Worked-example setupScope and assumptions
- The four packets are original model descriptions, not findings about named firms or current legal markets.
- Each packet holds its stated product, participant, geography, and period definition fixed for classification.
- Classification organizes mechanisms; it does not establish observed conduct, accounting profit, welfare, or legality.
- Period
- One unspecified model period per packet
- Units
- Qualitative market-structure assumptions
- Rounding
- Exact binary evidence flags
An analyst receives four anonymous market packets.
| Packet | Supported assumptions | Best benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Field | Many small sellers, homogeneous grade, visible terms, low switching, no seller anticipates rival reaction | Perfect competition |
| Studio | Many sellers, differentiated design and service, buyer substitution, meaningful but feasible entry | Monopolistic competition |
| Network | Few significant providers, compatibility choices, large commitments, each plans around rival response | Oligopoly |
| Conduit | One supplier in the defined route and period, no timely substitute or sufficient entry | Monopoly |
Explain the classification mechanism
Field fits price taking because no individual seller controls the market term under the packet. Studio combines many sellers with differentiated firm-level demand. Network makes strategic interdependence central. Conduit has one seller inside the supplied boundary and no timely disciplining alternative.
The labels are not findings about fairness or conduct. Network's few firms do not prove agreement. Conduit's one seller does not prove unlawful behavior or unlimited price discretion. Studio's differentiated products do not prove advertising waste. Field's benchmark does not prove that transaction costs, quality disputes, or external effects are absent in real data.
Audit before applying a packet to a company
For each packet, request product and customer definitions, geography, time, substitution, entry and expansion, information, capacity, contracts, regulation, and observed interaction. Reported segments and legal entities can help locate data but do not define the economic market.
The correct work product is a provisional model choice with departures and tests—not a confident label attached to an industry name.
Verified calculation · economics foundations analysis
The curriculum loader recomputed this example before it entered the site build. Expand any structured input to inspect the stated facts.
- claim audits
- 1 field
Inspect data
{
"structure_packet": {
"causal_design_supplied": 0,
"decision_authority_identified": 0,
"feasible_alternatives_compared": 1,
"model_assumptions_stated": 1,
"observation_supplied": 0,
"value_criterion_stated": 0
}
}Recomputed result
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| causal claim supported | 0 |
| descriptive claim supported | 0 |
| model implication supported | 1 |
| recommendation supported | 0 |