ABSTRACT
Examining the structure of an industry enables one to say something about the extent of competition in the market served by the industry-to determine if it is of the competitive, oligopolistic, or monop olistic type. Oligopoly or monopoly may imply antitrust action to promote more competitiveness, or government regulation or ownership if the market represents a natural monopoly or something akin to it. There are all shades of oligopoly and monopoly, however, and the textbook example, especially of monopoly, seldom exists. Instead, “monopoly power” is a term substituted for monopoly and oligop oly to describe structural characteristics of an industry that presumably should be exorcised.
