Market form

In economics, the main criteria by which one can distinguish between different market forms are: the number and size of producers and consumers on the market, the type of goods[?] and services being traded, and the degree to which information can flow freely. The major market forms are:

• Perfect competition, in which the market consists of a very large amount of firms producing identical product
• Monopolistic competition, where there are a large amount of somewhat independent firms
• Oligopoly, in which a market is dominated by a small number of sellers
• Monopoly, where there is only one provider of a product or service
• Natural monopoly, a monopoly in which economies of scale cause efficiency to increase continuously with the size of the firm
• Monopsony, when there is only one buyer in a market

These somewhat abstract concerns tend to determine some but not all details of a specific concrete market system where buyers and sellers actually meet and commit to trade.

See also economics, microeconomics

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