Examining the Market Structure of Barbershops

E x t e n d e d e s s a y I n h l e c o n o m I c s

T o p I c :

Examining the Market Structure of Barbershops in West Amman

I n t r o d u c t I o n

For a male living in Amman, getting a decent haircut is quite an undertaking. I myself have witnessed this first hand, having tried over ten different barbershops and even trying to cut my own hair at one point but to no avail. The main problem I find here is the lack of expertise in most of these barbershops. None of them seem to have the appropriate training or the skills needed to be able to fully satisfy their customers and give them the "perfect haircut". Looking at it from an economics point of view, I was very interested in finding out the market structure which governed these firms. Is there really only one decent barbershop in the whole of Amman which is dominating the market? Or are they all equally bad at what they do?

The subject of economics has always fascinated me, and I constantly find myself trying to relate economic concepts I have taken in class to real world situations. It is from this eagerness to expand my knowledge of this subject and my love of it that I decided to carry out my Extended Essay investigation in economics.

After giving my topic some thought, I realized that since all of the barbershops I will be investigating are located in West Amman, it might be better for me to narrow down the scope of the investigation