This question was not attempted by a majority of the competitions.
This could be due to the fact that most candidates had made their choices of questions from numbers 3 to 9.
This question demanded an application of the knowledge of market structures but many candidates lacked this skill of application.
The main features of an imperfect competition include the following.
(1) The products in an imperfect market are not perfect substitutes of each other i.e. good are heterogeneous.
(2) Imperfect markets are characterized by imperfect information.
(3) Firms in imperfect markets are unlikely to be completely free to enter and leave.
(4) There can be preferential treatment.
(5) Each firm is a price giver.
The barriers to entry include:
(1) Capital requirements
(2) Product differentiation
(3) Legal restriction
(4) Size of the market
(5) Pricing policy of existing firms
(6) Lack of access to raw materials
(7) Government policy
(8) Inadequate technical knowledge
