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Economics/ Market Structures

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Submitted By elsey90
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A2 Economics

1. Explain why a monopoly has a downward facing marginal revenue curve and a firm in a perfect market has a horizontal marginal revenue curve.

Monopolies are firms with a majority share in the market. Monopoly firms set the price because there is less competition and high barriers to entry/exit because of the high start up costs into the industry. So the demand curve is downward sloping because they set the price so to attract more demand they can lower the price.

In a perfect market the demand is perfectly inelastic because consumers have perfect information meaning that if a firm increases the price, demand will go down due to lots of competitors and low barriers to entry, so firms in a perfect market are price takers.

2. Explain why prices in oligopolies remain fixed in the long term.

An oligopoly is where a few large firms have a majority of the market share. Prices in oligopolies remain fixed in the long term because if a firm lowers in the price, all companies will follow because demand is price elastic. Thus meaning that revenue will go down for each company. So due to price collusion the businesses each agree on a fixed price and instead compete with non financial methods instead, to prevent losses of the revenue.

3. Explain why a monopoly can achieve supernormal profits and a firm in a perfect market can only achieve normal profits.

Monopolies are firms with a majority share in the market, usually 25% or more. They can achieve supernormal profits because there are extremely high barriers to entry/exit into the market due to high start up costs, thus meaning that competition is low, furthermore demand is relatively inelastic. Due to supernormal profits the firms can invest more in R&D and efficiency, to lower their marginal cost curve. Thus meaning a larger profit margin and better prices for consumers. This

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