Final answer:
Alan Blinder's survey suggests that firms in imperfectly competitive markets have some market power and face price stickiness in the short run. Prices are not flexible, which contrasts with the conditions of a perfectly competitive market.
Step-by-step explanation:
Alan Blinder's survey of firms mainly suggests that real-world market structures are often imperfectly competitive. This implies firms in such markets do not perfectly align with the characteristics of either pure competition or absolute monopolies. According to Blinder's findings, we can infer the following points about the behavior of firms in an imperfectly competitive market:
- Imperfect competition exists, meaning firms enjoy some power to set prices above marginal costs.
- Firms have a degree of market power, enabling them to influence the prices of their products to some extent, unlike in a perfectly competitive market.
- Prices are sticky in the short run, meaning that firms tend not to change prices frequently in response to every market signal.
The option that does not align with Blinder's findings is that prices are flexible, which contradicts the notion of price stickiness that is characteristic of many imperfectly competitive markets.