Market Structures

Market is a place where buyer and seller meet, goods and services are offered for the sale and transfer of ownership occurs. A market may be also defined as the demand made by a certain group of potential buyers for a good or service. The former one is a narrow concept and later one is a broader concept. Economists describe a market as a collection of buyers and sellers who transact over a particular product or product class (the housing market, the clothing market, the grain market etc.). For business purpose we define a market as people or organizations with wants (needs) to satisfy, money to spend, and the willingness to spend it. Broadly, market represents the structure and nature of buyers and sellers for a commodity/service and the process by which the price of the commodity or service is established. In this sense, we are referring to the structure of competition and the process of price determination for a commodity or service. The determination of price for a commodity or service depends upon the structure of the market for that commodity or service (i.e., competitive structure of the market). Hence the understanding on the market structure and the nature of competition are a pre-requisite in price determination.

Different Market Structures

Market structure describes the competitive environment in the market for any good or service. A market consists of all firms and individuals who are willing and able to buy or sell a particular product. This includes firms and individuals currently engaged in buying and selling a particular product, as well as potential entrants. The determination of price is affected by the competitive structure of the market. This is because the firm operates in a market and not in isolation. In making decisions concerning economic variables it is affected, as are all institutions in society by its environment.