Part 4: Market Structure and Efficiency
In our examination of entry barriers in Chapter 10 , we have added a
discussion of network effects, common to digital platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, and eBay. This leads to a new box on the topic. In our
coverage of oligopoly in Chapter 11 , we have improved the two
diagrams illustrating the prisoners’ dilemma, and added the recent
example of price fixing by Canadian grocery stores as an example of
explicit collusion. When addressing efficiency in Chapter 12 , we have
rewritten our discussion of allocative efficiency and the production
possibilities boundary. In our discussion of the regulation of oligopolies,
we have added a new discussion of the current concerns regarding rising
corporate concentration, relating back to the network effects we
introduced in Chapter 10. This leads to a new box on whether Google
and Facebook might become the Standard Oil of the twenty-first century,
recalling the history of the robber barons of the late nineteenth century.
In our discussion of the future of Canadian competition policy, we have
added firms’ access to consumer data as an important and evolving
challenge.