Introduction It cannot be denied that oligopolies are widespread all over the world. The Cambridge Dictionary (2016) defines oligopoly as ‘a situation in which a small number of organizations or companies have control of an area of business, so that others have no share’. An example is the smartphone market are dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. It has been reported that the market share of Android is nearly 80 percent, while iOS’s market share is about 15 percent in 2015 (Olenick, 2015). The main characteristic of oligopoly is the interdependence of firms, which leads to strategic uncertainly. Companies need to consider their rivals’ possible reactions when setting price and output so there is not a known outcome. Basically, there are many models that can analyse this uncertainly such as Cournot Model and Stackelberg Model. In this essay, I will outline the nature of uncertainly in an oligopoly market in which firms set output levels, then use different models to analyse this uncertainly as well as examine the influence of a cartel.
Oligopoly uncertainly It is believed that firms have to take into account the actions of customers and other producers to any shift in price and output thus it gives rise to oligopoly uncertainly. Consider a market in which the companies confront the identical market price. Let the inverse market demand curve be p = p(q) = p(qA + qB). Firm A needs to consider the impact of its output on the market price to determine its profits
Oligopolistic markets, such as supermarkets or car manufacturing, can be defined in terms of market structure or in terms of market conduct.
Throughout history, there have been many problems present in the American life. In the time period between the 1800s to the 1900s, there were many problems such as, poor living and working conditions and powerful monopolies. Many reforms were proposed in order to solve these problems. The grisly living and working conditions, along with overpowered monopolies, were both addressed with reforms.
United States vs. Microsoft is one the largest, most controversial antitrust lawsuits in American history. Many claim the government is wrongly punishing Microsoft for being innovative and successful, arguing that Windows dominates the market because of the product’s popularity, not because of malpractice by the parent company. Others argue in favor of the government, claiming that Microsoft’s practices conflict with the free market ideal. There are many arguments for both sides of the lawsuit, but what the case really comes down to is this: does the government have the right to interfere in today’s marketplace? Or is Microsoft violating laws that are rightfully imposed by the government?
The progressive era was an era of reform. At the time monopolies controlled production of what they produced. American industrialization was based on the free enterprise system, where people have the right to make their choices in what they work, buy, or make. Businesses used the free enterprise system to their advantage and used their own resources to compete with other businesses and focused on the needs of the consumer to make greater profit. Some businesses used different tactics to drive other businesses out and strove for greater labor with least pay. Eventually, the progressive movement would create the turning point of the century and restore
In this article Michael Baker discusses the livelihood of small retailers in a market subjugated by the financially dominant oligopolies, Woolworths and Coles. While the small independent retailers in direct competition with Woolworths and Coles provide some competitive respite for consumers, as they encourage competitive pricing, albeit predatory pricing, it is clear that Woolworths and Coles control the supermarket industry in Australia, in the formation of a duopoly. It is evident that Woolworths and Coles engage in predatory pricing in an attempt to eliminate independent retailers from the market. This article discusses recent efforts made by the Australian government and the Australian Competition
There are many models of market structure in the field of economics. They include perfect competition on one end, monopoly on the other end, and competitive monopoly and oligopoly somewhere in the middle. In this paper, we will focus on the oligopoly structure because it is one of the strongest influences in the United States market. Although oligopolies can also be global, we will focus strictly on the United States here. We will define oligopoly, give key characteristics important to the oligopoly structure, explain why oligopolies form, then give an example of an oligopoly in today’s economy. Finally, we will discuss the benefits and costs in this type of market structure.
2. What are the differences among horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers? Provide real-world examples of each type of merger. What policy do you think the US should follow toward mergers? Why?
What is a monopoly? According to Webster's dictionary, a monopoly is "the exclusive control of a commodity or service in a given market.” Such power in the hands of a few is harmful to the public and individuals because it minimizes, if not eliminates normal competition in a given market and creates undesirable price controls. This, in turn, undermines individual enterprise and causes markets to crumble. In this paper, we will present several aspects of monopolies, including unfair competition, price control, and horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers.
Within the realm of industrial economics, a central focus is on equilibrium in oligopoly models, and the questions arise of how the firms would find the equilibrium and whether they will choose it. The efforts of this essay are devoted to a discussion of Cournot and Bertrand models of competition, two fundamental single-period models that form the basis for multi-period models (Friedman, 1977). Firstly the essay will give an introduction to the properties of the Cournot and Bertrand models of competition and examine their implications to the relationship between structure and performance. Then it will
In oligopoly market, each firm has substantial market power with high degree of interdependence. The key for success in a oligopoly market is to gain more market share than the competitors. Increasing the price can lead to loss of market share to the competitors, so in the oligopoly market, if a firm decreases the price, the other firms will always follow, but if a firm increase the price, the other firms will not follow. The demand curve is kinked.
Oligopolistic Markets are less common, but still prevail in the modern economy. An Oligopolistic business is one with few competitors, basing its revenue off of “outsmarting” its opponents by analyzing their decisions and predicting the outcome. Having an analysis of an opponent provides the basis for Oligopoly, as income is based on providing a product that has more features than another product, released to the public around the same time. The Cellular industry provides a pristine example of the Oligopolistic Market.
Has the economy ever thought about direct impact from monopoly and oligopoly industries? The structure of a monopoly based industry exemplifies one seller in the entire market. On the other hand, the concept of an oligopoly industry illustrates few sellers that have the potential of making a direct impact in one single industry idea. The economy has depended on the market share of a monopoly and an oligopoly trade. However, a monopoly industry differs from an oligopoly industry due to a monopoly competitor dominates a majority of the market share of many industries and an oligopoly competitor contains few sellers who dominate a market share based on one single industry idea.
1. Analyze the fast food industry from the point of view of perfect competition. Include the concepts of elasticity, utility, costs, and market structure to explain the prices charged by fast food retailers.
In micro-economics market failure is characterized by resource misallocation and subsequent Pareto inefficiency. Just as the invisible hand falters, so is the case that the unregulated markets are incapable of solving all economic problems. In laissez-faire economy, market models mainly monopolistic, perfect competition and oligopoly are expected to efficiently allocate resources for the “welfare benefit” of the society. However individualistic and selfish private interests divert the public benefits thereby prompting government intervention to correct the imperfection which may lead to disastrous economic impact. Although corrective intervention policies by government may not necessarily address the underlying imperfection induced by
Price and Product: in an oligopoly, firms have a limited control over their product and