1. ECO 1 MONOPOLY AND MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION Erkmen Giray ASLIM (erkmengirayaslim.com)erkmengirayaslim.com e-mail: era314@Lehigh.eduera314@Lehigh.edu 10/22/2015 Department of Economics Lehigh University

2. DEFINING MONOPOLY What is a monopoly? Give an example. Single supplier and we do not observe close substitutes. But how do you define close substitutes? Ignoring actions of other firms– ex. Candles and electric lights.

3. MORE ON MONOPOLY High barriers to entry: Government restriction. Control of a key resource. Ex. Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), and the International Nickel Company of Canada. Network externalities. Ex. Twitter, HD television etc. Economies of scale (cost advantages) are so large – natural monopoly.

4. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTION Two possibilities: Patent or copyright Patent: Exclusive right to produce a product for 20 years. Ex. Microsoft’s patent on Windows. Copyright: Exclusive right (70 years after the creator’s death) to produce and sell a creation. Ex. Books, film etc. Public franchise Only legal provider of a good or service. Ex. Single provider of electricity, natural gas, or water.

5. NATURAL MONOPOLY Large economies of scale – long-run average cost falls as production goes up.

6. CHOOSING PRICE AND OUTPUT Decision rule for maximizing profit : Monopolies are price makers. If price makers raise their prices, they will lose some, but not all, of their consumers. Compare this outcome with perfect competition. We will come back to this point. We have a downward sloping demand and MR curve. MR = MC PRICEQUANTITYTOTAL REVENUE MARGINAL REVENUE (MR = ΔTR/ΔQ)TOTAL COST MARGINAL COST (MC = ΔTC/ΔQ) $173$51–$56– 16464$1363$7 1557511718 146849809 1379179010 12896510111

7. CHOOSING PRICE AND OUTPUT

8. MONOPOLY VERSUS PERFECT COMPETITION

10. BRIEF DISCUSSION ON ANTITRUST LAWS Aims to eliminate collusion and promotes competition. First important law in the US was called the Sherman Act (1890).

11. MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION What are the properties of the market? Many buyers and sellers Low barriers to entry Firms do not sell identical products

12. THE EFFECT OF A PRICE CUT

13. MAXIMIZING PROFIT MR = MC

14. LONG-RUN ANALYSIS

15. DISCUSSION ON EFFICIENCY Productive Efficiency: Producing at the minimum point of ATC curve. Perfect competition: Monopolistic competition:  Allocative Efficiency: P = MC (MB = MC) – consider consumer preferences. Perfect competition: Monopolistic competition: 