Case Study Of Eskom

Both potential and existing competitors influence average industry profitability. The threat of new entrants is usually based on the market entry barriers. They can take diverse forms and are used to prevent an influx of firms into an industry whenever profits, adjusted for the cost of capital, rise above zero. In contrast, entry barriers exist whenever it is difficult or not economically feasible for an outsider to replicate the incumbents’ position (Porter, 1980b; Sanderson, 1998) The most common forms of entry barriers, except intrinsic physical or legal obstacles, are as follows:

Using the data and your knowledge of economics assess the arguments for and against the government intervening in the UK electricity industry.

Threat of New Entrants - The easier it is for new companies to enter the industry, the more cutthroat competition there will be. Factors that can limit the threat of new entrants are known as barriers to entry. Some examples include:

Businesses are not only faced with competition within the industry they operate in. They also face competition from businesses in other industries.

Hint : Typically, in a monopolistic competition industry, if one company increases price, the other company also increases their price to make more revenue in the long term.

Since colonial times, monopolies have been present in the United States’s economy. But as always, with time comes change, and that situation directly applies to the monopolies in this country. A monopoly is defined as the exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes the manipulation of prices possible. Monopolies had a negative impact on the United States due their unfairness to consumers and laborers, they don’t allow for innovation, and they stifle all competition.

1 - There is a separation of service and payment. Because monopolies are funded through taxation, they cannot go bankrupt - they can always get more funding from the public coffers. Therefore, monopolies have little incentive to be efficient.

This is where industry regulations come. The regulations discourages the monopolies and oligopolies from charging unfair prices for their products.

In all three degrees of price discrimination firms are able to make more profit and eliminate any excess capacity they may have. Firms are able to do this by charging higher prices to those consumers with a more price inelastic demand for their product. The firm is reducing the welfare of these consumers by changing them at the maximum price they are willing to

It implies that the monopolist will incur a loss. The loss is equivalent to the below shaded rectangle. Imposing of the price ceiling indicates that the monopolist will incur losses and will eventually exit the market in the long run (Lehdonvirta, & Castronova, 2015).

This is also linked into the behaviour of the buyers in the market. Buyers are also price takers because they can purchase as much as they wish without influencing the market price. The final assumption is important when considering the long term equilibrium price of a firm in perfect competition. This assumption is that entry into the market is free and that there are no barriers to entry. Any costs incurred are incurred by all of the suppliers; an entrant will pay no additional cost for entering the firm.

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.

Competition failure or monopoly may result from natural monopoly where it costs incurred in production becomes lower when only one firm is involved in production than several firms producing the same output. In a monopolist market under-production, higher prices become dominant contributing to market inefficiency. Winston cites cases of misuse of monopoly power can lead to market failures and sometimes may lead to acute shortage of essential commodities (130).

This chapter sets out the rationale for price discrimination and discusses the two major forms of price discrimination. It then considers the welfare effects and antitrust implications of price discrimination.

Again, with high entry barriers they are not bombarded with other firms coming and going from their market. (Samuelson and Marks, 2010).