Oligopolies. A Definition of Oligopolistic Markets

Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Economics - Micro-economics, grade: 72%, University of Bradford (-), course: Micro-Economics, language: English, abstract: The phrase oligopoly is derived from the Greek language and means “few sellers”. Sloman & Sutcliffe (2001) defines an oligopoly as a type of imperfect market in which a ‘few firms between them share a large proportion of the industry.’ (p.236). Thus, industries like oligopolies are dominated by a small number of manufacturers that may produce either differentiated or nearly identical products. It is necessary to distinguish between two types of oligopoly structures. Therefore Harrison, Smith & Davies (1992) suggests the distinction between perfect oligopoly and imperfect oligopoly. Perfect oligopolies feature market players that produce nearly identical products such as sugar or CD’s whereas imperfect oligopolies distinguish themselves by differentiated products like cars or airplanes. [...]