Governments Controlling Monopolies Flashcards

1
Q

What do the CMA do

A

regulate the market by encouraging competition to ensure efficiency and keep prices low for consumers

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2
Q

What are the four things the CMA will look out for in the market

A
  • Stop mergers that form monopoly power as these aren’t beneficial to efficiency
  • Stop cartels and collusive oligopolies
  • Helping with privatisation to fully open up markets to competition
  • Regulate unfair financial support to firms from European governments
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3
Q

OFWAT

A

Water

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4
Q

OFCOM

A

Communications

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5
Q

OFGEM

A

Gas and Electricity

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6
Q

What merger created the worlds third largest food company in 2015

A

Heinz and kraft

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7
Q

When will mergers be investigated

A

resulting in 25% market share or 70million combined turnover

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8
Q

Whats the problem with CMA

A
  • Prone to regulatory capture
  • Doesn’t investigate all mergers
  • Is selective - allows Tescos and booker but blocks Ryanair and aerlingus
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9
Q

Methods to control Monopolies

A
  • Price regulation
  • Profit regulation
  • Quality Standards
  • Performance Targets
  • Subsidies
  • Self regulation
  • Breaking them up
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10
Q

What is the price control used on monopolies

A

RPI - X in which X is the expected efficiency gains of the firm so this ensures they are passed onto consumer when increasing prices
–> forces firms to charge under profit maximising

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11
Q

What is the aim of RPI - X price regulation

A

Encourages monopolies to be efficient as it means they can gain more profit, also ensures lower prices for consumers

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12
Q

What is another price regulation that can be put on monopolies

A

A maximum price can be put at the allocative efficient point to maximise social welfare
–> Difficult to know where this is and sometimes it will be below cost

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13
Q

What is the problem with RPI - X

A

Difficult to know where to set X because of rapid technology improvements efficiency is always changing, efficiency information is also imperfect as it comes from the firm

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14
Q

RPI - X + K

A

Accounts for the level of investment needed for the efficiency improvements

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15
Q

What is the primary form of profit regulation

A

Windfall Taxes

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16
Q

Windfall tax

A

Tax put on to monopoly firms supernormal profits if the government believes these have been made unfairly or by chance

17
Q

Where is the windfall tax put on the graph

A

horizontal line put somewhere in normal profit, the top half is governments tax revenue then the bottom half is SNP kept by the firm

18
Q

Problems with windfall taxes

A
  • Discourages investment as it reduces retained profit
  • Fall in dividends to shareholders which reduces share price thus reducing firm capital
  • Doesn’t benefit consumer if revenue isn’t distributed well by government
  • Normally retrospective which is unfair
19
Q

Why are quality standards imposed on monopolies

A

Lack of competition means quality of monopolies goods will drop, so regulators can put in standards to stop customers getting exploited

20
Q

How are performance targets imposed on monopolies

A
  • Certain standard of customer service
  • targets for amount of customers
  • Standards for efficiency (leakages in water companies)
  • Environmental standards (ESG)
  • Punctuality standards

—–> If these aren’t abided by then regulators can impose fines

21
Q

Why are performance targets imposed on monopolies

A

To help maintain competition and ensure customers aren’t exploited

22
Q

Problems with performance targets

A
  • Requires political will
  • greenwashing
  • punishment for not meeting not harsh enough
23
Q

Why will governments break up monopolies

A

Split them up to increase competition leading to better quality goods and lower prices

24
Q

How do governments use subsidies to control monopolies

A

Subsidise monopolies so the they produce at p=mc whilst covering their costs, giving private sector monopolies is unpopular usually only happens in natural monopolies

25
Q

How can monopolies self regulate

A

Monopolists propose to regulate themselves by setting codes of practice which saves governments legislating and costs
—> They won’t regulate themselves to the extent they need

26
Q

CMA

A

Competition Markets Authority