Market Structures A
A market structure in which only one seller sells a product for which there are no close substitutes
What is a monopoly?
The effort to distinguish a product from similar products, like a hamburger restaurant advertising the quality of its ingredients.
What is product differentiation?
Laws that define monopolies and give the government the power to control them and break them up
What is antitrust legislation?
The legal maximum price that sellers may charge for a product.
What is a price ceiling?
A business organization owned and managed by a single person.
What is a sole proprietorship?
This term refers to a business that does not have to consider competitors when setting its prices.
What is a price maker?
A market structure in which many sellers offer similar, but not standardized, products.
What is monopolistic competition?
A merger in which companies involved in different steps of producing or marketing a product combine, such as an oil refiner merging with a gas station chain
What is a vertical merger?
The legal minimum price that buyers must pay for a good or service.
What is a price floor?
The biggest disadvantage for a sole proprietorship, meaning the owner is responsible for all the business’s debts and losses, risking personal assets.
What is unlimited liability?
A type of monopoly, exemplified by a local electric utility company, where the costs of production are lowest when only one firm provides output.
What is a natural monopoly?
The expense a new business must pay to enter a market and begin selling, often high in an oligopoly.
What are start-up costs?
An action taken to reduce or remove government oversight and control of business, often resulting in lower prices for consumers
What is deregulation?
An established minimum legal price that an employer may pay a worker for one hour of work.
What is the minimum wage?
This type of business is co-owned by two or more people who agree on how responsibilities, profits, and losses will be divided
What is a partnership?
This is a formal organization of sellers or producers that agree to act together to set prices and limit output, functioning like a monopoly.
What is a cartel?
A market structure in which only a few sellers offer a similar product and dominate the market.
What is an oligopoly?
The deceptive and illegal practice that occurs when businesses agree to set prices for competing products
What is price fixing?
A government system for allocating goods and services using criteria other than price, often used during times of national emergency.
What is rationing?
A large corporation, like Google or Coca-Cola, with branches in several countries.
What is a multinational corporation?
The type of monopoly Polaroid created for its instant cameras through a series of legal protections that give exclusive property rights to an invention.
What is a technological monopoly (or patent monopoly)?
The strategy of using factors other than low price—such as style, service, or advertising—to convince customers to buy a product.
What is nonprice competition?
The independent federal agency with primary responsibility for promoting competition and preventing unfair business practices, including deceptive advertising.
What is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)?
This involves illegal buying or selling in violation of price controls or rationing, as was seen for goods like meat and gasoline during World War II
What is a black market?
The greatest benefit of a corporation, meaning the owners are only liable for the money they paid for their stock, protecting their personal assets.
What is limited liability?