Market structures
When the term business is mentioned, the first idea that comes into our minds is profit. However, before that profit is earned, other sectors of the “business” must participate. Every business should at least have the product and the idea about who should buy the commodity. What the business is selling is not important now but the one who buys it (customer) is. The customer is what we generally refer to market in business. Thus, every business needs to be fully aware of the market it serves. Every business has its own type of customers hence it has its own market model known as the market structure. Based on this idea, in business economics we have four types of market structures namely; Monopoly, Oligopoly, Monopolistic Competition and Perfect Competition market structures. Let us briefly explain these market
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Again, in both monopoly and oligopoly market structures there is no freedom of entry and in both, the firms involved have some control over the price. In both the monopolistic and perfect competition market structures, we have many sellers and buyers. Monopolistic and perfect competition market structures we also have easy entry and exist hence less barriers of entry and exist.
When contrasting the market structures, monopoly structure is different from the rest in that it has only one seller or producer. It is also in a monopoly structure where only a single seller enjoys the profits alone. Oligopoly is different from the other structures in that it is only where we have sellers who can cooperate together since forming cartels means they are ready to communicate so as to control the price of the product. The perfect competition market structure is different from the rest since it is only where both the sellers and the buyers have a perfect knowledge of the market.
The market structure I
Firms may be categorized in a variety of different market structures. Perfectly competitive, monopolistically competitive, oligopolistic,
There are several market structures known. They include monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly market structures. Travelodge operates in a monopoly market structure. A monopoly market structure is one which, there is only one seller.it has the most significant market authority (Haines, 2009). A monopoly market structure is a good example of an imperfect market. Bearing in mind, it has the power to raise the price of its services and products. In relation to Travelodge, monopoly arises as a result of lowering the cost of its products and services. Having grown and fully established itself, lowering of its prices on services and goods would not affect its marginal profits as much. On the other hand, it will motivate other upcoming firms to make profits and hence withdraw from the market (Sexton, 2008).
Perfect competitive and monopoly are the extreme of market structures. Therefore, the supply and price decision are totally difference between perfect competitive and monopoly.
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...
Oligopolies do not compete on prices. Price wars tend to lead to lower profits, leaving a little change to market shares. However, Oligopolies firms tend to charge reasonably premium prices but they compete through advertising and other promotional means. Existing companies are safe from new companies entering the market because barriers to entry to the market are high. For example, if products are heavily promoted and producers have a number of existing successful brands, it will be very costly and difficult for new firms to establish their own new brand in an oligopoly market.
Can you imagine the world with a limited amount of choices when it comes to purchasing different products and services? How does perfect competition and monopolistic competition differ and effect our buying power? As stated by Investopedia (2016), “Perfect competition is the opposite of a monopoly, in which only a single firm supplies a particular good or service, and that firm can charge whatever price it wants because consumers have no alternatives and it is difficult for would-be competitors to enter the marketplace (para 1)”.
Market structure is when an industry has a number of firms making identical products. An industry’s market structure depends on the how many firms are in that in industry and how they will compete in the market. We can focus on those specific factors that will affect how it will change competition and also price. The types of market structure include oligopolies, monopolies, perfect competition and monopolistic competition.
There are many industries. Economist group them into four market models: 1) pure competition which involves a very large number of firms producing a standardized producer. New firms may enter very easily. 2) Pure monopoly is a market structure in which one firm is the sole seller a product or service like a local electric company. Entry of additional firms is blocked so that one firm is the industry. 3)Monopolistic competition is characterized by a relatively large number of sellers producing differentiated product. 4)Oligopoly involves only a few sellers; this “fewness” means that each firm is affected by the decisions of rival and must take these decisions into account in determining its own price and output. Pure competition assumes that firms and resources are mobile among different kinds of industries.
There are four major market structures; perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Perfect competition is the market structure in which there are many sellers and buyers, firms produce a homogeneous product, and there is free entry into and exit out of the industry (Amacher & Pate, 2013). A perfect competition is characterized by the fact that homogeneous products are being created. With this being the case consumers have no tendency to buy one product over the other, because they are all the same. Perfect competitions are also set up so that there is companies are free to enter and leave a market as they choose. They are allowed to do with without any type of restriction, from either the government or the other companies. This structure is purely theoretical, and represents and extreme end of the market structure. The opposite end of the market structure from perfect competition is monopoly.
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).
A Monopoly is a market structure characterised by one firm and many buyers, a lack of substitute products and barriers to entry (Pass et al. 2000). An oligopoly is a market structure characterised by few firms and many buyers, homogenous or differentiated products and also difficult market entry (Pass et al. 2000) an example of an oligopoly would be the fast food industry where there is a few firms such as McDonalds, Burger King and KFC that all compete for a greater market share.
Well the bottom line is that a monopoly is firm that sells almost all the goods or services in a select market. Therefore, without regulations, a company would be able to manipulate the price of their products, because of a lack of competition (Principle of Microeconomics, 2016). Furthermore, if a single company controls the entire market, then there are numerous barriers to entry that discourage competition from entering into it. To truly understand the hold a monopoly firm has on the market; compare the demand curves between a Perfect Competitor and Monopolist firm in Figure
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.
Any oligopoly form of Market is where there is large number of buyer but few sellers present. They are selling a homogeneous or unique product. There are barriers to entry and exit in such type of a market form. Also, since barriers to entry are high, firm can earn super normal profit in the long run.
Perfect and monopolistic competition markets both share elasticity of demand in the long run. In both markets the consumer is aware of the price, if the price was to increase the demand for the product would decrease resulting in suppliers being unable to make a profit in the long run. Lastly, both markets are composed of firms seeking to maximise their profits. Profit maximization occurs when a firm produces goods to a high level so that the marginal cost of the production equates its marginal