Monopoly

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 Why do monopolies arise?
 Why is MR < P for a monopolist?
 How do monopolies choose their P and Q?
 How do monopolies affect society’s well-being?
 What can the government do about monopolies?
 What is price discrimination?

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 Introduction
 A monopoly is a firm that is the sole seller of a
product without close substitutes.
 In this chapter, we study monopoly and contrast
it with perfect competition.
 The key difference:
A monopoly firm has market power, the ability
to influence the market price of the product it
sells. A competitive firm has no market power.

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 Why Monopolies Arise
The main cause of monopolies is barriers
to entry – other firms cannot enter the market.
Three sources of barriers to entry:
1. A single firm owns a key resource.
E.g., DeBeers owns most of the world’s
diamond mines
2. The govt gives a single firm the exclusive right
to produce the good.
E.g., patents, copyright laws

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 Why Monopolies Arise
3. Natural monopoly: a single firm can produce
the entire market Q at lower ATC than could
several firms.
Example: 1000 homes
need electricity. Cost Electricity
Economies of
ATC is lower if scale due to
one firm services huge FC
all 1000 homes $80
than if two firms $50 ATC
each service
Q
500 homes. 500 1000
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Monopoly vs. Competition: Demand Curves
In a competitive market,
the market demand curve
slopes downward.
A competitive firm’s
but the demand curve demand curve
for any individual firm’s P
product is horizontal
at the market price.
The firm can increase Q D
without lowering P,
so MR = P for the
competitive firm. Q

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Monopoly vs. Competition: Demand Curves

A monopolist is the only

seller, so it faces the
market demand curve.
A monopolist’s
To sell a larger Q, demand curve
P
the firm must reduce P.
Thus, MR ≠ P.

D
Q

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A C T I V E L E A R N I N G 1:
A monopoly’s revenue
Moonbucks is
Q P TR AR MR
the only seller of
cappuccinos in town. 0 $4.50 n.a.
The table shows the 1 4.00
market demand for
2 3.50
cappuccinos.
Fill in the missing 3 3.00
spaces of the table. 4 2.50
What is the relation 5 2.00
between P and AR?
6 1.50
Between P and MR?
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A C T I V E L E A R N I N G 1:
Answers

Q P TR AR MR
Here, P = AR,
same as for a 0 $4.50 $0 n.a.
$4
competitive firm. 1 4.00 4 $4.00
Here, MR < P, 3
2 3.50 7 3.50
whereas MR = P 2
for a competitive 3 3.00 9 3.00
1
firm. 4 2.50 10 2.50
0
5 2.00 10 2.00
–1
6 1.50 9 1.50

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Moonbuck’s D and MR Curves

P, MR
$5
4
Demand curve (P)
3
2
1
0
-1 MR
-2
-3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Q

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 Understanding the Monopolist’s MR
 Increasing Q has two effects on revenue:
• The output effect:
More output is sold, which raises revenue
• The price effect:
The price falls, which lowers revenue
 To sell a larger Q, the monopolist must reduce the
price on all the units it sells.
 Hence, MR < P
 MR could even be negative if the price effect
exceeds the output effect
(e.g., when Moonbucks increases Q from 5 to 6).
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 Profit-Maximization
 Like a competitive firm, a monopolist maximizes
profit by producing the quantity where MR = MC.
 Once the monopolist identifies this quantity,
it sets the highest price consumers are willing to
pay for that quantity.
 It finds this price from the D curve.

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 Profit-Maximization

Costs and
1. The profit- Revenue MC
maximizing Q
is where P
MR = MC.
2. Find P from
the demand D
curve at this Q. MR

Q Quantity

Profit-maximizing output
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 The Monopolist’s Profit

Costs and
Revenue MC

As with a P
ATC
competitive firm, ATC
the monopolist’s
profit equals D
(P – ATC) x Q MR

Q Quantity

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A Monopoly Does Not Have an S Curve
A competitive firm
 takes P as given
 has a supply curve that shows how its Q depends
on P
A monopoly firm
 is a “price-maker,” not a “price-taker”
 Q does not depend on P;
rather, Q and P are jointly determined by
MC, MR, and the demand curve.
So there is no supply curve for monopoly.
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Case Study: Monopoly vs. Generic Drugs

Patents on new drugs The market for

Price a typical drug
give a temporary
monopoly to the seller.
PM
When the
patent expires,
the market PC = MC
becomes competitive, D
generics appear.
MR

QM Quantity
QC

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 The Welfare Cost of Monopoly
 Recall: In a competitive market equilibrium,
P = MC and total surplus is maximized.
 In the monopoly eq’m, P > MR = MC
• The value to buyers of an additional unit (P)
exceeds the cost of the resources needed to
produce that unit (MC).
• The monopoly Q is too low –
could increase total surplus with a larger Q.
• Thus, monopoly results in a deadweight loss.

