This was a new word for me (as most of them are), as was this, which I thought was cool:
NOTES:
Here's a little chart that explains it all:
monopoly: one seller, many buyers
duopoly: two sellers, many buyers
oligopoly: a few sellers, many buyers
monopsony: one buyer, many sellers
duopsony: two buyers, many sellers
oligopsony: a few buyers, many sellers
My objection to this is that I don't see that there would be any restriction to the number of buyers in any of the -opolies nor any to the number of sellers in the -opsonies.
monopoly: one seller, many buyers
duopoly: two sellers, many buyers
oligopoly: a few sellers, many buyers
monopsony: one buyer, many sellers
duopsony: two buyers, many sellers
oligopsony: a few buyers, many sellers
Th only way to sort out this buyer-seller business to me is to hang on to the word option.
c.1600, "action of choosing," from Fr. option, from L. optionem (nom. optio) "choice, free choice," related to optare "to desire, choose," from PIE base *op- "to choose, prefer." Meaning "thing that may be chosen" is attested from 1885. Commercial transaction sense first recorded 1755 (the verb in this sense is from 1934).
Exactly my question. Why put that factor in the definition?
If you have a state monopoly on sales (as for alcohol in, say, Norway) then there are many who sell booze to the state, who are the only retailer.
Exactly my question. Why put that factor in the definition?
Ah, interesting. Would you (or anyone) describe a situation with one seller and, say, five buyers as a monopoly? Or would it have to be a more massive market?
My uess would be that it is only a monopoly if there are no other sellers in the background - e.g., if you are the only producer or only retailer in the world/country/town, then you have a monololy. The situation you describe could mean that there is no other person selliong [i]at that moment[/] but it may bethen that all the seller has to do is to wait until another seller appears (e.g., the shop next door opens after having been shut for a period.) This would, I spose, be a temproary monopoly, but it only works if the buyers can't wait for whatever period the other seller(s) remain out of the market.
My knowledge of economics is slight, so I may be wrong here, but I loive in the certainty that, if this is so, someone will tell me so in fairly short order
Oligopsony could mean bad market research or bad liars.
Seriously: it could mean spare parts to MNCs. I'm not too 'conomical either. Though I better be - possible job ops.