The text states that four conditions are necessary for the existence of a perfectly competitive market. Discuss in your own words each one.
a) Numerous participants: Roughly how many sellers do you think are needed to make a market perfectly competitive?
b) Homogeneity of product: How would perfect competition be altered if buyers could distinguish between the products of different producers?
c) Freedom of entry and exit: How might this condition be violated? What sorts of barriers to entry or exit might exist?
d) Perfect information: What exactly needs to be known, and by whom, in order to make competition perfect?