11.1 Corporate Mergers A corporate merger involves two private firms joining together. An acquisition refers to one firm buying another firm. In either case, two formerly independent firms become one firm. Antitrust laws seek to ensure active competition in markets, sometimes…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: Governments at all levels across the United States have regulated prices in a wide range of industries. In some cases, like water and electricity that have natural…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: Most true monopolies today in the U.S. are regulated, natural monopolies. A natural monopoly poses a difficult challenge for competition policy, because the structure of costs and…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: The U.S. antitrust laws reach beyond blocking mergers that would reduce competition to include a wide array of anticompetitive practices. For example, it is illegal for competitors…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: A corporate merger occurs when two formerly separate firms combine to become a single firm. When one firm purchases another, it is called an acquisition. An acquisition may not look…
Figure 11.1 Oligopoly versus Competitors in the Marketplace Large corporations, such as the natural gas producer Kinder Morgan, can bring economies of scale to the marketplace. Will that benefit consumers, or is more competition better? (Credit: modification of “Aerial view of Kinder Morgan…
10.1 Monopolistic Competition Monopolistic competition refers to a market where many firms sell differentiated products. Differentiated products can arise from characteristics of the good or service, location from which the firm sells the product, intangible aspects of the product, and perceptions…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: Many purchases that individuals make at the retail level are produced in markets that are neither perfectly competitive, monopolies, nor monopolistically competitive. Rather, they are oligopolies. Oligopoly arises when…
Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: Monopolistic competition involves many firms competing against each other, but selling products that are distinctive in some way. Examples include stores that sell different styles of clothing; restaurants or…
Figure 10.1 Competing Brands? The laundry detergent market is one that is characterized neither as perfect competition nor monopoly. (Credit: modification of “DSC_7174” by Pixel Drip/Flickr Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0) Chapter Objectives In this chapter, you will learn about: Bring It Home…