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
In economics, a monopoly is a single seller. In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power to charge high prices.[4] Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a monopoly. A small business may still have the power to raise prices in a small industry (or market).[5]
Many utilities are monopolies by having the entire market share in certain areas. With deregulation of these utilities, the market becomes open to competition for market share to begin. In terms of regulation of monopoly, the government attempts to prevent operations that are against the public interest, call anti-competitive practices. Likewise, oligopoly is a market condition where there are minimal distributors that have a major influence on prices and other market factors. This causes market failure, especially if evidence of collusive behavior by dominant businesses is found.
Finally is the allowance of these monopolies to rise in the first place. Since there were no regulatory agencies back in the second industrial revolution, big businessmen with the idea of trimming fat in their companies could conquer any competitor by using hardball tactics of purposely
In Document 4 “A Call to Action,” by James B. Weaver, it explained to the public through the author's thoughts of that monopolies had too much power and that the monopolies destroy competition and trade. This book was written at the time of when big corporations were taking over and destroying competition. Also, the author goes into detail that they control the price of the raw material, so they can produce their products at a low price and sell it at a low price. By selling that the lowest price, the competitors can not compete are driven out of business or reduce the wages of the workers. This idea can be related to current times were big corporations, such as Walmart, are destroying competition because they lower their prices that the competitors cannot compete with.
Monopolies are defined as an industry dominated by one corporation, or business, like standard oil. They are a main driver of inequality, as profits concentrate more on wealth in the hands of the few.(Atlantic). A monopoly has total or nearly all control of that industry. They are considered an extreme result of the U.S. free market capitalism. The business own everything, from the goods to the supplies to the infrastructure. This company will become big enough to buy out other competitors or even crush their competitor by lowering their prices to get the other business to go out of business. They will then control the whole industry without any restarted, having the prices be what they want and the product to be in what condition they want
Monopolies are quite dangerous economically, and are usually broken up by the federal government, with only two exceptions- electricity, and gas. These are modern examples. A monopoly is the economic term for when a company that makes a product has no competition, and can raise the prices as high as they want. For example, the most obvious and powerful monopoly of the industrial revolution was the railroad monopoly. They made money quite quickly as a shipping company, and destroyed any and all competition as the only transcontinental railroad at the time. It’s leader, Cornelius Vanderbilt came to be considered one of the most powerful people of all time, due to his control over who he shipped for.
“For example, the federal government regulates the quality of food and water, the safety of workplaces and airspaces, and the integrity of the banking and finance system.” (Bianco, Canon 2011, p 582) Regulations find out if the product is a market failure. There are two types of regulations, which are economic and social. “Economic regulations sets prices or conditions on entry of firms into an industry, where as social regulation address issues of quality and safety.” (Bianco, Canon 2011, p 582) Economic regulations are concerned with the price regulation of monopolies.
The restraint against monopolies help
There are two types of regulations: economic and social. An Economic regulation is the prescription of price and output for a specific industry, as Social regulation is the prescription of health, safety, performance, and environmental standards that apply across several industries. Most economic regulations happened after the Great Depression, under the leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which a natural monopoly, like utilities, railroads, and communication would match that of a competitive market, thus setting a market-price cap. Understanding that in some aspects the government cannot stop a monopoly without causing market harm in some cases, so they attempt to rectify it. The government gives companies fair rates of returns, which is a price that allows a monopoly firm to earn a normal profit, similar to one gained when a companies marginal cost matches their marginal revenue. This is especially important, because when the government calls for the deregulation of a company, it leaves behind stranded assets, properties that lose values after the intervention. Other ways government can aid in the deregulation of a business is through privatization and contracting out; the government can either enlist a private firm to do a service on their behalf, or even transferring the public enterprise to private
The economics of supply and demand suggest that output restriction will increase demand which in turn will increase prices. Consequently, output restriction can affect prices in much the same way as price fixing. Those four forms of cartel conduct exist when the individuals or businesses agree to act together for competition fairly and maintain profits. Moreover, there are other anti-competitive practices such as boycotts and misuse of market power. A boycott is an agreement between two or more parties not to deal with a third party, or to do so only upon certain terms. On the other hand, misuse of market power is the individuals or businesses who use their market power for the purpose of eliminating or substantially damaging a competitor or make barriers to enter into the market. The ACCC educates consumers and businesses as to their right and responsibilities under the CCA.
A monopoly is advantageous to the society and is encourages by the government if there are high fixed costs and very strong economies of scale. At the same time, it could also lead to unequal distribution of wealth; containment of consumer choice; lobbying and unethical spending.
To avoid abuses from monopolies and to protect the consumer the government should introduce certain regulations such as continuously monitoring misuse of monopoly power. In Malta we have the Fair Trade Commission Office which performs this monitoring.
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.
In micro-economics market failure is characterized by resource misallocation and subsequent Pareto inefficiency. Just as the invisible hand falters, so is the case that the unregulated markets are incapable of solving all economic problems. In laissez-faire economy, market models mainly monopolistic, perfect competition and oligopoly are expected to efficiently allocate resources for the “welfare benefit” of the society. However individualistic and selfish private interests divert the public benefits thereby prompting government intervention to correct the imperfection which may lead to disastrous economic impact. Although corrective intervention policies by government may not necessarily address the underlying imperfection induced by
There is just a one person who sells products or services and there are no incentives which help to break this monopoly. There are many monopoly industries in the market. In monopoly, they use patents because they don’t like if someone’s copy their inventions.