How Barriers to Entry Effects Market Structure

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Explain how barriers to entry may affect market structure. Barriers are defined as anything that deters entry into an industry or that prevents exit from an industry. Examples of barriers to entry include patents, economies of scale, and trademarks. Market structure is an organizational and characteristic of a market. There are four different market structures that could be used to explain how firms operate. In perfect competition and monopolistic competition, there are no barriers to entry. This means that other firms can enter or leave the industry freely. In oligopoly and monopoly, on the other hand, high barriers to entry exist and this prevents other firms from entering the industry. This essay will examine the relationship between barriers to entry and market structure In perfect competition and monopolistic competition, where there are many small firms, firms are able to enter or leave the market freely. This means that the existing firms do not have the ability to stop new firms from entering or leaving the market if they so desire. In the case where the existing firms are making abnormal profits, the positive economic profit arising when AR > AC, new firms are attracted into the industry because of the absence of entry barriers and by the opportunity to make abnormal profits. As more and more firms enter the industry, the supply curve for the product will start to shift to the right (because more firms begin to supply the same product). This would decrease the price of the product thus shifting the demand curve downward in PC and leftward in MC. Because there are no barriers protecting incumbent firms and restricting competition, there is high level of competition in the industry since firms have to compete against each other to sell identical (in PC) or slightly differentiated products (in MC). As the industry is dominated by many small firms,

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