Perfect Competition
A market structure with many fully informed buyers and sellers of an identical product with no barriers to entry
Market Structure
Important features of a market such as the number of buyers and sellers, product uniformity across sellers, ease of entering the market, and forms of competition.
Commodity
a product that is identical across sellers, such as a bushel of wheat
Monopoly
A sole supplier of a product with no close substitutes
Barriers to Entry
Anything that prevents new firms from competing on an equal footing with existing firms in an industry
Market Power
The ability of a firm to raise its price without losing all it’s customers to rivals
Monopolistic Competition
A market structure with no entry barriers and many firms selling products differentiated enough that each firm’s demand curve slopes downward
Oligopoly
A market structure with a small number of firms whose behavior is interdependent
Cartel
A group of firms that agree to coordinate and pricing decisions to maximize group profits by behaving as a monopolists
Antitrust Activity
Government efforts aimed at preventing monopoly and promoting competition in markets where competition is desirable
Merger
The combination of two or more firms to form a single firm
Deregulation
A reduction in govt control over prices and firm entry in previously related markets, such as airlines and trucking