Compare And Contrast The Four Market Structures

The 4 market structures in relation to the benefits and costs to the consumer and producer

A market structure are the characteristics of a market that significantly affect the behavior and interaction of buyers and sellers (Cabiya-an, 2014). This essay will describe the 4 market structures; perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopoly. I will compare and contrast the market structures in relation to benefits and costs to the consumer and producer.

According to Sloman (2013), perfect competition is the most extreme market structure. The conditions include there being many firms, freedom of entry into the industry and the firm producing homogeneous products; each frim selling identical products e.g. milk (Griffiths,

This shifts the supply curve to the right, lowering price. The firms making losses leave the market, which shifts the curve to the left and raises price. Allowing the rest of the firms to earn normal profits, as shown in Figure 1&2.

The second market structure is a monopolistic competition. The conditions of this market are similar as for perfect competition except the product is not homogenous it is differentiated; thus having control over its price. (Nellis and Parker, 1997). There are many firms and freedom of entry into the industry, firms are price makers and are faced with a downward sloping demand curve as well as profit maximizers. Examples include; restaurant businesses, hotels and pubs, specialist retailing (builders) and consumer services (Sloman, 2013).

In the short-run profit maximization would lead to supernormal profits. In the long-run with there being freedom to enter the market a leftward shift of the demand curve (AR) and marginal revenue (MR) curve. This is where the demand curve is tangential to the LRAC curve as seen in figure

With there being several firms for 3 of the markets, the consumer benefits as they can find the cheapest producer, resulting in the producer being at a disadvantage as they could loose business. In a perfect competition market, the firm is unable to choose the price whereas in an oligopoly the price is chosen by the firm this is beneficial for the producer as it increases their profit margins. However, this is harmful for consumers as they will have to pay the higher prices.

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