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Why Do Markets Fail?

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Submitted By ADoyle95
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Why do markets fail?
There are a number of reasons as to why markets fail and there are five different types of markets that this can be brought down to. These include: Monopoly, Collusion, Asymmetric information, Externalities and Public good and the free rider problem.
Monopoly
A monopoly can be seen as a form of market failure and this is because unlike in perfect competition, firms with large market power have the ability to inflate their prices as they are usually the ‘price-makers’. The price at which something will be sold is usually determined by the interaction of the supply and demand within the market.
A monopoly can either set the selling price or quantities – but not both. The reason for this is because although they have a substantial amount of market power, they don’t have unlimited market power.
Not only does the price depend on the actual market power of a firm, but it also depends on the actual demand of the good / service. The reason for this is because if the demand for a good / service was already low, but the firm decided to increase the price, then the demand would become even lower as customers may not be willing to pay that much. An explained graph of a monopoly can be found in the ‘imperfect competition’ section of the essay (Page 4).
Perfect / Imperfect Competition
Perfect competition
Perfect Competition (Occasionally named Pure Competition) is when no competitor in the market has enough market power in order to attempt to rig the price of a homogeneous product and this means that if one firm was to raise their price of a homogeneous good, then they wouldn’t be able to sell any as they would be above the equilibrium demand for goods.
The graph below demonstrations perfect competition. On the left we have the supply and demand going rate and this is what all firms have to sell their good / service at and P represents the price in

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