Four Different Market Structures
Four Market Structures
Shavon Harrison
ECON222
Kunsoo Choi
What are the four market structures and their characteristics? According to McConnell and Brue (2004) describe four market structures that companies align themselves with during the course of their corporate lives.: “Pure Competition, Pure Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly. Companies may move from market structure to market structure over the course of growth and time. This movement between structures may be the result of product changes, introduction of competition or consumer interests. McConnell and Brue (2004) also states that, pure competition is "a very large number of firms producing a standardized product". This is the case with the corn industry. One example of a pure competition corporation is "Farmers Cooperative Association" (FCA). A Farmers' Cooperative Association is a group of farmers, at their convenience, who come together to form a co-op in order to: improve bargaining power; reduce costs; obtain market access or broaden market opportunities and improve product or service quality (Nebraska Department of Agriculture, n.d.) that would normally not be achieved as an individual farmer. In doing so each farmer pays a fee to the Cooperation. The Cooperation itself is normally a non-profit organization in that the profit is attained back to the members supplying the product. Pricing is determined by the Board of Trade and is typically nonnegotiable. Cooperatives can hold corn at the request of its members in order to obtain a better price. However, in today's farming environment it is common to sell the corn prior to even producing it (Tim Jimenez, personal communication, March 4, 2007). The federal government also controls the price to some extent by offering monies to farmers not to plant or plant more of a product which either raises the prices because supply is not available or lowers the price if there is an abundance of supply. Whatever the price is in the end
Shavon Harrison
ECON222
Kunsoo Choi
What are the four market structures and their characteristics? According to McConnell and Brue (2004) describe four market structures that companies align themselves with during the course of their corporate lives.: “Pure Competition, Pure Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly. Companies may move from market structure to market structure over the course of growth and time. This movement between structures may be the result of product changes, introduction of competition or consumer interests. McConnell and Brue (2004) also states that, pure competition is "a very large number of firms producing a standardized product". This is the case with the corn industry. One example of a pure competition corporation is "Farmers Cooperative Association" (FCA). A Farmers' Cooperative Association is a group of farmers, at their convenience, who come together to form a co-op in order to: improve bargaining power; reduce costs; obtain market access or broaden market opportunities and improve product or service quality (Nebraska Department of Agriculture, n.d.) that would normally not be achieved as an individual farmer. In doing so each farmer pays a fee to the Cooperation. The Cooperation itself is normally a non-profit organization in that the profit is attained back to the members supplying the product. Pricing is determined by the Board of Trade and is typically nonnegotiable. Cooperatives can hold corn at the request of its members in order to obtain a better price. However, in today's farming environment it is common to sell the corn prior to even producing it (Tim Jimenez, personal communication, March 4, 2007). The federal government also controls the price to some extent by offering monies to farmers not to plant or plant more of a product which either raises the prices because supply is not available or lowers the price if there is an abundance of supply. Whatever the price is in the end
References: McConnell, C. and Brue, S. (2004). Economics: principles, problems and policies, 16 ed. McGraw-Hill Companies Postrel, V. Creative insecurity: the complicated truth behind the rise of Microsoft. Reason Magazine, Charles, R. Pricing problems in automobile insurance: an economic analysis. Journal of Risk and Insurance Wikipedia. Monopoly. Chapter 12: The Arthritic Hand of Oligopoly,http://www.eco.utexas.edu/graduate/Konstantinova/14_Oligopoly.htm