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An oligopoly (from Ancient Greek ὀλίγος (olígos) 'few' and πωλέω (pōléō) 'to sell') is a market in which pricing control lies in the hands of a few sellers. [1] [2] As a result of their significant market power, firms in oligopolistic markets can influence prices through manipulating the supply function.
Without market power a company cannot charge more than the market price. [54] Any market structure characterized by a downward sloping demand curve has market power – monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly. [52] The only market structure that has no market power is perfect competition. [54]
The emergence of oligopoly market forms is mainly attributed to the monopoly of market competition, i.e., the market monopoly acquired by enterprises through their competitive advantages, and the administrative monopoly due to government regulations, such as when the government grants monopoly power to an enterprise in the industry through laws ...
This typically happens in a market for inputs where numerous suppliers are competing to sell their product to a small number of (often large and powerful) buyers. It contrasts with an oligopoly, where there are many buyers but few sellers. An oligopsony is a form of imperfect competition.
Collusion often takes place within an oligopoly market structure, where there are few firms and agreements that have significant impacts on the entire market or industry. To differentiate from a cartel , collusive agreements between parties may not be explicit; however, the implications of cartels and collusion are the same.
A market with a monopolistic firm will often have very high to absolute barriers to entry. The incumbent firm can obtain tremendous profits through a pure monopoly market, therefore there are very large incentives for the creation of strategic barriers, as they want to continue to earn excess profits in the short and long term. [22]
When market concentration is high, it indicates that a few firms dominate the market and oligopoly or monopolistic competition is likely to exist. In most cases, high market concentration produces undesirable consequences such as reduced competition and higher prices. [2]
Monopolistic market structures also engage in non-price competition because they are not price takers. Due to having rather fixed market prices, leading to inelastic demand, they engage in product differentiation. Monopolistic markets engage in non-price competition because of how the market is designed where the firm dominates the market.