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 The Welfare Cost of Monopoly

Competitive eq’m:
Price Deadweight
quantity = QE MC
P = MC loss
total surplus is P
P = MC
maximized
MC
Monopoly eq’m:
D
quantity = QM
P > MC MR
deadweight loss QM QE Quantity

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 Public Policy Toward Monopolies
 Increasing competition with antitrust laws
• Antitrust laws ban certain anticompetitive
practices, allow govt to break up monopolies.
 Regulation
• Govt agencies set the monopolist’s price
• For natural monopolies, MC < ATC at all Q,
so marginal cost pricing would result in losses.
• If so, regulators might subsidize the monopolist
or set P = ATC for zero economic profit.

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 Public Policy Toward Monopolies
 Public ownership
• Example: Postal Service
• Problem: Public ownership is usually less
efficient since no profit motive to minimize costs

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 Price Discrimination
 Discrimination is the practice of treating people
differently based on some characteristic, such as
race or gender.
 Price discrimination is the business practice of
selling the same good at different prices to
different buyers.
 The characteristic used in price discrimination
is willingness to pay (WTP):
• A firm can increase profit by charging a higher
price to buyers with higher WTP.

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 First Degree Price Discrimination

 First degree price discrimination is the limiting or

extreme case of price discrimination, which is
not a practicable price policy.
 Here, the monopolist charges maximum possible
price for each unit of the product according to
willingness of individual consumer to pay,
leaving no consumer surplus with him.

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Second Degree Price Discrimination
 The second degree price discrimination is said
to arise, when the concerned monopolist is in a
position to extract a large part of the consumer
surplus by selling different quantities of his
product at more than two prices to different
groups of consumers according to their
willingness to pay or otherwise.
 The second degree price discrimination is also
known as block pricing.

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 Third Degree Price Discrimination
 Under third degree price discrimination, the
monopolist divides the market for his product
into two or more sub-markets with different price
elasticities of demand and charges different
prices from each one of them.
 In this manner, he treats each sub-market as a
separate market. This is the most common form
of price discrimination.

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 Perfect Price Discrimination vs.
Single Price Monopoly

Here, the monopolist Consumer

Price
charges the same surplus
price (PM) to all Deadweight
buyers. PM
loss
A deadweight loss
results. MC
Monopoly
profit D
MR

QM Quantity

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 Perfect Price Discrimination vs.
Single Price Monopoly

Here, the monopolist

produces the Price
Monopoly
competitive quantity,
profit
but charges each
buyer his or her WTP.
This is called perfect
MC
price discrimination.
D
The monopolist
captures all CS MR
as profit.
Quantity
But there’s no DWL. Q
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 Price Discrimination in the Real World
 In the real world, perfect price discrimination is
not possible:
• no firm knows every buyer’s WTP
• buyers do not announce it to sellers
 So, firms divide customers into groups
based on some observable trait
that is likely related to WTP, such as age.

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 Examples of Price Discrimination
Movie tickets
Discounts for seniors, students, and people
who can attend during weekday afternoons.
They are all more likely to have lower WTP
than people who pay full price on Friday night.
Airline prices
Discounts for Saturday-night stayovers help
distinguish business travelers, who usually have
higher WTP, from more price-sensitive leisure
travelers.

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 Examples of Price Discrimination
Discount coupons
People who have time to clip and organize
coupons are more likely to have lower income
and lower WTP than others.
Need-based financial aid
Low income families have lower WTP for
their children’s college education.
Schools price-discriminate by offering
need-based aid to low income families.

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 Examples of Price Discrimination
Quantity discounts
A buyer’s WTP often declines with additional
units, so firms charge less per unit for large
quantities than small ones.
Example: A movie theater charges $4 for
a small popcorn and $5 for a large one that’s
twice as big.

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CONCLUSION: The Prevalence of Monopoly
 In the real world, pure monopoly is rare.
 Yet, many firms have market power, due to
• selling a unique variety of a product
• having a large market share and few significant
competitors
 In many such cases, most of the results from
this chapter apply, including
• markup of price over marginal cost
• deadweight loss

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SUMMARY
 A monopoly firm is the sole seller in its market.
Monopolies arise due to barriers to entry,
including: government-granted monopolies, the
control of a key resource, or economies of scale
over the entire range of output.
 A monopoly firm faces a downward-sloping
demand curve for its product. As a result, it must
reduce price to sell a larger quantity, which causes
marginal revenue to fall below price.

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SUMMARY
 Monopoly firms maximize profits by producing the
quantity where marginal revenue equals marginal
cost. But since marginal revenue is less than
price, the monopoly price will be greater than
marginal cost, leading to a deadweight loss.
 Policymakers may respond by regulating
monopolies, using antitrust laws to promote
competition, or by taking over the monopoly and
running it. Due to problems with each of these
options, the best option may be to take no action.

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SUMMARY
 Monopoly firms (and others with market power) try
to raise their profits by charging higher prices to
consumers with higher willingness to pay. This
practice is called price discrimination.

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