all buyers and sellers, explaining how production and consumption can be brought in to balance without a central planner, and operating as a benchmark for efficiency in economic analysis.
Economists have long observed that in many markets, buyers and sellers tend to settle around one market price for a given good and that businesses tend to be more or less successful at matching the the amounts and types of goods that they bring to market with the things that consumers want. And that all this seems to happen even without a government official or other authority, or any single person, calculating what the official market prices and quantities should be. The theory of competitive equilibrium is the explanation that they devised to explain how this can happen: when buyers and sellers co-cooperatively calculate the appropriate market prices and quantities together through their acts of buying and selling.
Because competitive equilibrium sets a balance between the interests of all market participants, it can be used to analyze the effects of changes to supply and demand and to benchmark the desirability of government policies that alter market conditions. Moreover, it is often used extensivelyto analyze economic activities dealing with fiscal or tax policy, in finance for analysis of stock markets and commodity markets, as well as to study interest, exchange rates, and other prices.
Special Considerations
The theory relies on the assumptions of competitive markets. Each trader decides upon a quantity that is so small compared to the total quantity traded, such that their individual transactions have no influence on the prices. All buyers and sellers have the same information, including all information relevant to supply and demand. Buying and selling goods, or shifting goods and resources between markets or lines of production, involve zero transaction costs. Because these assumptions are not very realistic, competitive equilibrium is only an ideal, and a standard by whichother market structures are evaluated, rather than a prediction that real world markets will always achieve competitive equilibrium.
Competitive Equilibriumvs. General Equilibrium
Competitive equilibrium is often used to describe just a single market for one good. An extension of competitive equilibrium to all markets in an economy simultaneously is known asgeneral equilibrium. General equilibrium is also called Walrasian equilibrium.
The difference between the two types of equilibriais allabout the emphasis; one market or many connected markets considered together. Both types of equilibria can be described as competitive. The analysis of competitive equilibrium in one market, holding conditions in all other markets to be constant, is also known as partial equilibrium, in order to distinguish it from general equilibrium.
FAQs
What Is Competitive Equilibrium? Competitive equilibrium is a condition in which profit-maximizing producers and utility-maximizing consumers in competitive markets with freely determined prices arrive at an equilibrium price. At this equilibrium price, the quantity supplied is equal to the quantity demanded.
What is an example of a competitive equilibrium? ›
A possible CE is: the price of the car is 15, Bob gets the car and pays 15 to Alice. This is an equilibrium because the market is cleared and both agents prefer their final bundle to their initial bundle. In fact, every price between 10 and 20 will be a CE price, with the same allocation.
What is an example of a market equilibrium in real life? ›
When there is a surplus in the ice-cream market, for instance, sellers of ice cream find their freezers increasingly full of ice cream they would like to sell but cannot. They respond to the surplus by cutting their prices. Prices continue to fall until the market reaches the equilibrium.
What is an easy example of equilibrium in economics? ›
If the price increases too much, people will start driving less and will buy less fuel. As the demand for fuel goes down after the summer vacation period is over, and the supply increases as refineries gear up again, the supply of fuel will increase, which will push the price to equilibrium.
How do you determine competitive equilibrium? ›
A market is in competitive equilibrium if the quantity supplied is equal to the quantity demanded at the prevailing price, and all buyers and sellers are price-takers, so that no-one can benefit from attempting to trade at a different price.
What is a real life example of equilibrium? ›
A few examples of equilibrium are: A book kept on a table at rest. A car moving with a constant velocity. A chemical reaction where the rates of forward reaction and backward reaction are the same.
What occurs at the competitive equilibrium? ›
What Is Competitive Equilibrium? Competitive equilibrium is a condition in which profit-maximizing producers and utility-maximizing consumers in competitive markets with freely determined prices arrive at an equilibrium price. At this equilibrium price, the quantity supplied is equal to the quantity demanded.
What are the types of equilibrium with examples? ›
There are three types of equilibrium: stable, unstable, and neutral. Objects returning to their original position after being slightly displaced are considered to be in stable equilibrium. When they are slightly displaced, they experience a net force or torque acting opposite the direction of their displacements.
What is an example of equilibrium in society? ›
Equilibrium is not just an abstract or theoretical concept. It has real-world implications for the lives of people in society. For example, when there is equilibrium in the economy, it means that there is a balance between supply and demand, and that everyone has access to the basic necessities of life.
What is an example of equilibrium in the goods market? ›
The goods market is in equilibrium when AD = AS. This is also the point where the economy is producing at its full employment potential output Y. The equation for Y is as follows: Y = C + I + G (we ignore trade and assume the economy is in autarky here, for simplification).
An equilibrium is said to be stable if small, externally induced displacements from that state produce forces that tend to oppose the displacement and return the body or particle to the equilibrium state. Examples include a weight suspended by a spring or a brick lying on a level surface.
What is an example of a general equilibrium in economics? ›
Examples include technology changes or endowment growth, and changes in taxes, or trade policies. Data, theory, and shocks are the three basic elements of a CGE study, and combined they determine the results. The results of a CGE analysis are numerical 'predictions' of the changes in the economic system.
What is the equilibrium in economics for dummies? ›
Market equilibrium occurs when the desires of buyers and sellers align exactly so that neither group has reason to change its behavior. The market equilibrium price, p*, and equilibrium quantity, q*, are determined by where the demand curve of the buyers, D, crosses the supply curve of the sellers, S.
What is competitive equilibrium described by? ›
Answer and Explanation: Reason: A competitive equilibrium is the point at which the quantity demanded is equal to quantity supplied. At the point of competitive equilibrium the consumers and producers tend to settle at a price and, demand/ supply same quantity of good.
What characterizes a competitive equilibrium? ›
Characteristics of competitive equilibrium
The market clears (supply equals demand). All participants are price-takers (they can buy or sell as many items as they like at the market price, but no one can benefit from trading at a different price).
How to find perfectly competitive equilibrium? ›
If we have P = min(ATC), then whatever quantity is demanded would be willingly supplied, and we are in equilibrium. The demand curve only determines the equilibrium quantity and not the price in the long run. Notice that, if we are in long run equilibrium, we are also in short run equilibrium.
What is the competitive market equilibrium? ›
Market equilibrium in a perfectly competitive market is achieved when the market demand equals the market supply. In the short run , this equilibrium will be affected by the demand, while in the long run, the demand as well as supply will be impacting the equilibrium.
What is an example of equilibrium in sport? ›
The principle of equilibrium has several applications in sports, particularly in areas such as balance, stability, and body position. For example, in gymnastics, athletes must maintain their equilibrium while performing various routines that involve intricate movements, twists, and turns.
What is an example of an equilibrium reaction? ›
An equilibrium reaction refers to the chemical reaction between the reactants before and after the reaction is complete (i.e., a thermodynamic equilibrium state). An example of an equilibrium reaction is water evaporating to form vapour.
What is an example of equilibrium in game theory? ›
For example, suppose two friends wish to see a movie together but disagree on which movie. If both would rather see either movie together than see a movie alone, then both friends seeing either movie constitutes a Nash equilibrium, as neither can opt to see the other film without suffering a worse outcome.
