What are the 4 basic microeconomic market structures? Also, what is the difference between them?

The four main type of market structures in microeconomics are as follows:

Perfect Competition

Monopoly

Oligopoly

Monopolistic Competition.

The differences between them are as follows:

1. Number of buyers and sellers in the market:

There exists large number of buyers and sellers in case of perfect competition and monopolistic competition, whereas in case of monopoly there exist only one seller in the market,who caters to the entire market demand. There exists only few sellers in case of oligopoly competition.

2. Type of goods being sold:

The sellers in perfect competition sells identical goods, whereas the sellers in monopolistic competition sells differentiated goods. The sellers in oligopoly may either sell homogeneous or differentiated goods. The monopolist provides a unique product with no close substitutes.

3. Ease of entry and exit:

There is no barrier to entry or exit in perfect competition. The barriers in case of monopolistic competition is low. There however, exists some barriers in entry and exit in case of oligopoly and in case of a monopoly, the barriers of entry is very high, such that there exists only a single firm in the market.

4.Price setting:

The sellers in the perfect competition are price takers, they take the price of the good as given and set the level of output accordingly. The sellers in monopolistic competition is a price marker. The sellers in oligopoly are interdependent on each other and set the price and output on the basis of price and output decisions of the other sellers. The monopolist is a price setter. It usually sets the price output level at the point where its profits are maximised.