9.11 : 垄断与完全竞争

Monopoly and Perfect Competition are extreme market structures.

In a monopoly, a single seller dominates the entire industry, having a unique product without close substitutes, making the monopolist a price maker.

There are various entry barriers to monopoly.

For example, owning a patent on a product legally prevents other firms from offering the same product for sale. This makes the monopolist the sole seller of that product.

A monopolist can earn above-normal profits in the long run. A monopolist lacks competition leading to reduced consumer choice.

Governments apply price controls, antitrust laws, and public ownership regulations to prevent monopolists from abusing their market power.

Contrarily, perfect competition involves numerous sellers providing identical products, making the firms the price takers.

Here, firms face no entry barriers.

In the long run, firms earn only normal profits.

They offer identical products at identical prices to the consumers.

In perfect competition, there is less need for extensive regulation because individual firms don't have significant market power to influence the market price.