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Village Of Forest Park, Illinois

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Introduction
When discussing microeconomics, there are several market structures that may have an impact the economy in the Village of Forest Park, Illinois. These market structures including perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly have many characteristics and have an impact on the market as a whole. There are many barriers to entry, competitive pressure and price elasticity that also impact the economic growth of the village. Other areas that affect the village’s economy include governmental roles and international trade.
Two Characteristics of the Four Market Structures
The major market structures that impact our current economy are perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. …show more content…

A monopolistic competition describes a common market structure in which firms have many competitors or sellers, but each one sells a vaguely distinctive product or service. One of this market structure’s characteristics is that each individual firm makes independent decisions about price and output, based on its product, its market, and its costs of production (Economics Online, 2015). Another characteristic is there is freedom to enter or leave the market, since there are no major barriers to entry or exit. The opposite of this market structure is an oligopoly. Oligopoly means few sellers. Oligopoly is the market structure in which there are only a few firms or a few firms dominate the market (Amacher & Pate, 2013). In an oligopolistic market, each seller supplies a large portion of all the products sold in the marketplace. In addition, because the cost of starting a business in an oligopolistic industry is usually high, the number of firms entering it is low.
Local Market Example
In the Village of Forest Park, the local electric company, ComEd, has a monopoly over the energy market. While the village residents are able to chose what type of energy they use, whether its coal or wind, each of the energy providers sell their energy to ComEd who then sets the price for its consumers. There are no other energy companies or providers in the city, each person must use

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