Importance Of Economic Market Structure

The following case study is in regards of economic market structure. In the world of economics all businesses or companies rather, are categorized in certain market structures such as monopoly, oligopoly, or perfect competition, for instance, the market structure for restaurants. Most restaurants are considered monopolistic competition. Being that they all sell and serve food. They have to have instances that vary such as price, logos, servers, locations, décor, types of food, and hospitality.

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.

There are four types of market structures: Monopolistic Competition, Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Perfect Competition. Monopolistic Competition is also known as competitive market. In this market structure, there are a large number of firms that produce similar but somewhat differentiated products for the same target customers. The market share is also divided among large number of firms making it difficult for one firm to become the market leader. On the other hand, Monopoly is a type of market structure in which only one firm controls the whole industry. There are strict barriers to entry for new firms due to governmental restrictions or the monopolistic power of the firm itself. In Oligopoly, the whole industry is dominated by a few large scale firms that set prices, introduce innovative products, and use heavy campaigns to attract buyers. All other small scale firms follow the changing market patterns set by these oligopolistic firms. Lastly, perfect competition is a market structure in which there are a larger number of firms that produce similar as well as differentiated products for

Markets differ in a variety of ways including the degree of concentration and competitiveness, a fact which is reflected in the concept of ‘market structure’. Economists’ models link the structural characteristics of a market to the behaviour of firms in that market and subsequently to their performance. A key question therefore is how far a firm’s strategic decisions are shaped by the structure of the market in which it operates.

The organization and characteristics of a specific market where a company operates is referred to as market structure. While markets can basically be classified by their degree of competitiveness and pricing, there are four types of markets i.e. perfect competition, monopolistic competition, monopoly, and oligopoly. In perfect competition markets, many firms are price takers whereas monopolistic competition markets are characterized by the ability of some firms to have market power. In contrast, oligopoly markets are those in which few firms can be price makers while monopoly market is where one firm can be a price maker.

Perfect competition is an idealised market structure theory used in economics to show the market under a high degree of competition given certain conditions. This essay aims to outline the assumptions and distinctive features that form the perfectly competitive model and how this model can be used to explain short term and long term behaviour of a perfectly competitive firm aiming to maximise profits and the implications of enhancing these profits further.

In this scenario, the Tapese people of the island of Tap are being exposed to two market structures, perfect competition and a monopoly. A perfectly competitive market is a hypothetical market where competition is at its greatest possible level and some key characteristics of a perfectly competitive market are, many buyers and sellers, a homogeneous product, which is one that cannot be distinguished from competing products from different suppliers. In other words, the product has essentially the same physical characteristics and quality as similar products from other suppliers. Furthermore, a perfectly competitive market has perfect information, they are price takers, and there are no barriers to entry. With perfect information in a market,

Charles, R. Pricing problems in automobile insurance: an economic analysis. Journal of Risk and Insurance

However, this approach is limited. Due to globalization, lowering cost of production and availability of information, the competition is more fierce some than ever in most industries, putting more pressure on companies and shrinking their profit margins. In this competition race, products and services

A market is defined as an institution that brings together buyers (demanders) and sellers (suppliers) of a particular good or service. A Market structure is the relationship among the buyers and sellers of a market and how prices are determined through outside influences. There are four different types of market structures. Two on opposite extremes, and two comfortably in the middle. On one end is perfect competition, which acts as a starting point in price and output determination. Pure competition is when a large number of firms sell a standardized product, entry and exit is very easy, and an individual firm cannot control the price. On the other extreme end is Pure monopoly. A monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition, which will often allow one seller to control the market. A Pure monopoly is essentially the same thing, but also includes near impossible entry and no substitute goods. Two more common market structures are monopolistic competition and oligopoly. Monopolistic competition has a large number of sellers producing different products, while an oligopoly has only a few number of sellers producing similar products. All in all pure competition, pure monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly are all unique market structures with differing characteristics, but have one main goal, profit maximization.

The threat of new entrants presents the possibility that new firms will enter the industry and diminish industry returns by passing along value to buyers in the form of lower prices and raising the cost of competition. (Dutta, 2010)

After analyzing Ice Fili and its respective ice cream industry, we are able to assess Porter’s five forces. Determining the threat level on a low to high scale is beneficial in our analysis of whether or not this industry is attractive to use as a future stakeholder. To begin, the threat of new entrants on an industry will help determine if that industry is easy to enter or difficult under certain criteria. Such criteria includes, switching costs, customer loyalty, and product differentiation. When switching costs are high, customer loyalty low, and products are easily substituted for one another, the threat of new entrants is relatively high.

There are essentially three economic market structures that create completion barriers within their given market. These structures are corporate monopolies, oligopolies, and conglomerates. Though they all have the similarity of limited competition, they also hold some distinctions as well. Monopolies are market structures that contain one dominating, wealthy corporation. Monopolistic firms use anti-competition practices to create hardship for competitors making it nearly impossible to enter or compete in the same market (Friedrichs, 2010, p.86). However, the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 made monopolies illegal, so now large corporations have shifted away from monopolizing practices and lean towards oligopoly and conglomerate market structures

A monopoly market structure is a situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service, and in this case, it is a welfare and service orientated. To support the connection between the case and the monopoly situation, we choose three main characteristics that highlight the relation: the barriers to entry, no close substitution and have a high entry and exit barrier, profit maximizer, price maker and price

The markets today are so complex and deal with so many variables it can be difficult to understand just exactly how they operate. In the following I will reveal the different kinds of market structures along with their different pricing strategies. Relating to these topics, I will focus on the importance of cost, competition and customer.