Final answer:
In a market where buyers and sellers are price takers, like that of a perfectly competitive market, they have no influence on the market price as it is determined solely by overall supply and demand. If they attempt to set prices higher, they will lose all sales to competitors, confirming that the correct option is a) they have no influence on market price.
Step-by-step explanation:
When buyers and sellers in a certain market are price takers, this means they must accept the market price and cannot influence it. This scenario typically occurs in perfectly competitive markets, where numerous small firms produce homogeneous products, and each one has an insignificantly small market share, such that their individual decisions regarding supply or pricing do not affect market conditions.
Addressing the given options, a) they have no influence on market price is correct. Since the price is determined by the overall supply and demand in the market, individual sellers or buyers cannot influence prices; they either sell at the market price or do not sell at all.
If a seller decides to charge even a cent more than the going market rate, they risk losing all their customers to competitors who charge the market rate, making the seller's influence on price virtually nonexistent.
Therefore, it follows that they cannot find lower prices or have difficulties selling at the market price because any deviation from the market price would either result in no sales or instant purchases, depending on if the price set is higher or lower than the market rate.
The pricing power lies within the market's aggregate supply and demand rather than with individual firms or consumers.
In conclusion, the mention of the correct option in the final answer for the scenario where buyers and sellers are price takers in a certain market is a) they have no influence on market price.