Oligopoly control and unification of quantitative indexes to control different types of monopoly

Abstract

The paper demonstrates the necessity and possibility to unify the controlling indicators for different types of monopoly (monopolistic competition, oligopoly, natural monopoly) in order to increase efficiency of the monopoly control. Especially this concerns the complex types of monopoly from the point of view of its control, for example, oligopoly. The complexity of this type of monopoly control is associated with the actual inevitability of the appearance of tacit pricing coordination among the oligopoly participants. And the problem is not so much in admitting that the very fact of such a coordination is difficult to prove as in defining the harm it causes to the market and the entire economy. This paper shows the possibility to use the quantitative indexes of monopoly control proposed based on author’s CMI-model of macroeconomic dynamics, to apply these indexes for various types of monopoly. A distinctive feature of this model is the possibility to calculate the vector of “natural” prices for any sector (i.e., the prices that correspond to the state of perfect competition even if it is impossible to reach this state in the existing markets). And the comparison of the actual market price with the “natural” one allows us to control a monopoly using the price indexes alone. In turn, it allows us to perform a monopoly control at various hierarchical levels of the economic system (a firm, an economic sector and economy as a whole). Such a control enables us to calculate the degrees of the monopoly impact both on the entire economy, and on its various sectors. Quantitative values of these degrees can be used as evidence in antitrust litigations and for choice of corresponding instruments to “punish” the monopoly for such abuses. The paper reveals the mechanism of use of the proposed formulas for determination of the monopolistic power and degree of its impact on economy and various economic sectors for the cases of oligopoly and natural monopoly. Also, this paper demonstrates the mechanism of the influence of antimonopoly policy on the configuration of business cycle and on economic growth rate (when other policies are neutral). This opens up the possibility to combine the antitrust policy with the anticyclical and fiscal ones, because, under recession, increased monopolistic power in an individual sector may help the whole economy get out of the crisis.