Assess the Significance of Post-Keynesian and Austrian Criticisms of the Standard Neoclassical View of Competition

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Assess the significance of post-keynesian and austrian criticisms of the standard neoclassical view of competition "Assess the significance of Post-Keynesian and Austrian criticisms of the standard neoclassical view of competition." Introduction Neo-Classical view of competition for many years was under constant pressure from Austrians and Post-Keynesians which are philosophically distant. In the first part of the essay features and elements of Neo-Classical competition will be explored from technical and philosophical point of view in order to provide broader view upon which Austrians and Post-Keynesians criticisms will be further developed. In the second part significance of criticisms will be assessed from different point of views. Finally, the essay will provide a brief conclusion on the findings. Paragraph 1 Competition from Neo-Classical point of view The standard theory of competition can be seen as the attempt to build causal relations linking the market structure and market conduct with market performance embodied in 'Structure-Conduct-Performance' (SCP) paradigm which can be translated into efficiency terms through applying/cultivating optimisation techniques leading to the equilibrium conditions in the market. The markets in the Neo-Classical story are consisted of optimising individuals who trade with each other at exogenously predetermined prices and endowed with given means of production. Prices and factors of production are brought about by Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'. The optimization and equilibrium are closely connected and using specific set of assumptions one can deduce a benchmark model of 'perfect' competition productive of bringing about Pareto optimality. The model of perfect competition is the one where firms exhibit no market power and act as price takers had been seen as benchmark against which other market structures

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