Monopolies
What is a monopoly? According to Webster's dictionary, a monopoly is "the exclusive control of a commodity or service in a given market.” Such power in the hands of a few is harmful to the public and individuals because it minimizes, if not eliminates normal competition in a given market and creates undesirable price controls. This, in turn, undermines individual enterprise and causes markets to crumble. In this paper, we will present several aspects of monopolies, including unfair competition, price control, and horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers.
Unfair Competition
Barriers to Entry. In general, a monopoly by one company possesses the power to create barriers to entry for competing companies in a particular market. Also, once a company has achieved a loyal following, it then becomes easy for that company to maintain control of the market. Thus, leading to elimination of potential competition.
Increasing Returns. In some markets, the profits for high volumes of goods are extremely exaggerated. For example, in the manufacturing industry, each product requires a certain material and labor cost to produce it. Large companies are often able to under-cut competitors’ prices, drive them out of the market, and then raise prices again.1 Consequently, this increased volume increases profit, allowing such companies an even greater power.
Incomplete Information. Often, once a company gains control of a particular market, that company does not disclose complete information in regard to their products. Such is the case in the current Microsoft antitrust case. Microsoft not only does not disclose complete information on their software products, but also goes one step further by making their software products incompatible with other operating systems. As a result, the consumer has no choice but to buy Microsoft software products exclusively.
Once a company has successfully dominated a business market, they can use that control to move into other markets by:
· Squeezing out competitors
· Dominating sales of the product
· Controlling prices of the product
· Acquiring additional companies, inside and outside, of the field
Enforcement. The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice is responsible for protecting the competitive process through enforcement of antitrust laws. The Division has challenged bar...
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...titive effects. Third, the Agency assesses whether entry would be timely, likely and sufficient either to deter or to counteract the competitive effects of concern. Fourth, the Agency assesses any efficiency gains that reasonably cannot be achieved by the parties through other means. Finally the Agency assesses whether, but for the merger, either party to the transaction would be likely to fail, causing its assets to exit the market. The process of assessing market concentration, potential adverse competitive effects, entry, efficiency and failure is a tool that allows the Agency to answer the ultimate inquiry in merger analysis: whether the merger is likely to create or enhance market power or to facilitate its exercise.
Conclusion
No one company or individual should have exclusive control of a commodity or service in a given market. Prosperity in the high-technology economy of the 21st Century will depend on strict enforcement against monopolies that lessen competition along with continued encouragement of innovation. The Department of Justice must continue to open markets and ensure that they are competitive for the benefit of American businesses and consumers.
“Processor Editorial Article - Antitrust Laws: Not Just For The Big Boys.” Editorial.Processor 19 Nov. 2004: 27+. Processor.com. Web. 29 Nov. 2011 .
We all hear the term “monopoly” before. If somebody doesn't apprehend a monopoly is outlined as “The exclusive possession or management of the provision or change a artifact or service.” but a natural monopoly could be a little totally different in which means from its counterpart. during this paper we'll be wanting into the question: whether or not the govt. ought to read telephones, cable, or broadcasting as natural monopolies or not; and may they be regulated or not?
There is much controversy about what a ‘good’ monopoly is and what a ‘bad’ monopoly is. Monopolies can have a positive impact on the market. One example is the history of telecommunications. The American Telephone and Telegraph “consolidate(d) the industry by buying up all the small operators and creating a single network—a natural monopoly” (Taplin). It became easier and more convenient for consumers to communicate. This is an example of a ‘good’ monopoly. Louis Brandeis, counselor of President Woodrow Wilson, agreed. He said it makes sense for one or a few companies to own‘“natural” monopolies, like telephone, water and power companies and railroads” (Taplin). The keyword here: natural monopolies. Natural monopolies are different from most of the monopolies in the market place today. A natural monopoly “refers to the cost structure of a firm” (lpx-group). A monopoly is “associated with market power and market share in particular” (lpx-group). Natural monopolies make
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.
A monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. A monopoly sells a good for which there is no close substitute. The absence of substitutes makes the demand for the good relatively inelastic thereby enabling monopolies to extract positive profits. It is this monopolizing of drug and process patents that has consumer advocates up in arms. The granting of exclusive rights to pharmacuetical companies over clinical a...
Antitrust laws are a collection of federal and state laws that regulate the business practices of large companies in order to promote and protect fair competition within an open-market economy. These laws prevent businesses from taking part in unfair business activities such as, but not limited to, price fixing, market allocation, and bid rigging. Price fixing is when two or more competitors agree to each charge the same price for a product and not undercut each other. Market allocation is when competitors agree to divide markets among themselves, you stay out of my territory and I’ll stay out of yours. Bid rigging is when several businesses within a market agree to take turns winning and losing bids in order to maintain market control and prevent competition. As you can imagine, these unlawful business
At the beginning, a clear understanding of the word monopoly should be established before diving into the different aspects of monopoly. Therefore, here is the definition of monopoly according to invetopedia, “a monopoly is a situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given product or service.” (Investopedia, 2016)
Monopolies formed all over the country in steel, oil, and railroad companies. These big businesses made it very difficult for other businesses to prosper in the same field. Document F clearly illustrates the direct effects of the monopolies: "They are monopolies organized to destroy competition and restrain trade. Once they secure control of a given line of business, they are master of the situation and can dictate to the two great classes with which they dealthe producer of the raw material and the consumer of the finished product. They limit the price of the ra material so as to impoverish the producer".
High barriers to entry that restrict new firms to enter the industry e.g. control of technology
When the word monopoly is spoken most immediately think of the board game made by Parker Brothers in which each player attempts to purchase all of the property and utilities that are available on the board and drive other players into bankruptcy. Clearly the association between the board game and the definition of the term are literal. The term monopoly is defined as "exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices" (Dictionary.com, 2008). Monopolies were quite common in the early days when businesses had no guidelines whatsoever. When the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into break up the Standard Oil business in the late 1800’s and enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (Wikipedia 2001), it set forth precedent for many cases to be brought up against it for years to come.
There once was a time where dinosaurs roamed the earth. Some dinosaurs were stronger than others, making them the superior creatures. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is not that different from a corporate empire; both T-Rexes and monopolies ruled the land with little to no competition. They devoured the weak, crushed the opposition, and made sure they were king, but then, all of a sudden, they were extinct. The giants that once were predators became prey, whether it be a natural disaster or the Antitrust laws they no longer had control over the whole. The Antitrust laws have had a positive impact on American society through restricting monopolies; ensuring that no single business can control a market then using that power to exploit customers, protecting the public from price fixing, and producing new higher quality and innovative products through competition.
No single firm can influence market price in a competitive industry; therefore a firm’s demand curve is perfectly elastic and price equals marginal revenue. Short-run profit maximization by a competitive firm can be analyzed by comparing total revenue and total cost or applying marginal analysis. A firm maximizes its short-run profit by producing that output at which total revenue exceeds total cost by the greatest amount.
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.
Monopolies have a tendency to be bad for the economy. Granted, there are some that are a necessity of life such as natural and legal monopolies. However, the article I have chosen to review is “America’s Monopolies are Holding Back the Economy (Lynn, 2017)” and the name speaks for itself.
In a perfectly competitive market structure, there must be many firms in the market competing for business. In contrast to this, within a monopoly there is only one firm operating in the market. A firm that is operating within a perfect market is referred to as a price taker. Duffy (1993, pg. 107) explains that a condition of working within a perfectly competitive market is that “a price taker cannot control the price of the goods it sells; it simply takes the market price as given.”