1. Danielle Martinez, Ashwin Mudiraj, Sarah Anderson, Cole Leckburg

2. * Monopolistic Competitive Market * - Product Differentiation: shape, color, deep pocket, length, strap, quality, brand name, positional gloves, how it long it takes to break in * -Many firms * Imperfect information; sellers and buyers do not have perfect information about the product * -Independent decision making * -No barriers to entry or exit * Public Good * Provides value to customers by being a necessity to play baseball or softball * Imperfect Substitutes

4. * The elasticity of demand is fairly elastic because a monopolistic competitive firm has less control over the price that it can charge for its output. Eugen Slutsky relates demand to the substitution effect as well as the income effect. The income effect is a change in quantity brought by a change in real income. In this particular industry, baseball gloves are more price sensitive, meaning, they are typically priced high and bought in low quantity increasing the elasticity of demand.

5. * Firms in a monopolistic competitive market try to differentiate their products as much as possible in order to gain more monopolistic pricing power. Supply curves are marginal cost curves above the minimum average variable cost. Variable costs change due to price of leather, skilled labor and product features such as deep pockets, lacing, length, quality, color, etc. Supply is elastic in this industry because this industry is highly dependent on these variable costs.

6. * 1) Rivalry: numerous different brands producing relatively similar products, slow growth because it takes time for companies to get consumers to trust their brand * 2) Threat of New Entrants: There is potential for new entrants but it will be hard because the new entrants will not have an established name and will have to seek out professionals to sponsor. * 3) Suppliers: Nike, Rawlings, and Wilson use Horween leathers as their supplier so their marginal cost will change due to the price of leather which is also an added portion of profit that they are losing. Nakona and Mizuno produce their own leather so they do not have to worry about a supplier’s price, which is also an added variable cost for these companies. * 4) Customers: Professional players, recreational players, backyard Joe’s * 5) Substitutes: There are no substitutes, only other brands to buy gloves from. Gloves are a necessity to play baseball or softball, there is nothing you can substitute it for. If buying for recreational use, people can just buy other recreational items or a garage sale glove.