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oligopoly
Sign in to saveAn oligopoly () is a market in which pricing control lies in the hands of a few sellers.
An oligopoly is a market where just a few companies control most of the sales and have significant power to set prices. This matters because when there are so few competitors, those companies can work together—formally or informally—to keep prices high or limit consumer choices in ways that wouldn't happen in a more competitive market.
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- Oligopoly
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35 sectionsContents
- Types of oligopolies
- Perfect and imperfect oligopolies
- Open and closed oligopolies
- Collusive oligopolies
- Partial and full oligopoly
- Tight and loose oligopoly
- Characteristics of oligopolies
- Sources of oligopoly power
- Economies of scale
- Collusion and price cutting
- Barriers to enter the market
- Modeling oligopolies
- Game theoretical models
- ''Cournot-Nash model''
- ''Bertrand model''
- ''Cournot-Bertrand model''
- Kinked demand curve model
- ''Assumptions''
- Other descriptions
- Oligopolies and competition laws
- Policing of anticompetitive behaviour
- Leniency programs
- Possible outcomes of oligopolies
- Formation of cartels
- Possibility of efficient outcomes
- Price wars
- Examples
- Europe
- United Kingdom
- North America
- Canada
- United States
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
An oligopoly () is a market in which pricing control lies in the hands of a few sellers.
As a result of their significant market power, firms in oligopolistic markets can influence prices through manipulating the supply function. Firms in an oligopoly are mutually interdependent, as any action by one firm is expected to affect other firms in the market and evoke a reaction or consequential action. As a result, firms in oligopolistic markets often resort to collusion as means of maximising profits.