Introduction
Market structure refers to the features of a market that define the nature and performance of the consumers and firms in the market. The major features that specify a market are the number of buyers and sellers, the objectives of the firms in the short run and long run, the entry and exit barriers, the nature of a product and the relationship between the firms in the market. The main market structures are perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic and oligopoly.
Perfect Competition
This is a market structure characterised by; a large number of sellers and buyers, the firms produce a homogenous product, entry and exit to the market is unrestricted, there is perfect information and perfect mobility of factors of production (Witztum, 2011).
Price Determination
Prices in this market are determined through the forces of demand and supply. Since there are many buyers and sellers, actions of one firm will have little or insignificant effect on the firm. For this reason, firms take the price that is determined by the market. If a firm's price is set above the equilibrium price level, there will be a surplus resulting to a reduction of prices by other competitors. If a firm sets its price lower than the price at equilibrium, there will be a shortage resulting to lowering of prices by other competitors. Firms will maximise profits at the level where the price is equal to the marginal cost of production.
Presence of Many Buyers and Sellers
This assumption helps to eliminate monopoly features in the market. Presence of many sellers removes the ability of an individual firm to reduce its prices and attract all the customers in the market. A firm cannot raise its prices slightly higher than the market price as all customers will ...
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...n, firms make profits encouraging entry of other firms into the market. Entry of firms boosts the number of products in the market increasing the competition. The demand for each firm decreases, hence, shifting the demand curves of the firms already in the market to the left. This consequently reduces the profits of the incumbent firms.
In the short-run, if firms are making losses, i.e. price is less than the average cost, firms will have reason to exit from the market. The number of products decreases reducing the range of choice of consumers. The demand will increase shifting the demand curve of the remaining firms to the right. This will raise the profits of the firms remaining in the market.
The entry and exit of firms continues until no firm has an inducement to enter or leave the market. This happens when the economic profit of firms in the market are zero.
This organization belongs to the oligopoly market structure. The oligopoly market structure involves a few sellers of a standardized or differentiated product, a homogenous oligopoly or a differentiated oligopoly (McConnell, 2004, p. 467). In an oligopolistic market each firm is affected by the decisions of the other firms in the industry in determining their price and output (McConnell, 2005, P.413). Another factor of an oligopolistic market is the conditions of entry. In an oligopoly, there are significant barriers to entry into the market. These barriers exist because in these industries, three or four firms may have sufficient sales to achieve economies of scale, making the smaller firms would not be able to survive against the larger companies that control the industry (McConnell, 2005, p.
Market structure is classified according to the degree of competition firms encounter in their industry (Baker College, 2016). There are four main market structures: pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and a pure monopoly. Pure competition is where fir...
Because there are few firms in an oligopoly industry, each firms output is a large share of the market. As a result, each firm's pricing and output decisions have a substantial effect on the profitability of other firms. In addition, when making decisions relating to price or output, each firm has to take into consideration the likely reaction of rival firms. Because of this interdependence, oligopoly firms engage in strategic behaviour. Strategic behaviour means when the best outcome of a firm is determined by the actions of other firms.
...ncompetitive compared to other firms. If firms cut price then they would gain a big increase in market share, however it is unlikely that firms allow this. If this occurs, as a result to that, other firms will follow and cut price as well. Demand will only increase by a small amount: demand is inelastic for a price cut.
An oligopoly is defined as "a market structure in which only a few sellers offer similar or identical products" (Gans, King and Mankiw 1999, pp.-334). Since there are only a few sellers, the actions of any one firm in an oligopolistic market can have a large impact on the profits of all the other firms. Due to this, all the firms in an oligopolistic market are interdependent on one another. This relationship between the few sellers is what differentiates oligopolies from perfect competition and monopolies. Although firms in oligopolies have competitors, they do not face so much competition that they are price takers (as in perfect competition). Hence, they retain substantial control over the price they charge for their goods (characteristic of monopolies).
In the short run, oligopolies are. able to earn abnormal profits, but in the long run as well they are. able to sustain abnormal profits due to the barriers to entry and exit. Then the s The barriers act as a strong deterrent to firms that want to come in. the industry and " eat into" the abnormal profits and then exit the market.
A perfectly competitive market is based on a model of perfect competition. For a market to fall under this model it must have a number of firms, homogeneous products, and easy exit and entry levels into the market (McTaggart, 1992).
The Perceived Demand Curve for a Perfect Competitor and Monopolist (Principle of Microeconomics, 2016). A perfectly competitive firm (a) has multiple firms competing against it, making the same product. Therefore the market sets the equilibrium price and the firm must accept it. The firm can produce as many products as it can afford to at the equilibrium price. However, a monopolist firm (b) can either cut or raise production to influence the price of their products or service. Therefore, giving it the ability to make substantial products at the cost of the consumers. However, not all monopolies are bad and some are even supported by the
Markets have four different structures which need different "attitudes" from the suppliers in order to enter, compete and effectively gain share in the market. When competing, one can be in a perfect competition, in a monopolistic competition an oligopoly or a monopoly [1]. Each of these structures ensures different situations in regards to competition from a perfect competition where firms compete all being equal in terms of threats and opportunities, in terms of the homogeneity of the products sold, ensuring that every competitor has the same chance to get a share of the market, to the other end of the scale where we have monopolies whereby one company alone dominates the whole market not allowing any other company to enter the market selling the product (or service) at its price.
In conclusion, market structure is important because it leads to strategic decision making. Having a working knowledge of market structure impacts decision making because organizations will learn the characteristics of their competition and how the market will response to changes. This report discussed the four different types of market structures: monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, and pure competition. It went into detail about what each market structure was and gave every day examples of them. Additionally, it will outlined the type of market structure AutoEdge fits into, how that market structure impacts the level of competition, elasticity of demand, price, and position in the industry.
In the absence of government intervention, price is determined by demand and supply. The equilibrium price is where demand and supply are equal. At this point there are no forces causing the price to change. The quantity which consumers want to buy will equal the quantity which producers want to sell at the current price.
An oligopolistic market has a small number of sellers dominating market share and therefore barriers to entry are high. These sellers are highly competitive and do not act independently of each other. Access to information is limited so sellers can only speculate of their competitor’s actions. Sellers will take advantage of competitor’s price changes in order to increase market share.
The second market structure is a monopolistic competition. The conditions of this market are similar as for perfect competition except the product is not homogenous it is differentiated; thus having control over its price. (Nellis and Parker, 1997). There are many firms and freedom of entry into the industry, firms are price makers and are faced with a downward sloping demand curve as well as profit maximizers. Examples include; restaurant businesses, hotels and pubs, specialist retailing (builders) and consumer services (Sloman, 2013).
There is increased competition- This is a consequence of capitalism. Increased competition leads to improvement in terms of quality and efficiency of production. It also leads to low prices of products in the market, as producers want to have a larger share of the consumer market. In a capitalistic perspective, businesses that produce high quality products at a low price enjoy a larger market share.
...n the companies will have to decrease the price otherwise the product will not be sold at higher prices and the revenue would not be as large as companies would like to.