What is Monopoly?
{{about|the monopolies in [[economics]]|the [[Parker Brothers]] board game|Monopoly (game)}} A '''monopoly''' (from the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''monos'', one + ''polein'', to sell) is when a [[product (consumer goods)|product]] or [[service]] can only be bought from one supplier for a specific [[market]]. If other firms serve the market, they may be too small compared to the largest, thus allowing the large firm to have a lot of [[market power]]. A monopoly usually happens when there is no economic [[competition]] to produce the product or service and there is no available substitutes to the product or service. In economics, a monopoly is a single producer of a product or service. In law, a monopoly is a firm that has a lot of market power and is able to charge very high prices for a product or service. As long as the firm has a lot of market power, it does not matter if the firm is large or small, as size is not used to decide if a firm is a monopoly. A monopoly can be formed by the government, by merging a few firms to form a large one, or form naturally to become a [[natural monopoly]]. In many places, [[utility|utilities]] such as [[telephone]] service or [[cable television]] are monopolies, as it is very costly to build the [[infrastructure]] for another firm to compete in the market. Such natural monopolies is hence allowed by the government, but is usually strictly controlled to prevent the monopoly from charging a very high price for a product or service. Many countries, including the [[United States]], have laws to stop companies from having a monopoly or to limit the actions that they can do as a monopoly. == Features of a monopoly == In [[classical economics]], a monopoly does this: * ''Profit maximization'': Just like any other firm, a monopoly tries to make their profits as big as possible and will produce an output where the [[marginal revenue]] and [[marginal cost]] curves meet. * ''Price setter'': With a strong market power, the monopoly is able to set prices for their output based on the