Perfect competition: An industry structure in which there are many firms, none large enough to influence the industry, producing homogeneous products. Firms are price takers. There are no barriers to entry. Agriculture comes close to being perfectly competitive.
Perfect competition leads to the Pareto-efficient allocation of economic resources. Because of this it serves as a natural benchmark against which to contrast other market structures. However, in practice, very few industries can be described as perfectly competitive. Nevertheless, it is used because it provides important insights.
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Answer:
Perfect competition: An industry structure in which there are many firms, none large enough to influence the industry, producing homogeneous products. Firms are price takers. There are no barriers to entry. Agriculture comes close to being perfectly competitive.
Perfect competition leads to the Pareto-efficient allocation of economic resources. Because of this it serves as a natural benchmark against which to contrast other market structures. However, in practice, very few industries can be described as perfectly competitive. Nevertheless, it is used because it provides important insights.
Explanation: