Bargaining in the context of "Trading post"

A fixed price is a price designated for a good or a service that is neither subject to bargaining nor bartering. The price may be fixed since the seller has placed it, or given that the price is managed by the authorities under price regulation. Fixed prices may also refer to swaps whereby payments are determined upon a never-ending interest rate, if not referring to negotiated price points that aren't amendable under regular situations. These also extend towards fixed-price contracts, whereas the price is not permitted to fluctuate unless there are premeditated mitigating situations; The equivalents of these, by definition, are cost-plus contracts, where the contractor-originating costs are managed, likewise with additional revenue subsidies issued.

Bargaining is very common in many parts of the world, primarily in the Middle East, Africa as well as Asia but not in most retail stores in Europe, North America, and Japan. Elsewhere, fixed prices tend to be an exception from the norm. Before the introduction of currency, both practices were the universally accepted means of transaction, at a domestic and international rate.

Bargaining power is the relative ability of parties in a negotiation (such as bargaining, contract writing, or making an agreement) to exert influence over each other in order to achieve favourable terms in an agreement. This power is derived from various factors such as each party’s alternatives to the current deal, the value of what is being negotiated, and the urgency of reaching an agreement. A party's bargaining power can significantly shift the outcome of negotiations, leading to more advantageous positions for those who possess greater leverage.

If both parties are on an equal footing in a debate, then they will have equal bargaining power, such as in a perfectly competitive market, or between an evenly matched monopoly and monopsony. In many cases, bargaining power is not static and can be enhanced through strategic actions such as improving one's alternatives, increasing the perceived value of one's offer, or altering the negotiation timeline. A party's bargaining power can significantly shift the outcome of negotiations, leading to more advantageous positions for those who possess greater leverage.

Automated negotiation is a form of interaction in systems that are composed of multiple autonomous agents, in which the aim is to reach agreements through an iterative process of making offers.

Automated negotiation can be employed for many tasks human negotiators regularly engage in, such as bargaining and joint decision making. The main topics in automated negotiation revolve around the design of protocols and strategies.

The degree of labour market flexibility is the speed with which labour markets adapt to fluctuations and changes in society, the economy or production. This entails enabling labour markets to reach a continuous equilibrium determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curves.

Labour unions can limit labor market flexibility by negotiating higher wages, benefits, and better working conditions with employers. In the words of Siebert, labour unions were seen to inhibit "the clearing functions of the market by weakening the demand for labor, making it less attractive to hire a worker by explicitly pushing up the wage costs or by introducing a negative shadow price for labor; by distorting the labor supply; and by impairing the equilibrating function of the market mechanism (for instance, by influencing bargaining behavior)."

Inequality of bargaining power in law, economics and social sciences refers to a situation where one party to a bargain, contract or agreement, has more and better alternatives than the other party. This results in one party having greater power than the other to choose not to take the deal and makes it more likely that this party will gain more favourable terms and grant them more negotiating power (as they are in a better position to reject the deal). Inequality of bargaining power is generally thought to undermine the freedom of contract, resulting in a disproportionate level of freedom between parties, and it represents a place at which markets fail.

Where bargaining power is persistently unequal, the concept of inequality of bargaining power serves as a justification for the implication of mandatory terms into contracts by law, or the non-enforcement of a contract by the courts.