Preview

Monopoly

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
722 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Monopoly
[pic]

A profit maximiser increases output until MC=MR at Q1. The intersection of MC with MR gives the profit maximising level of output. The intersection of MC with MR gives the profit maximising level of output. To find the market price one must project up from Q1 to the demand curve and across the vertical price axis, P1. Consumers are willing to pay P1 for Q1. Unit costs are only P2 so the firm is making an abnormal profit of (P1-P2)*Q1

The four key characteristics of monopoly are: (1) a single firm selling all output in a market, (2) a unique product, (3) restrictions on entry into and exit out of the industry, and more often than not (4) specialized information about production techniques unavailable to other potential producers.
These four characteristics mean that a monopoly has extensive (boarding on complete) market control. Monopoly controls the selling side of the market. If anyone seeks to acquire the production sold by the monopoly, then they must buy from the monopoly. This means that the demand curve facing the monopoly is the market demand curve. They are one and the same.
The characteristics of monopoly are in direct contrast to those of perfect competition. A perfectly competitive industry has a large number of relatively small firms, each producing identical products. Firms can freely move into and out of the industry and share the same information about prices and production techniques.

Single supplier:

The essence of a monopoly is a market controlled by a single seller.
The most important aspect of being a single seller is that the monopoly seller IS the market. The market demand for a good IS the demand for the output produced by the monopoly. This makes monopoly a price maker, rather than a price taker.

Unique Product:

To be the only seller of a product, however, a monopoly must have a unique product.
There are no close substitutes.
A monopoly is an ONLY seller of a UNIQUE product.

Barriers to Entry and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    A monopoly occurs when a company has such a large portion of the product market that it can set its own price despite the market equilibrium. Monopolies date back to Standard Oil Co. Inc. in 1870. Standard Oil Co. Inc. controlled also the entire oil market in its time and made huge profits by doing so. The Sherman Antitrust Act was put in place to combat monopolies and their power in the marketplace.…

    • 73 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Week 4 Assignment Xeco212

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One characteristic of a monopoly is that it can influence the price of its output, unlike a competitive market. Also, “The…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    •One or Few: The primary difference between oligopoly and monopoly is that monopoly contains a single seller, whereas oligopoly has two or more sellers. Such a difference might seem to provide a clear separation. But not necessarily.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A monopoly is a situation in which there is a single producer or seller of a product for which there are not close substitutes. The most common example of a natural monopoly would be an Electric (power) company. Power companies are characterized by very large costs for their infrastructure making it inefficient to have more than a single firm in a region because of the high cost of duplicating facilities needed to (Colander, 2013).…

    • 1201 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Lowes in the Marketplace

    • 2539 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Monopoly’s market type occurs when there is one firm providing a unique manufactured good without similar substitutes. Entry into a monopoly type market is difficult and nonprice competition is unnecessary. “Nonprice competition involves firms trying to gain an advantage over one another by differentiating their products (Keat and Young, 2009).” Becoming the only business providing the service or product means that the public specifically has to purchase from this one company. An example of a monopoly would be the Public Utility Commission (PUC) in California. Unlike Texas, where residents have many companies to choose from for electricity, California receives their power bill from one central company.…

    • 2539 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Econ Final

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A monopoly is a market structure in which there is only a single seller of a good, service, or resource. Pure monopolies are very rare in the United States, but there are some forms of monopolies across the country. Many government regulated public utilities are monopolized by the government. Many people believe that Major League Baseball is a monopoly because they are the only organization serving baseball fans nationwide. They can make their tickets and concession prices as high as they want because there is no competition around them to compete with over prices.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    mims vs starbucks

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    and is twice as steep as it. In fact, when MR is zero, the firm…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Monopoly is a term to describe an industry where a seller of a product or service does not have a competitor offering a close substitute. The word is derived from the Greek words monos (meaning one) and polein (meaning to sell). Rarely does a pure monopoly exist. In a pure monopoly there is only one company making and selling the item in question; however there can also be the situation where there is one company who has the bulk of sales and the other firms in the same market have little or no impact on the overriding company. Due to lack of competitors, the monopoly company has control of the supply and price of the good or service, unless there is government intervention. The monopoly will continue to make more goods as long as their marginal cost is equal to their marginal revenue. The monopoly will stop selling goods at the point when the next item sold lowers their marginal revenue on the previous goods sold. Because there is no competition the monopoly company has more control in making a profit. In normal business situations this would cause other companies to form and try to get into the same industry hoping to make a profit as well.…

    • 2034 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The three most important characteristics of oligopoly are: (1) an industry dominated by a small number of large firms, (2) firms sell either identical or differentiated products, and (3) the industry has significant barriers to entry.…

    • 1659 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Monopoly Vs Monopoly

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The dictionary states the definition of a monopoly as an, “Exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.” According to the…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    3. The key difference between a monopoly and a perfectly competitive industry is that an individual, perfectly competitive firm faces a horizontal demand curve but a monopolist faces a downward-sloping demand curve. This gives the monopolist market power, the ability to raise the market price by reducing output compared to perfectly competitive industry.…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Economics Review Paper

    • 1726 Words
    • 7 Pages

    ---arises where it’s more efficient for a single firm to serve the society. (Examples? What will happen if we have more than one firm in the market?)…

    • 1726 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Monopoly is a situation where the market there is only one supplier of this type of goods and services.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Profit Maximization

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Figure 2: Profıt maximizing in a Perfect Market or The Price-Taking Firm’s Profit-Maximizing Quantity of Output. At the profit-maximizing quantity of output, market price = marginal cost, at the point where the marginal cost curve crosses the marginal revenue curve, which is a horizontal line at market price. Here, the profit-maximizing point is at an output of 5 eggs, the output quantity at point E.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    These industries either have a market structure in which a small number of inter-dependent firms dominating the industry, that of a oligopoly, or are firms that is the only seller of a good or service that does not have a close substitute, characteristics of a monopoly.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays