Executive summary
The main purpose of this report is to introduce four market structures – perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly, and their determinations of price and output. It also discussed the possibility for firms to generate profits in the short-run and/or in the long-run within these four market structures. It will be shown in the discussion that both monopolistic and oligopolistic firms are able to generate profits in both short-run and long-run, while firms in perfect competition and monopolistic competition could only make profits in the short-run but not in the long-run. In the last section of the report, it provided a case of a Chinese monopolist in the railway service industry and talked about its pricing strategy when studying the monopolistic inelastic demand curve.
1. Introduction
Identifying which type of market a firm is performing business in is important for a firm. Being in different types of the market will affect a firm’s ability to determine the price and thus generate profits. It also affects a firm’s ability to make profits in the long-run (Dietl 1998). In the case of China Railway Group Limited which will be discussed in this report, its monopolistic power helps it to regulate the prices of railway tickets as well as to achieve profits in the long-run. Hence, it is very vital and helpful for a firm to know which market it is in (Robert & Cave 1999), in order to understand its power to set the monetary value. Having
Economic analysis of a monopolistically competitive industry is more complicated than that of pure competition because:
Oligopolistic markets, such as supermarkets or car manufacturing, can be defined in terms of market structure or in terms of market conduct.
equilibrium. The new company is now run as a monopoly, and this paper shall explain
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.
Firm under perfect competition and the firm under monopoly are similar as the aim of both the seller is to maximize profit and to minimize loss. The equilibrium position followed by both the monopoly and perfect competition is MR = MC. Despite their similarities, these two forms of market organization differ from each other in respect of price-cost-output. There are many points of difference which are noted below.
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.
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.
Monopoly isn’t just a board game where players move around the board buying, trading and developing properties, collecting rent, with the goal to drive their opponents into bankruptcy. However, the game Monopoly was designed to demonstrate an economy that rewards wealth creation and the domination of a market by a single entity. Monopoly and Oligopoly are economic conditions where monopoly is the dominance of one seller in the market and an oligopoly is a number of large firms that dominate in the same industry. Even though monopoly and oligopoly coexist in the same market, they do have some differences. In many cases, monopolies arise because the government has given one person or firm the exclusive right to sell some good or service. Since monopolistic markets are controlled by one seller, the seller has the power to set prices too high amounts. Monopoly companies give consumers limited choices on what to pay and what to choose from what is supplied. Oligopoly is consumer friendly because it promotes competition amongst sellers with moderate prices and numerous choices in products. Examples of oligopoly area wireless carriers, beer companies, and different types of media like TV, broadcasting, book publishing and movies. This essay will discuss descriptive section on how monopolies and oligopoly apply to microeconomics; it’s historical backstory, the government involvement with handling monopolies and oligopoly, how it applies to college life and the overall importance to
Deborah Stone, author of The Market and the Polis, evaluates the premise that public policy making in the government is comparable to a modern day marketplace. The reason being is the market and the polis both see fit to cater to public interest. In the public policy makers case, the goal is to please the constituents so they can be reelected for another term and show that they have accomplished something. For the market place, the goal is to find a competitive balance with ones prices in a balance with other competitors in the market to get as many customers as possible to achieve the most profit. Self Interest is an underlying factor in how successful one is in the market as each the business and consumer is out for the most potential gains.
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.
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.
Monopoly is a term to describe an industry where a seller of a product or service does not have a competitor offering a close substitute. The word is derived from the Greek words monos (meaning one) and polein (meaning to sell). Rarely does a pure monopoly exist. In a pure monopoly there is only one company making and selling the item in question; however there can also be the situation where there is one company who has the bulk of sales and the other firms in the same market have little or no impact on the overriding company. Due to lack of competitors, the monopoly company has control of the supply and price of the good or service, unless there is government intervention. The monopoly will
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
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.