Q.Explain the essential features of monopoly. What are the main barriers that allow a monopoly to persist?

A monopoly exists when one firm alone supplies a good with no close substitute, and it can only persist as long as something stops rival firms from entering. …

A monopoly is a market form in which a single firm is the sole supplier of a good or service that has no close substitute, so that the firm and the industry are effectively the same thing. Its essential features are:

• Sole seller — there is only one firm on the supply side.
• No close substitute — buyers have no reasonably similar alternative to turn to, which is what gives the monopolist real market power.
• Price maker, not price taker — because it faces the entire market demand curve, the monopolist chooses its price (though it is still constrained by how much buyers will demand at that price).
• Blocked entry — new firms are prevented from entering the industry, which is what allows the monopoly to persist over time.

A monopoly can only survive if entry is genuinely blocked, and this happens through three broad types of barriers:

1. Natural barriers — the monopolist may control an essential, scarce raw material or resource that no other firm can access.
2. Legal barriers — a patent, copyright, licence, or a government-granted franchise legally excludes competitors, often for a fixed period. …

Students sometimes describe monopoly simply as 'no competition,' without identifying WHY competition is absent — always name the …