Monopoly Between Monopoly And Oligopoly

For my research paper I decided to write about monopolies. I chose to write about monopolies because I wanted to learn more about them. No this type of monopoly is not a board game in which consumers engage in buying houses or property with fake money. Instead this type of monopoly is a firm that is the only seller of a good or service that does not have a close substitute. An example of a monopoly is natural gas company or Time Warner Cable or Microsoft and its Windows operating system. Although few people like monopolies and even though few companies are monopolies, the model of a monopoly can be useful. You see a monopoly is useful in analyzing situations in which firms agree to act together as if they were a monopoly. Monopolies are not illegal in the United States. What is illegal is actions taken by monopolies to limit competition. But there are times when one supplier in a market is better than a competitive market? Should the government work to protect that one supplier in a market?

Economic analysis of a monopolistically competitive industry is more complicated than that of pure competition because:

In the late nineteenth century shortly after the Civil War and Reconstruction, farmers in the Midwestern United States found themselves in quite a predicament. During the second industrial revolution of the United States that contained mass introduction of: railroads, oil, steel, and electricity, the risk-taking entrepreneurs of this era took an adventure into the world of cutthroat capitalism. In just a little time, a handful of monopolies arose in all these industries which hurt both the consumer of the product and the producer of the material (Doc. F). Because of the corrupt politicians in Washington DC, the absence of regulation on the monopolies put into place by bribes and greed or moderation from them, and the devious ways of the

During 1865 to 1900 the industrial and business leaders thrived and created monopolies. The first monopolies were Railroads that which was created after the Civil War. These monopolies had a great amount of wealth and power in the nation, even as powerful as the president. These people controlled monopolies of Railroads, oil, and iron. They became rich and powerful off of their companies and hoarded the majority of the money.

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.

Back when the America was divided in thirteen states, the commerce was small and still had many points to improve. As the time passed, these small business started to make commerce between different states, and, consequently, required the government to create laws regulating the commerce, such as the Interstate Commerce Act. With the help of the government, the economy started growing, and so, many monopolies started to appear and so to control business. Years later, these monopolies were much bigger and consequently, the prosperity of country was threatened since there were any competition, nor any incentive to provide best products opportunities. Therefore, the U.S. government was now required to create new laws regulating and intervening in the economy, even though going against the capitalist ideal.

Monopolies have been around America since its beginning. Some of the first monopolies are the reason for America’s advancement that lead us to become one of the greatest countries in the world. But, what is a monopoly? The book, Economics: Private and Public Choice defined it as “a market structure characterized by (1) a single seller of a well-defined product for which there are no good substitutes and (2) high barriers to the entry of any other firms into the market for that product,” (Gwartney, Glossary). Though, the laws of the land are in place to help the government ensure that big business will not control certain industries again. Looking forward to present time, we are now seeing similarities between the big business monopolies of

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.

The article “Beyond United: How oligopolies hurt Americans’ pocketbooks” written by James Downie for The Washington Post discusses the financial issues that arise from oligopoly control. The article explains how, because of mergers, the airline industry has gone from nine major companies to just four. The author argues, “Travelers can’t avoid higher fairs and fees unless they choose not to fly” (Downie). Downie brings attention to the growing profits for the consolidated airline companies while consumers pay the same or higher prices. He also explains how the drug industry operates as an oligopoly with only three companies controlling 75 percent of the market. These three companies control drug prices and touch every wallet in America. Downie

I feel that the United States government should have a larger role in our economy. I feel this because if there is a monopoly, other buisiness will not be able to stay open for very long. If there was a monopoly, they would be able to charge whatever they want for low quality goods. For example, Wal-Mart is kind of a monopoly. A lot of Mom and Pop who sell some of the same stuff as Wal-Mart are having to close down because more people are going to go to Wal-Mart.

The New York Post’s business article, "Comcast-Time Warner Cable Critics Fired up," written by Claire Atkinson and Josh Kosman, discusses the Comcast and Time Warner Merger. Comcast has a deal with Time Warner that Comcast will pay $48.5 billion for the company. This deal is currently being reviewed by FCC. There is a possible violation of antitrust laws, as this deal may cause Comcast to be a monopoly of the cable industry. Many companies, like Amazon, Netflix, Dish Network, and Discovery Communications, are leading the attack against the merger. Critics of the deal are claiming that Comcast is in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act and the merger will cause harm to competition and consumers (Atkinson). The purpose of this paper is to explain oligopoly, monopoly, and costs because they helped me under stand Atkinson and Kosman’s article.

Economic ideas provide a conceptual framework for understanding the forces that shape our personal and public lives.

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.

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.