Micro Economics Question

Prompt:

1. Select a firm that you have interacted with. Based on what you know about that firm’s market, is it closer to Perfect Competition or Monopoly? Explain.
2. Why are generic pharmaceuticals significantly cheaper than name-brand ones?
3. Intellectual property laws are intended to promote innovation. However, some economists argue against them. Make an economic case for, or against, a government granting intellectual property rights to innovative new ideas or products.

Post 1:A firm I interact with is doll sellers on mercari. They’re in perfect competition with each other where each doll seller is attempting to find the price to make a profit on the doll they’ve purchased, and are trying to resell the price of shipping, while still offering a competitive price on the doll that they are selling against other sellers. A local Monopoly interact with is Georgia Power. You move to the area and you set up an account and that’s it it would not make Financial sense for there to be two or three sets of infrastructure around an electrical company. Partially because the Innovation around what is offered by a an electrical company is minimal as compared to breaking up the Monopoly of the AT&T phone company. Generic Pharmaceuticals are significantly cheaper than name brand ones because they are not recouping the cost of research and development from creating the product and making sure that it doesn’t kill people.

The government should grant intellectual property patents for Innovative products economically because giving a company a chance to recoup costs on innovation research and development would hopefully Give Them Enough Runway to fund their next research project and be able to continue to innovate that product until that patent is expanded to the public.

Post 2:

1. I interact with Flint Energies too many times to count. Based on what I have read, I believe that Flint energies is a monopoly because there is no competition whatsoever. Flint is just in our area, but it is the same for any power or water company. Almost every area only has one power company to choose from and water is billed through the city. There is no competition, and they could charge what they like for their services.
2. Generis pharmaceuticals are cheaper than name brand ones because the FDA has already improved the ingredients that are in generic drugs. Name brands require more testing and research before they can be put on the shelf.
3. Having Intellectual property laws is great for new ideas or products. This can give the person who created the product, idea, or whatever it was they created protection from it being stolen from them. Having this protection would also give the creator or company a good advertising point and be able to say they are the only ones that use this type of technology or that they are they one company that can use this material in their product. It is not saying that other companies can’t use the idea completely. They just wouldn’t be able to do it exactly like the original company. They would have to do something different to get the same result.