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Why Do Monopolies Need To Be Regulated?

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In a free market, the allocation of limited resources and the effect of supply and demand to establish prices is accomplished by the market. However, history has proven that markets collapse making the use of government intervention necessary. Governments intervene as a way to address inefficiency in which case there are those who have too much of a resource while others do not have enough. Government intervention provides an avenue for greater equality through the redistribution of income as a way to improve the equality of opportunity and outcome. These types of inequalities are addressed through means such as taxation, regulation and subsidies. In a free market, inequality in income, wealth and opportunity is prevalent and private charity …show more content…

A monopoly is exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service and in an economy this form of power can create a decline in the welfare of the consumer. The government may seek to regulate monopolies as a way to protect the interests of the consumer and use regulations as a way to limit price increases. These regulations are intended to reduce the practices of unfair business because monopolies have the ability to charge unreasonable high prices for the goods and services proving detrimental to consumers. Policymakers can take certain steps to regulate and break up a monopoly if an abuse of power is taking place and individual governments determine what steps should be taken should a violation occur. Because monopolies have the market power to set prices higher than in competitive markets, the government can regulate pricing through a price cap, yardstick competition and by the prevention of the growth of monopoly …show more content…

In addition, actions such as the regulation of quality of service and the examination of the quality of service within a monopoly is another method of regulation. Quality of service regulations ensure that producers of a product or service meet a minimum set of standards deemed by the regulation set as a way to guarantee product quality. This form of intervention gives regulators the ability to examine things such as safety records to safeguard that corners are not cut at the expense of the consumer. The government also has the power to regulate merger policies which investigates the merger of two companies which could create a monopoly power. Through an investigation, if it is determined that the new merger would create more than a 25% market share, the merger is referred to the Competition Commission where a decision to approve or deny the merger is made. Furthermore, in certain cases, the government can decide whether a monopoly should be divided because the producer has become too powerful. This particular action is less likely to occur and does not guarantee the new producers will not conspire to work together anyway. Additionally, another form of government regulation regarding monopolies is that of yardstick regulation. This rate of return regulation takes into consideration the size of a producer and evaluates

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