ABSTRACT
The existence of interdependence in oligopolistic markets and the resultant difficulty of developing determinate models has resulted in a failure to develop a general theory of oligopoly. The economist views a market as a mechanism by which transactors exchange goods and services either through barter or through a medium of exchange such as money. The supply side of a market is an important basis for market analysis. The demand dimension of markets is particularly difficult to define. The usual approach is to view the market structure as a continuum with perfect competition and monopoly at the two extremes. The perfect competition model contains some very restrictive assumptions which will never be satisfied in real life. The economist's definition of an absolute monopoly is a market where one firm is the only supplier of a product and its close substitutes. The presence of interdependence in oligopolistic markets makes the formulation of a general model of oligopoly practically impossible.
