Monopoly Market:

Meaning:
The word monopoly has been derived from the combination of two words i.e., ‘Mono’ and ‘Poly’. Mono refers to a single and poly to control,means one seller in whole market.
There are no close substitutes for the commodity it produces and there are barriers to entry. The single producer may be in the form of individual owner or a single partnership or a joint stock company. In other words, under monopoly there is no difference between firm and industry.
Characteristics:
1) One Seller and Large Number of Buyers
2)no close substitute
3) Difficulty of Entry of New Firms

Under monopoly, the firm has full control over the supply of a product. The elasticity of demand is zero for the products.
There is a single seller or a producer of a particular product, and there is no difference between the firm and the industry. The firm is itself an industry.
The firms can influence the price of a product and hence, these are price makers, not the price takers.
There are barriers for the new entrants.
The demand curve under monopoly market is downward sloping, which means the firm can earn more profits only by increasing the sales which are possible by decreasing the price of a product.
There are no close substitutes for a monopolist’s product.

Monopolistic Competition:
Under, the Monopolistic Competition, there are a large number of firms that produce differentiated products which are close substitutes for each other. In other words, large sellers selling the products that are similar, but not identical.

Characteristics:
Product Differentiation: This is one of the major features of the firms operating under the monopolistic competition, that produces the product which is not identical but is slightly different from each other. The products being slightly different from each other remain close substitutes of each other and hence cannot be priced very differently from each other.

Large number of firms: A large number of firms operate under the monopolistic competition, and there is a stiff competition between the existing firms. Unlike the perfect competition.

Free Entry and Exit: With an intense competition among the firms, the entity incurring the loss can move out of the industry at any time it wants. Similarly, the new firms can enter into the industry freely.

Oligopoly Market
The Oligopoly Market characterized by few sellers, selling the homogeneous or differentiated products. In other words, the Oligopoly market structure lies between the pure monopoly and monopolistic competition, where few sellers dominate the market and have control over the price of the product.
Features:
Interdependence: it is one of the most important features of an Oligopoly market, wherein, the seller has to be cautious with respect to any action taken by the competing firms. Since there are few sellers in the market, if any firm makes the change in the price or promotional scheme, all other firms in the industry have to comply with it, to remain in the competition.
Interdependence: it is one of the most important features of an Oligopoly market, wherein, the seller has to be cautious with respect to any action taken by the competing firms. Since there are few sellers in the market, if any firm makes the change in the price or promotional scheme, all other firms in the industry have to comply with it, to remain in the competition.
Entry and Exit Barriers: The firms can easily exit the industry whenever it wants, but has to face certain barriers to entering into it. These barriers could be Government license, Patent, large firm’s economies of scale, high capital requirement, complex technology, etc. Also, sometimes the government regulations favor the existing large firms, thereby acting as a barrier for the new entrants.

Market Structure
Definition: The Market Structure refers to the characteristics of the market either organizational or competitive, that describes the nature of competition and the pricing policy followed in the market.

Thus, the market structure can be defined as, the number of firms producing the identical goods and services in the market and whose structure is determined on the basis of the competition prevailing in that market.

The term “ market” refers to a place where sellers and buyers meet and facilitate the selling and buying of goods and services. But in economics, it is much wider than just a place, It is a gamut of all the buyers and sellers, who are spread out to perform the marketing activities.

Types of Market Structure

Market Structure

Perfect Competition Market Structure
Monopolistic Competition Market Structure
Oligopoly Market Structure
Monopoly Market Structure
The major determinants of the market structure are:

The number of sellers operating in the market.
The number of buyers in the market.
The nature of goods and services offered by the firms.
The concentration ratio of the company, which shows the largest market shares held by the companies.
The entry and exit barriers in a particular market.
The economies of scale, i.e. how cost efficient a firm is in producing the goods and services at a low cost. Also the sunk cost, the cost that has already been spent on the business operations.
The degree of vertical integration, i.e. the combining of different stages of production and distribution, managed by a single firm.
The level of product and service differentiation, i.e. how the company’s offerings differ from the other company’s offerings.
The customer turnover, i.e. the number of customers willing to change their choice with respect to the goods and services at the time of adverse market conditions.
Thus, the structure of the market affects how firm price and supply their goods and services, how they handle the exit and entry barriers, and how efficiently a firm carry out its business operations.