Learning objectives

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

• examine topics and predict content related market structures;

• apply reading skills to comprehend, analyze, summarize and interpret texts related to market structures (i.e. recognize main ideas in paragraphs, definitions, explanations, examples, classifications, comparisons and contrasts, sequence of events, cause/effect, pros and cons);

• identify the main ideas, recall important details of a listening segment pertaining to different types of market structures, take notes from spoken context as well as relate new information to previously acquired concepts;

• give spontaneous and prepared monologs, dialogues, and group interaction using topical vocabulary;

• summarize, annotate, render and translate texts related to the issued covered in the unit.

Key terms

1. Study key terms and their definitions before reading Text a & b:

Market – ринок – an arrangement that allows people to make exchanges with one another; whenever and wherever people voluntarily make exchanges with one another.

Competition – конкуренція – the rivalry among buyers and among sellers in the purchase and sale of resources and products.

Perfect competition – досконала конкуренція – a market for uniform products with many buyers and sellers, none of whom is able to affect the price.

Market structure – ринкова структура – the way in which market is organized, including the concentration of suppliers or consumers, the ease of entry or barriers to entry, and the competitiveness of players in the market.

Monopolistic competition – монополістична конкуренція – a market in which many firms are selling similar but not identical products.

Product differentiation – диференціація (індивідуалізація) продукції – process of creating uniqueness in a product.

Oligopoly – олігополія – market dominated by a few large firms.

Monopoly – монополія – market in which there is only one seller.

Natural monopoly – природна монополія – market structure in which average costs of production are lowest when all output is produced by a single firm.

Geographic monopoly – географічна монополія – market situation where a firm has a monopoly because of its location or the small size of the market.

Technological monopoly – технологічна монополія – market situation when a firm has a monopoly because it owns or controls a manufacturing method, process, or other scientific advance.

Government monopoly – урядова монополія – monopoly created and/or owned by the government.

Economies of scale – економія за рахунок зростання масштабів виробництва – reductions in cost resulting from large scale production.

Patent – патент – a monopoly to use a new product or invention exclusively for a period of time.

Copyright – авторське право – exclusive right of authors of original writing and artistic work to sell or reproduce their works for their lifetime plus 50 years.

Franchise – франшиза, ліцензія – a license to operate an individually owned business in a specific geographic area as if it were a part of a large chain.

2. Match the terms with their definitions.

1. Geographical monopoly	a. a monopoly that is based on ownership or control of a manufacturing method, process, or other scientific advance.
2. Copyright	b. factors which cause the average cost of producing something to fall as output increases.
3. Monopolistic competition	c. one in which a market leader can indicate its preferred price to smaller competitors.
4. Barriers to entry	d. a monopoly that exists because of a specific location
5. Market	e. exists when products are homogeneous, and there are a great many firms too small to have any influence on the market price, and firms can easily enter and exit the industry.
6. Government monopoly	f. meeting place or mechanism allowing buyers and sellers of an economic product to come together, may be local, national, regional, or global.
7. Technological monopoly	g. a concentrated market dominated by a few large suppliers. This is very frequent in manufacturing because of economies of scale and the cost barriers of entering an industry.
8. Competition	h. an official document showing that a person has the exclusive right to make and sell an invention.
9. Oligopoly	i. a market in a particular product in which a single producer can fix an artificial price.
10.Natural monopoly	j. an author’s legal right to publish his or her own work and not to have it copied.
11.Patent	k. an industry in which the efficient existence of more than one producer is impossible; examples include public utilities such as water, gas and electricity, where it would be inefficient to have several competing companies laying their own networks of pipes or cables.
12.Economies of scale	l. economic or technical factors that make it difficult or impossible for firms to enter a market or compete with existing suppliers.
13.Market structure	m. an element of market that denotes the ways in which suppliers attempt to distinguish their own products from those of competitors.
14.Product differentiation	n. exists when many producers of slightly differentiated products are able to sell them at well above their marginal cost.
15.Monopoly	o. a license to trade using a brand name and paying a royalty for it
16.Perfect Competition	p. the way in which a market is organized.
17.Dominant-firm monopoly	q. the action of companies or individuals who are trying to do better than others, to win a large share of the marker, to control the use of resources, etc.
18. Franchise	r. a monopoly owned and operated by government.