Eco/212 Principles Of Economics: Differentiating Between Market Structures

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Running head: Differentiating between Market Structures Paper Differentiating between Market Structures Paper Melissa Blanco, Mary L. Lockett, Saundra Luke University of Phoenix ECO/212 Principles of Economics February 1, 2010 Instructor Michael Shackelford Four market structures makes today’s economic market, knowing the difference between the four can help a business realize which market would be more suitable for their firm. The term market structure refers to “the set of industry characteristics that affect the extent or rivalry in the market and ultimately affects market performance related to pricing and output.” (Humboldt State University, 2000, para. 2) The economic market consists of competitive market, monopoly,…show more content…
Whereas the competitive market was a price taker, the monopolistic is a price maker. It has control over the price. Examples of monopolistic firms are public services like the electric, water, and the United States Postal Service (USPS). The rate for the USPS has declined in the last couple of years because of poor service. The third market structure that is between competitive market and monopoly is oligopoly, which firms can be either in-cooperative of cooperative. The difference between the rests of the other market structures is that in the oligopoly “there are few mutually interdependent firms that produce either identical product or different products.” (Humboldt State University, 2000, para. 6) Out of all the other examples, there are more examples of oligopoly in the world, for example, banking and, Coca-Cola…show more content…
It is impossible to prevent people from using public goods or services offered in a particular city or town. The list of goods and services not rival in consumption are Natural Monopolies includes fire protection, Cable TV and toll roads. Public Goods identifies tornado sirens, national defense, and general knowledge as non-rival in consumption. Basically, anyone can use benefit from the services offered to the public often provided by the government. The Public Goods and Natural Monopoly respond differently to the excludability question. Public Goods are not excludable because there is no way to prevent public services from reaching everyone in a community especially when they are offered at no fee. During Christmas, the local government rides through the neighborhoods playing Christmas Carols and throwing candy on the sidewalks. There is no way to prevent the people in the neighboring city from enjoying the Christmas Carols. However, Natural Monopolies are excludable because many of the services subject to fees that are set for one person or household. The cable business provides several examples of services offered to consumers willing to pay the fee. The general cable service is less costly but to view some of the exclusive movies and sport channels additional fees are added to the consumer’s

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