In economics, market structure (also known as market form) describes the state of a market with respect to competition.
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Basic market structures
- Perfect competition, in which the market consists of a very large number of firms producing a homogeneous product.
- Monopolistic competition, also called competitive market, where there are a large number of independent firms which have a very small proportion of the market share.
- Oligopoly, in which a market is dominated by a small number of firms which own more than 40% of the market share.
- Oligopsony, a market dominated by many sellers and a few buyers.
- Monopoly, where there is only one provider of a product or service.
- Natural monopoly, a monopoly in which economies of scale cause efficiency to increase continuously with the size of the firm. A firm is a natural monopoly if it is able to serve the entire market demand at a lower cost than any combination of two or more smaller, more specialized firms.
- Monopsony, when there is only one buyer in a market.
The imperfectly competitive structure is quite identical to the realistic market conditions where some monopolistic competitors, monopolists, oligopolists, and duopolists exist and dominate the market conditions. The elements of Market Structure include the number and size distribution of firms, entry conditions, and the extent of differentiation.
These somewhat abstract concerns tend to determine some but not all details of a specific concrete market system where buyers and sellers actually meet and commit to trade. Competition is useful because it reveals actual customer demand and induces the seller (operator) to provide service quality levels and price levels that buyers (customers) want, typically subject to the seller’s financial need to cover its costs. In other words, competition can align the seller’s interests with the buyer’s interests and can cause the seller to reveal his true costs and other private information. In the absence of perfect competition, three basic approaches can be adopted to deal with problems related to the control of market power and an asymmetry between the government and the operator with respect to objectives and information: (a) subjecting the operator to competitive pressures, (b) gathering information on the operator and the market, and (c) applying incentive regulation.[1]
| Market Structure | Seller Entry Barriers | Seller Number | Buyer Entry Barriers | Buyer Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Competition | No | Many | No | Many |
| Monopolistic competition | No | Many | No | Many |
| Oligopoly | Yes | Few | No | Many |
| Oligopsony | No | Many | Yes | Few |
| Monopoly | Yes | One | No | Many |
| Monopsony | No | Many | Yes | One |
The correct sequence of the market structure from most to least competitive is perfect competition, imperfect competition,oligopoly, and pure monopoly.
The main criteria by which one can distinguish between different market structures are: the number and size of producers and consumers in the market, the type of goods and services being traded, and the degree to which information can flow freely.
References
- ^ Body of Knowledge on Infrastructure Regulation “Market Structure: Introduction.”
See also
- Economics
- Microeconomics
- Macroeconomics
- Industrial organization
- List of marketing topics
- List of management topics
- List of economics topics
- List of accounting topics
- List of finance topics
- List of economists
The market form can equally be known to an extent by the barriers on entry and exit. It is to be noted that the Perfectly Competitive market, there exists free entry and exit; this applies to prospective/existing buyers and sellers. Though, this is not the case with the Imperfect market structure.
External links
- Microeconomics by Elmer G. Wiens: Online Interactive Models of Oligopoly, Differentiated Oligopoly, and Monopolistic Competition
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