Question

Give three reasons, many economists (including MacGee) believe that predation is rare.

Answer 1

Three reasons are:

1) The energy constraint is the fundamental reason as to why top predation is rare. Because All ecosystems have a fixed energy budget, dictated by the number of primary producers.

2) Another reason is that it can lead to Costly errors. Mistaking competitive pricing as predatory will tend to inhibit price competition in the economy. On the other hand, mistaking predation for competition may foster higher prices from increased concentration in the long run.

3) Predation is more costly to the predator than the victim, given the predator's larger market share, and that as the campaign and market share increase, so too do the costs. The threat of predation is not credible because it would not pay to carry it out; the predator firm would lose more by predating than by coexisting with a rival.