ÐŽÒWith Reference To An Existing Case, Or Cases, Critically Appraises The View That Monopolies Are Always Detrimental To Consumer And Social Welfare.ÐŽ¦
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COURSE WORK ASSIGNMENT
ÐŽÒWith reference to an existing case, or cases, critically appraises the view that monopolies are always detrimental to consumer and social welfare.ÐŽ¦
MNGT 504: Economics for Managers
Introduction
ÐŽ§MonopolyÐŽÐ is defined by its market power. Monopolies are always known to possess an exclusive control over its particular market and that gives them the sovereign authority to control the prices for its goods or services (Dictionary.com Unabridged (v1.1), 2006). Hence, they represent the market. They indeed have detrimental effects on consumer and social welfare.
In this paper, section 1 will focus on the theory and economics of a monopoly. Section 2 will discuss with a recent case of monopoly, as in the web search engine company- Google, whose real repercussion is still not clear to most consumers. Finally this essay will conclude with the outlook on how world markets are opening up to each other and how competition and new government policies are restraining the growth of monopolies and their incessant power.
Theory and Economics of a Monopoly
In theory, monopoly can be defined as the presence of a single firm in an industry or a number of firms sharing the majority of the market -An Oligopoly (Sloman, 2005).In practice, monopoly is considered to be 25% or more of the market. Market power is shaped by these monopolies in their respective fields and they gain supernormal profits out of it. An individual firmÐŽ¦s output manipulates the price of that goods or services, and that in turn is referred to as market power (McAleese, 2004).
Profit maximization under monopoly
Monopoly follows the same rules for profit maximization as given in a perfect competition. Namely, the cost curves looks similar to those of establishments under perfect competition although the revenue curves look dissimilar (Sloman, 2005).
Figure 1: Profit maximization under monopoly (Adapted from Sloman, 2005).
The price demand under monopoly will be more or less inelastic. This leaves the consumer no choice, but to pay the high price for that particular good which would have been more elastic in a competitive market. In figure 1, MR is the marginal revenue which is the price of the last unit sold; minus the loss of revenue incurred of those units it could have otherwise sold at a higher price (Sloman, 2005).AR is the average revenue curve. Both the average and the marginal revenue are downwards sloping as in a competitive firm. It should be noted that AR=P, thus price to quantity is same as the average revenue to quantity. MC=AR where the profit is at the maximum, at an output of Qm (Sloman, 2005).The demand curve is the price given.AR=P, the price at Qm.AR-AC is the supernormal profit gained .Point b pertains to average cost (AC) (Sloman, 2005).
1.2 Monopoly against perfect competition
To understand better how the monopoly affects the market, we need to compare monopoly to perfect competition. Where there is perfect competition, the company is unable to decide the price of their product. In other words, the company has to label their prices according to the prices of their competitors. However, in a monopoly, they decide the prices and that too, at a much higher price with a different output compared to a competitive industry (Sloman, 2005).Some key points are given under:
ÐŽ§Lock-in effectÐŽÐ arises when consumers are unable to switch to other competing aftermarket products, other than the manufacturerÐŽ¦s aftermarket products, because of the loss incurred in switching costs (Coppi, 2007, p. 55)
Monopolies are also likely to hold patents and royalty for their products, which in turn is an obstacle for other potential competitors.
Monopolies may operate on a high cost or even on a lower cost than other competitors and still earn very high revenues thereby creating barriers of entry (McAleese, 2004)
The possession of land, water resources, location, etc also gives monopolies an upper hand to other competition.
Supernormal profits can be used for research and development by monopolies; thus, providing them with more efficiency and dominance in the market.
Search engine Google monopoly case : Growing Concerns
We all know that ÐŽ§Information is powerÐŽÐ, and a search engine company like Google, can be understood as the de-facto monopolist in its field .Their estimated shares account for about 49% of the web queries, which they predict with astounding accuracy in key areas of importance (Kulathuramaiyer and Balke, 2006).GoogleÐŽ¦s wide information base can often be convincing enough to create public awareness, hence, may even predict and assess the success of products (Kulathuramaiyer and Balke, 2006).
2.1 Unprecedented Growth
Google along with its specialized services has grown massively over the past couple of years, making them a force to reckon with in the information world. After going public in August 2004, their stock prices have reached a new height of more than five times the original price issue (Kulathuramaiyer and Balke, 2006).They gain billions of dollars in revenue from their targeted advertisement profits and hire the best intellectuals in the industry for realizing their goals.
Figure 2: Development of Google stock (Source from Kulathuramaiyer and Balke, 2006)
Restricting access and Preservation of Privacy
A web engine like Google has the authority to decide what should be found and what should not on its search index .This is