Title: Whatever happened to the monopoly-monopsony firm?

Authors: Ross Tippit

Addresses: BMCC-CUNY, 199 Chambers St., NY, NY, 10007, USA

Abstract: This paper investigates the lack of coverage in economics textbooks today of a market condition conceived of when theories of imperfect competition were in their infancy: a firm having market power on both sides of production, in the goods market and in the factor market. Such a firm represents an idealised market condition and a goal for firms in market economies. However, this market condition is rarely covered in both microeconomics and labour textbooks today, whereas its coverage can be found in texts from the 1960-1970s. Using these earlier texts, a simple presentation of the monopoly-monopsony firm is recreated to elucidate the important but neglected relationship between employment and profit maximisation.

Keywords: market power; monopoly; monopsony; imperfect competition; teaching economics; microeconomics; labour economics; factor markets.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2021.121377

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2021 Vol.12 No.3/4, pp.246 - 281

Accepted: 02 Nov 2021
Published online: 08 Mar 2022 *

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