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demand curve (more sensitive to price)? Why? Media Analysis Question In today's economy, many sectors telecoms, cable TV, digital branches from social media to internet search, health insurance pharmaceuticals, agro-business, and many more cannot be understood through the lens of competition. In these sectors, what competition exists is oligopolistic, not the "pure" competition depicted in textbooks. A few sectors can be defined as "price taking"; firms are so small that they have no effect on market price Agriculture is the clearest example, but government intervention in the sector is massive, and prices are not set primarily by market forces Barack Obama's council of economic advisers (CEA), led by Jason Furman, has attempted to tally the extent of the increase in market concentration and some of its implications. In most industries according to the CEA, standard metrics show large - and in some cases, dramatic increases in market concentration. The top 10 banks share of the deposit market, for example, increaseed from about 20% to 50 % in just 30 years, from 1980 to 2010. Some of the increase in market power is the result of changes in technology and economic structure: consider network economies and the growth of locally provided service-sector industries. Some is because firms- Microsoft and drug companies are good examples- have learned better how to erect and maintain entry barriers, often assisted by conservative political forces that justify lax anti-trust enforcement and the failure to limit market power on the grounds that markets are "naturally" competitive. And some of it reflects the naked abuse and leveraging of market power through the political process: Large banks, for example, lobbied the US Congress to amend or repeal legislation separating commercial banking from other areas of finance. The consequences are evident in the data, with inequality rising at every level, not only across individuals, but also across firms. The CEA report noted that the "90th percentile firm sees returns on investments in capital that are more than five times the median. This ratio was closer to two just a quarter of a century ago. Joseph Schumpeter, one of the great economists of the 20th century, argued that one shouldn't be worried by monopoly power monopolies would only be temporary. There would be fierce competition for the market and this would replace competition in the market and ensure that prices remained competitive. My own theoretical work long ago showed the flaws in Schumpeter's analysis, and now empirical results provide strong confirmation. Today's markets are characterized by the persistence of high monopoly profits. The implications of this are profound. Many of the assumptions about market economies are based on acceptance of the competitive model, with marginal returns contributions. This view has led to hesitancy about official intervention: If markets are fundamentally efficient and fair, there is little that even the best of governments could do to improve matters But if markets are based on exploitation, the rationale for laissez- faire disappears. Indeed, in that case, the battle against entrenched power is not only a battle for democracy; it is also a battle for efficiency and shared prosperity Joseph Stiglitz, is a Nobel-prizewinning economist, professor at Columbia University, former senior chief economist of the World Bank and chair of the council of economic advisers under Bil Clinton commensurate with social Excerpted from: www.theguandian.com/business2016 may/13-now ere-monopah-toseph-stiglit Explain THREE characteristics of a monopoly? Illustrate the different types of profits carned by a monopoly firm in the short run. From the article above, explain why does a monopoly carn high profits in the long run?

Answer 1

A. Charecterstics Of Monopoly -

1. Firm is Price Maker - In monopoly , firm can decide its own price as firm is the only one present in the market , there are no other firms. So , in monopoly a firm becomes a price maker

2 No Substitutes. - In monopoly, there are no substitutes. A single firm is present and is responsible for everything.

3. Zero competition - In monopoly there is only one firm present , there are restrictions on entry and exit of firms , as there is only one firm present and is wholly responsible for everything, there is zero competition.

B• In short run , monopoly firm maximises profit or minimizes loss by producing quantity which corresponds to Marginal Revenue = Marginal Cost. If average total cost is below Marginal price , firm will earn a economic profit. And loss will be incured in vice versa.

Basically a company earns economic profit in short run.

C. Monopoly earns high profit in long run because in monopoly there are barriers on entry amd exit of the new firms which prevent new firms to come in market and reduces the competition in market for long run and helps the firm to earn high profits in long run.