Question

5.) Perfect Competition, Monopoly, and Monopolistic Competition

Few industries satisfy the conditions of perfect competition. Nevertheless, perfect competition is studied because it represents a case in which the market mechanism works well. Therefore, it is a useful model to measure the performance of other market forms. How can perfect competition act as a guide for government regulators?

Answer 1

Pure or perfect competition is a theoretical market structure in which the following criteria are met: all firms sell an identical product (the product is a "commodity" or "homogeneous"); all firms are price takers (they cannot influence the market price of their product); market share has no influence on price; buyers have complete or "perfect" information – in the past, present and future – about the product being sold and the prices charged by each firm; resources such a labor are perfectly mobile; and firms can enter or exit the market without cost.

The government may wish to regulate monopolies to protect the interests of consumers. For example, monopolies have the market power to set prices higher than in competitive markets. The government can regulate monopolies through price capping, yardstick competition and preventing the growth of monopoly power.

The government can regulate monopoly due to the following reasons:

1. Prevent excess prices. Without government regulation, monopolies could put prices above the competitive equilibrium. This would lead to allocative inefficiency and a decline in consumer welfare.
2. Quality of service. If a firm has a monopoly over the provision of a particular service, it may have little incentive to offer a good quality service. Government regulation can ensure the firm meets minimum standards of service.
3. Monopsony power. A firm with monopoly selling power may also be in a position to exploit monopsony buying power. For example, supermarkets may use their dominant market position to squeeze profit margins of farmers.
4. Promote competition. In some industries, it is possible to encourage competition, and therefore there will be less need for government regulation.
5. Natural Monopolies. Some industries are natural monopolies – due to high economies of scale, the most efficient number of firms is one. Therefore, we cannot encourage competition, and it is essential to regulate the firm to prevent the abuse of monopoly power.

Regulation of quality of service

Regulators can examine the quality of the service provided by the monopoly. For example, the rail regulator examines the safety record of rail firms to ensure that they don’t cut corners.

In gas and electricity markets, regulators will make sure that old people are treated with concern, e.g. not allow a monopoly to cut off gas supplies in winter.

Merger policy

The government has a policy to investigate mergers which could create monopoly power. If a new merger creates a firm with more than 25% of market share, it is automatically referred to the Competition Commission. The Competition commission can decide to allow or block the merger.

Breaking up a monopoly

In certain cases, the government may decide a monopoly needs to be broken up because the firm has become too powerful. This rarely occurs. For example, the US looked into breaking up Microsoft, but in the end, the action was dropped. This tends to be seen as an extreme step, and there is no guarantee the new firms won’t collude.