In Chamberlinian

monopolistic competition Monopolistic competition is a type of imperfect competition such that there are many producers competing against each other but selling products that are differentiated from one another (e.g., branding, quality) and hence not perfect substi ...

every one of the firms have some

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

power, but entry drives monopoly profits to zero. The concept gets its name from

Edward Chamberlin Edward Hastings Chamberlin (May 18, 1899 – July 16, 1967) was an American economist. He was born in La Conner, Washington, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Chamberlin studied first at the University of Iowa (where he was influenced by ...

Background

One example where Chamberlinian monopolistic competition can be experienced is the book market. A

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

has a factual

over certain titles via

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

rights. A book is an

experience good Economists and marketers use the Search, Experience, Credence (SEC) classification of goods and services, which is based on the ease or difficulty with which consumers can evaluate or obtain information. These days most economics and marketers treat ...

and finding perfect legal substitutes on the market while the publisher's rights are in effect is impossible. This however doesn't lead to high monopoly profits on any particular titles while close substitutes are available. A best-seller cookbook for Asian cuisine still competes with other cookbooks about Asian cuisine as well as the whole cookbook genre. Chamberlain's approach to monopoly theory is often compared to

Joan Robinson Joan Violet Robinson ( Maurice; 31 October 1903 – 5 August 1983) was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated the "Cambridge Sc ...

's 1933 book ''

The Economics of Imperfect Competition ''The Economics of Imperfect Competition'' is a 1933 book written by British economist Joan Robinson. Contents The book discusses the views of Alfred Marshall and Arthur Cecil Pigou on competition and the theory of the firm. Marshall believed th ...

'', where she coined the term "

monopsony In economics, a monopsony is a market structure in which a single buyer substantially controls the market as the major purchaser of goods and services offered by many would-be sellers. The Microeconomics, microeconomic theory of monopsony assume ...

." Monopsony is used to describe the buyer converse of a seller monopoly. Monopsony is commonly applied to buyers of labour, where the employer has wage setting power that allows it to exercise Pigouvian exploitation and pay workers less than their marginal productivity. Robinson used monopsony to describe the wage gap between women and men workers of equal productivity.

References

Monopoly (economics) {{economics-stub