Acerca da teoria da concorrência perfeita (parte II)

Parte I.

• Quando ouvimos os políticos da situação, em cada momento, defender a descida ou a moderação salarial, para resolver as crises;
• Quando ouvimos os políticos da oposição, em cada momento, defender a descida do IVA; e
• Quando ouvimos os académicos e paineleiros defenderem a redução dos salários para aumentar a competitividade através da redução de custos.

Estamos a ouvir a consequência directa de terem entranhado em si a teoria da concorrência perfeita e as suas consequências:

"Acting under conditions of perfect and costless information, perfect competition theory focuses on the firm producing a single product using the resources of capital, labor, and (sometimes) land. These "factors" of production are assumed to be homogeneous and perfectly mobile, that is, each unit of labor or capital equipment is assumed to be identical with other units and can "flow" from firm to firm without restrictions. Because all innovation is exogenous, the only role of management is to respond to changes in the environment by determining the quantity of product to produce and then implementing a production function that is identical across all firms in each industry. Competition, then, in perfect competition theory is each firm in each industry (I) in the "short-run" adjusting its quantity of product produced in reaction to changes in the market price of its product and the prices (costs) of its resources and other inputs, and (2) in the "long-run" adjusting the scale of its plant. Therefore, the firm's environment strictly determines its conduct. In particular, all firms in an industry will inexorably produce at an output rate where marginal cost equals marginal revenue (the product's market price). In the short-run, where such resources as plant and equipment are relatively "fixed." each firm will incur profits (or losses) depending on whether price exceeds (or is less than) the average total cost of producing the profit-maximizing quantity. However, in long-run equilibrium in a perfectly competitive market, all resources are "variable," and each firm produces the quantity where market price equals long-run marginal cost, which itself equals the minimum long-run average cost. The position of long-run equilibrium is a "no profit" situation—firms have neither a pure profit (or "rent") nor a pure loss, only an accounting profit equal to the rate of return obtainable in other perfectly competitive industries. Therefore, the firm's environment strictly determines its performance (i.e., its profits).
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For perfect competition theory, the role of management is limited, to say the least. Because firms are price-takers and quantity-makers, the short-term role of management is to determine the quantity of the firm's single product to produce and to implement its standardized production function. Because all firms are profit maximizers, all firms in an industry will inexorably produce at an output rate where marginal cost equals marginal revenue (the product's market price). Therefore, because such resources as plant and equipment are relatively fixed in the short run, each firm will incur profits (or losses) depending on whether price exceeds (or is less than) the average total cost of producing the profit-maximizing quantity."

Tanta baboseira... prefiro acreditar no papel da idiossincrasia das empresas e das suas gentes, na capacidade de fazer a diferença.
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Trechos retirados de "A General Theory of Competition: Resources, Competences, Productivity, Economic Growth (Marketing for a New Century)"