Buyers and Monopolies Available to Purchase

In the West, at least, monopolies are generally thought to be threatening. An illustration of this concern about the potential consequences of a dominant presence in a market is the fact that most Western countries have introduced anti‐monopoly legislation. Rightly or wrongly, the presence of a monopolist suggests to many that the purchaser of goods or services from such an organisation will not get value for his money. It is often argued that the monopolist will seek to make unnecessarily large profits, or that he will be inefficient and in turn that this will result in his selling prices being higher than they ought. Little attention is usually paid in such discussion to what the economists call “non‐price variables”. However, by implication at least, in this respect too, the seller is thought to perform at a lower level than he might under competition (for example, specification, delivery and service).