incumbent

Examples of incumbent in the following topics:

• Entry Barriers

  • Because barriers to entry protect incumbent firms and restrict competition in a market, they can contribute to distortionary prices.
  • The most important barriers are economies of scale, patents, access to expensive and complex technology, and strategic actions by incumbent firms designed to discourage or destroy new entrants.

• Where a Dollar Spent on Health Care Goes: Introducing the Inputs to Health Care

  • Health care has many inputs and a variety of incumbents, namely insurance providers, administrators, governments, and pharmaceuticals.
  • With these group of incumbents in mind, it becomes quite clear why the costs are rising exponentially and are so unsustainable.
  • This graph illustrates the danger of continuing down path of using the excessively high cost-structure U.S. health care incumbents have dictated in the context of spending as a % of GDP.

• Subsidies and Income Supports

  • An agricultural subsidy is a government grant paid to incumbents in the industry to reduce costs and influence the supply of commodities.

• Reasons for Trade

  • To summarize, international trade benefits mostly all incumbents and generates substantial value for the global economy.

• Antitrust Laws

  • The concept of antitrust largely revolves around governmental restrictions that limit incumbents in any given industry from consolidating too much power.
  • This graph illustrates the way in which monopolistic incumbents can control economic factors, ultimately creating surpluses or shortages to garner advantage.

• Entry and Exit of Firms

  • Because barriers to entry protect incumbent firms and restrict competition in a market, they can distort prices.
  • Customer loyalty: Large incumbent firms may have existing customers loyal to established products.

• The 1980s and 1990s: The End of Paternalism

  • With union membership and political power declining, dissident leader John Sweeney, president of the Service Employees International Union, challenged incumbent Lane Kirkland for the AFL-CIO presidency in 1995 and won.

• Clearing the Market at Equilibrium Price and Quantity

  • Perfect competition is a market where the price determined for a given good or service is not affected by external forces or competition in a way that allows incumbents (companies) to attain market influence.

• Evaluating Policies

  • Import Quotas: Policy makers often implement quotas in agriculture to retain more control over prices and protect domestic incumbents.

• Other Barriers to Entry

  • Market entrants have not yet achieved economies of scale, so their output simply costs so much more than the incumbent firms that market entry is difficult.