ECON 20A Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Natural Monopoly, Demand Curve, De Beers

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18 Jan 2018
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A monopoly is a firm that is the sole seller of a product without close substitutes. In this chapter, we study monopoly and contrast it with perfect competition. The key difference: a monopoly firm has market power, the ability to influence the market price of the product it sells. The main cause of monopolies is barriers to entry other firms cannot enter the market. E. g. , debeers owns most of the world"s diamond mines. The govt gives a single firm the exclusive right to produce the good. Natural monopoly: a single firm can produce the entire market q at lower cost than could several firms. In a competitive market, the market demand curve slopes downward. But the demand curve for any individual firm"s product is horizontal at the market price. The firm can increase q without lowering p, so mr = p for the competitive firm. A monopolist is the only seller, so it faces the market demand curve.

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