Economic Definition of Hotelling's paradox. Defined.
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Term Hotelling's paradox Definition: A principle stating that monopolistically competitive firms seek to maintain similarities between products at the same time they maintain differences. Similarities enable substitutability. That is, one firm can attract the buyers away from other firms. Differences enable uniqueness and market control. That is, a firm has a small monopoly for its product that allows it to charge a higher price than achieved with perfect competition. This is also termed the principle of minimum differences.
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