The Problem of Monopolies

Monopolies develop according to the definite monopoly market structure which is discussed by economists as opposite to the competitive market because only one seller controls the industry.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Problem of Monopolies specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A company can be described as a pure monopoly when it is a single seller of certain products or services within the market, when it is a price maker, the barriers to entry are high, and there are no close substitutes for products. The development of a monopoly within the industry creates conditions which can characterize the imperfect competition based on the absence of the other sellers. Moreover, the lack of the substitutes is observed, and the company becomes a monopoly within the market (McConnell, Brue, Flynn, 2012). Microsoft is the leading producer of operating systems for personal computers and different types of software in the USA. This leading position is often discussed as an attempt to receive the status of a monopoly within the market in order to gain the high economic profits typical for monopolies oriented to innovations. The recent situation in the market of the computer software is rather controversial. It can be explained basing on the idea that Microsoft tried to gain the market power several years ago. Microsoft took the leading position within the industry in the 1990s when the most successful variants of the Windows operating system for personal computers were worked out. Moreover, the company presented the effective applications software, and the majority of the personal computers’ users began to utilize the Windows operating system. Microsoft Office and Outlook also became popular with the users due to the fact the possible alternatives could not be discussed as the appropriate substitutes for the products and services provided by Microsoft. For instance, the operating system Microso ft Windows 95 was effectively utilized by over than 80% users in the USA because their computers were Intel based (Bittlingmayer Hazlett, 2000). Thus, the situation was discussed by the government as critical because of Microsoft’s possibility to develop into the monopoly with maintaining the control over the market. Microsoft had to change strategies of presenting the products and attracting the buyers after the investigations conducted in 1994 and 1997 in order to address the government’s requirements. The advantages of Microsoft are in the fact the company regularly presents the technologically innovative products which have no substitutes within the market because of their high quality and originality. From this point, Microsoft’s strategy is based on the active usage of the technological development’s results.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Moreover, the company is regulated with references to the effective strategic marketing techniques in order to attract more customers (Bittlingmayer Hazlett, 2000). According to these points, Microsoft supports its leading position and contributes to developing the controversial question of monopolization of the market. Thus, the leading position of Microsoft depends on the high standards and quality of the products. The market occupied by the company is so expanded that there are significant barriers to entry which are the company’s ownership, peculiarities of pricing, and legal aspects. As a result, customers have no access to any relevant alternative products (McConnell, Brue, Flynn, 2012). Today, the activity of Microsoft in developing the operating systems should be discussed with references to such competitors as the producers of iOS for Apple and Linux Operating System. Limiting the possibilities for the competitors’ entries into the market, monopolies contro l the industry and develop monopoly pricing, maximizing the profits. Moreover, these processes are associated with the factor of a downward sloping demand curve which is typical for monopolies. From this point, monopolies are not discussed by economists as the effective way for a company to develop within the industry (Kahn, 1999; Krugman Wells, 2009). Nevertheless, not all the monopolies are bad. For instance, a natural monopoly does not influence the progress of the market negatively because it depends on the system of the fixed costs. Moreover, not all the monopolies are bad because of the definite support provided by the government. That is why, government monopolies can be discussed as good monopolies or legal monopolies. However, the government can regulate and control not many monopolies. The U.S. Postal Service is the legal monopoly developed in the country because the activity of the company is controlled by the government, and the specific functions can be realized only b y the U.S. Postal Service (Krugman Wells, 2009). It is possible to conclude that monopolies challenge the principle of the perfect competition and can be discussed as the negative factor for the industry and market’s development. Nevertheless, such types of monopolies as natural monopolies based on the large economies of scale and constant marginal costs which can be less than average ones and legal monopolies which are characterized by the government’s control should not be discussed as absolutely negative structures because they develop according to the specific principles. Economists agree that the main disadvantages of monopolies are associated with the characteristics of pure monopolies when only one company is a seller within the market with the possibilities to control it and provide the barriers to entry. Furthermore, the monopoly market structure provokes the growth of prices which are often higher than the prices within the competitive markets.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Problem of Monopolies specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More References Bittlingmayer, G., Hazlett, T. W. (2000). DOS Kapital: Has antitrust action against Microsoft created value in the computer industry? Journal of Financial Economics, 55, 329-359. Kahn, A. E. (1999). The economics of regulation: Principles and institutions. USA: The MIT Press. Krugman, P., Wells, R. (2009). Economics. USA: Worth Publishers. McConnell, C. R., Brue, S. L., Flynn, S. M. (2012). Economics. USA: McGraw-Hill. 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A Review of Software Tools for Quantitative Data Analysis

A Review of Software Tools for Quantitative Data Analysis If youre a   sociology student or budding social scientist and have started to work with quantitative (statistical) data, analytic software will be very useful to you. These programs force researchers to organize and clean her data and offer pre-programmed commands that allow everything from very basic to quite advanced forms of statistical analysis. They even offer useful visualizations that will be useful as you seek to interpret your data, and that you may wish to use when presenting it to others. There are many programs on the market, but unfortunately, they are quite expensive to purchase. The good news for students and faculty is that most universities have licenses for at least one program which students and professors can use. In addition, most programs offer a free, pared-down version of the full software package which will often suffice. Heres a review of the three main programs that quantitative social scientists use. Statistical Package forSocial Science (SPSS) SPSS is the most popular quantitative analysis software program used by social scientists. Made and sold by IBM, it is comprehensive, flexible, and can be used with almost any type of data file. However, its especially useful for analyzing large-scale survey data. It can be used to generate tabulated reports, charts, and plots of distributions and trends, as well as generate descriptive statistics such as means, medians, modes and frequencies in addition to more complex statistical analyses like regression models. SPSS provides a user interface that makes it easy and intuitive for all levels of users. With menus and dialogue boxes, you can perform analyses without having to write command syntax, like in other programs. It is also simple and easy to enter and edit data directly into the program. There are a few drawbacks, however, which might not make it the best program for some researchers. For example, there is a limit on the number of cases you can analyze. It is also difficult to account for weights, strata and group effects with SPSS. STATA STATA is an interactive data analysis program that runs on a variety of platforms. It can be used for both simple and complex statistical analyses. STATA uses a point-and-click interface as well as command syntax, which makes it easy to use. STATA also make it simple to generate graphs and plots of data and results. Analysis in STATA is centered around four windows: the command window, review window, result window and variable window. Analysis commands are entered into the command window and the review window records those commands. The variables window lists the variables that are available in the current data set along with the variable labels, and the results appear in the results window. SAS SAS, short for Statistical Analysis System, is also used by many businesses; in addition to statistical analysis, it also allows programmers to perform report writing, graphics, business planning, forecasting, quality improvement, project management and more. SAS is a great program for the intermediate and advanced user because it is very powerful; it can be used with extremely large datasets and can perform complex and advanced analyses. SAS is good for analyses that require you to take into account weights, strata or groups. Unlike SPSS and STATA, SAS is run largely by programming syntax rather than point-and-click menus, so some knowledge of the programming language is required.