Major Market Structures Essays -- Economics

During the initial phase of starting up a business, there are many factors to weigh in. If you desire a particular kind of lifestyle, then one of the major factors to consider is what kind of market you would like to be in. There are four major market structures, perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. All of these markets have positive and negative attributes, including but not limited to, barriers to entry, how many sellers are in a particular market, and the stress of running a business while keeping a keen eye on product pricing. Many entrepreneurs may not want to agonize over anything at all, and participate in a perfect competition market where they know exactly what the prices are and what they expect to make at all times. Then there are some investors that enjoy the competition and would rather be in a monopolistic competition market. However, it’s no secret that the majority of the public, if given the absolute choice, would choos e to be in a monopoly. This kind of market of course, is very hard to acquire, so a very fine choice would be an oligopoly. Both a monopoly and an oligopoly are at the top of the list as far as profit is concerned. No matter which market one chooses to participate in, they all have similar goals, and that is to minimize costs and maximize profits. In a monopoly, there is only vendor with a product or service, meaning there are no close substitutes, so there is no competition to be concerned about and the barrier for others to enter is virtually inaccessible. One may have an exceptionally large control on the market, and can also dictate it as much as they would like, other than being limited by market demand, depending on the elasticity of one’s product... ...& 211†. Mason, OH. : CENGAGE Learning. Bade, Robin; Michael Parkin (2001). â€Å"Foundations of Microeconomics†. Boston, Massachusetts. : Addison-Wesley. Colander, David (2008). â€Å"Microeconomics, 7th Edition†. New York, NY. : McGraw-Hill Paperback. Eaton, B. Curtis; Eaton, Diane F.; and Douglas W. Allen (2002). â€Å"Microeconomics, 5th Edition†. Saddle River, NJ. : Prentice Hall. Frank, Robert A. (2006). â€Å"Microeconomics and Behavior, 6th Edition†. New York, NY : McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Mankiw, N. Gregory. (2000). â€Å"Principles of Microeconomics, 2nd Edition†. Oklahoma City, OK. : South-Western Pub. Pindyck, Robert S.; and Daniel L. Rubinfeld. (2008). â€Å"Microeconomics, 7th Edition†. Saddle River, NJ. : Prentice Hall. Ruffin, Roy J.; and Paul R. Gregory. (2000). â€Å"Principles of Microeconomics, 7th Edition†. Boston, Massachusetts. : Addison-Wesley.