Question 1. Discuss the barriers to entry into an industry. Explain how each barrier can foster either monopoly or oligopoly. Which barriers, if any, do you feel give rise to monopoly that is socially justifiable?
Question 2. How does the demand curve faced by a purely monopolistic seller differ from that confronting a purely competitive firm? Why does it differ? Of what significance is the difference? Why is the pure monopolist's demand curve not perfectly inelastic?
Question 3. Critically evaluate and explain each statement:
a. Because they can control product price, monopolists are always assured of profitable production by simply charging the highest price consumers will pay.
b. The pure monopolist seeks the output that will yield the greatest per-unit profit.
c. An excess of price over marginal cost is the market's way of signaling the need for more production of a good.
d. The more profitable a firm, the greater its monopoly power.
e. The monopolist has a pricing policy; the competitive producer does not.
f. With respect to resource allocation, the interests of the seller and of society coincide in a purely competitive market but conflict in a monopolized market.
g. In a sense the monopolist makes a profit more than it does goods.