Monopoly - the meaning of monopoly - the Monopolist's Demand curve and the Marginal revenue

6 important questions on Monopoly - the meaning of monopoly - the Monopolist's Demand curve and the Marginal revenue

What is the demand curve of a monopolist? How does it slope?

The market demand curve.
it is downward sloping

What is the significance of the downward sloping curve?

It creates a wedge between the price of the good and the marginal revenue of the good.

How does the marginal revenue look in a monopolist graph?

It is also downward sloping like the demand curve, but it falls bellow the demand curve and could be negative.
  • Higher grades + faster learning
  • Never study anything twice
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Discover Study Smart

What are the two opposing effects that occur because of an increase in production by a monopolist? What do they mean?

A quantity effect. One more unit sold, increasing total revenue by the price at which the unit is sold
A price effect, in order to sell the last unit the monopolist must cut the market price on all units sold, and decrease total revenue

Why is the marginal revenue below the demand curve?

because of a monopolists marginal revenue from selling and additional unit is always less than the price the monopolist receives  from the previous unit.
meaning the monopolist has market power

What does the total revenue cruve look like? And what does it mean?

It looks hill shaped
as output rises total revenue increases, meaning quantity effect is stronger what the price effect at low level of output. So price effect is small
as output rises more total revenue decreases, because at high level of output, the price effect is stringer than the quantity effect, and as the monopolist sells more it gets to lower price on many units of output, so price effect is very larger

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

  • A unique study and practice tool
  • Never study anything twice again
  • Get the grades you hope for
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
Trustpilot Logo