Efficiency in Economics: Productive and Allocative

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1. Efficiency is defined in economics as achieving a goal using as few inputs as possible. Productive efficiency can be defined as achieving as much output as possible from a given amount of inputs or resources. Basically, productive efficiency is concerned with producing goods and services with the optimal combination of inputs to produce maximum outputs for the lowest possible cost. A company is productively efficient when it is producing at the lowest point on the cost curve, where marginal cost meets average cost. Allocative efficiency on the other hand, occurs when there is an optimal distribution of goods and services that take into account the consumer’s preferences. In allocative efficiency, the price equals the marginal cost of production. This is because the price that consumers are willing to pay is equivalent to the marginal utility they receive. Therefore, marginal utility of the good/service equals the marginal cost. Firms in perfect competition produce at an allocative …show more content…

In monopolistic competition, all firms only have a certain degree of market control. Unlike a monopolistic market, monopolistic competition offers very few barriers to entry. All firms are able to enter into a market if they choose to do so. In a monopolistic competition there is very little product differentiation. Products in monopolistic competition are close substitutes, but have some distinct features like branding. In a monopolistic competitive market, firms always set the price higher than their marginal cost which means that the market can never be productively efficient nor allocatively efficient. In my opinion, a monopolistically competitive market would be better for the welfare of the economy because consumers are able to find lower prices, there will be a greater variety of products available to consumers, and there would be greater efficiency and

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