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?