Markedsform

Markedsform is a concept in microeconomics that describes the structure of a market in terms of the number of buyers and sellers, the nature of the product, barriers to entry and exit, and the degree of price determination. Market forms help explain how prices and outputs are determined and how competitive pressures affect welfare.

Common market forms include:

- Perfect competition: many buyers and sellers, homogeneous product, free entry and exit, and firms that are price takers.

- Monopoly: a single seller, a unique product or high barriers to entry, where the firm is a price maker.

- Monopolistic competition: many firms, differentiated products, some price control, relatively free entry and exit.

- Oligopoly: a small number of firms with interdependent decisions, potential strategic interaction and barriers to entry, leading to varied pricing outcomes.

- Monopsony: a market with a single buyer in an input market, which can influence input prices.

Market form is influenced by factors such as product differentiation, barriers to entry (patents, economies of scale, regulation), information availability, and network effects. In practice, markets may exhibit characteristics of multiple forms or shift between forms over time due to innovation, policy changes, or mergers and acquisitions. Market form affects efficiency and welfare; perfect competition is often associated with allocative and productive efficiency, while deviations can create rents, deadweight losses, or distributional effects. Policy tools such as antitrust regulation, price controls, or public provision are used to influence market form toward desirable outcomes. The concept is used in economic theory, policy analysis, and business strategy to understand price formation, competition, and market power.