Define the three economic aspects of monopoly and the three economic effects of oligopoly?

MONOPOLY

1) Ownership of a Key Resource

A firm that has exclusive control or ownership of a key resource can restrict access to that resource and establish a monopoly. The limited availability of the key resource will make it impossible for new sellers to enter the market. Although this factor is important in economic theory, monopolies rarely ever arise for this reason in reality anymore. Mainly because most resources are available in various regions across the globe.

One famous example of a monopoly that arose because of ownership of a key resource is the diamond market in the twentieth century. During this period, the company De Beers effectively controlled most of the world’s diamond mines, either through direct ownership or exclusive agreements. As a result, De Beers could dominate the market and influence the market price at will.

2) Government Regulation

The government can restrict market entry by law (e.g. through patents or copyright laws), which may result in a monopoly. Governments usually do this to serve the public interest, because these regulations promote innovation as well as research and development (R&D). The idea behind this is that firms can be rewarded for their R&D efforts by getting exclusive rights to sell their product. Without this kind of protection, it would be more reasonable for many firms to let others do the research and just copy their products once they are on the market. However, this would eventually eradicate all innovation and research.

Arguably the most prominent (and controversial) examples of government-regulated monopolies can be found in the pharmaceuticals industry. It often takes more than a decade for companies to develop new drugs. However, if they succeed, the firms can apply for a patent and become the sole seller of the new drug for a set period of time. This monopoly position allows them to make enough profits to make up for high R&D expenditures.

3) Economies of Scale (i.e. Natural Monopoly)

In some industries, a single firm can supply a good or service at a lower cost than two or more firms could. We call this a natural monopoly (because it arises without government intervention). A natural monopoly can arise in industries where firms face high fixed costs but are able to realize significant economies of scale over the relevant range of output. Those circumstances result in decreasing average total costs as output increases, which makes it more difficult for new firms to enter the market.

The market for electricity is a common example of a natural monopoly. Building the infrastructure to supply a city with electricity is extremely expensive. Thus, the market has high barriers to entry. However, connecting an additional house to the power grid is relatively cheap once the infrastructure is in place. As a result, a single firm can supply a whole city at a lower cost than two or more competing companies could.

Explanation:

OLIGOPOLY

Some of the oligopoly effects are discussed as follows:

i. Restriction on output:

Implies that oligopoly results in small output and high prices as compared to other market structures, such as perfect competition.

ii. Price exceeds average costs:Implies that under oligopoly, there are restrictions on entry of new organizations. Thus, organizations charge prices more than the average costs. Therefore, consumers have to pay more in case of oligopoly market.

iii. Lower Efficiency:

Leads to non-optimum levels of output. This is because the output produced under oligopoly depends on the market share held by the organization. Thus, the oligopoly organizations fail to build the optimum scales of economies and achieve optimum output.

iv. Selling Costs:

Refer to high promotional costs. The oligopolists engage in high promotion tasks to take the share of its rivals. Thus, the resources are wasted in form of high selling costs which do not add to the satisfaction of customers.

Apart from aforementioned points, oligopoly shows the poor performance from various other angles. From the point of economic welfare, it fails to satisfy customers since the price charged is very high, even more than average costs. In addition, sometimes oligopolists may face wasteful fluctuations in output as the output is not determined optimally.

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