A propósito de la tendencia a la constitución de grandes monopolios

 A propósito de la tendencia a la constitución de grandes monopolios.

¿En qué medida pueden favorecer o dañar el dinamismo económico en las

economías avanzadas?

El declive de la competencia parece ser un fenómeno que afecta a las economías avanzadas y por ende también al resto de las economías en donde los grandes monopolios corporativos tienen también presencia.

Sin embargo, según la publicación WEO del IMF, el creciente Market Power no necesariamente significa que las políticas de antimonopolio se estén debilitando, por el contrario, aconseja no tomar medidas drásticas destinadas a fragmentar grandes corporaciones.

Varios monopolios originados en economías avanzadas han ganado terreno dentro de sus fronteras para luego ganar posiciones dominantes en otras zonas geográficas y económicas, consideremos que al penetrar otros mercados estas empresas monopólicas se convierten también en generadoras de recursos para sus países de origen. Microsoft.

Ahora bien, una empresa tiene market-power cuando carga más allá del precio competitivo de un producto o servicio y, en teoría, excesivos markups  deberían balancearse a la baja cuando nuevos competidores penetran el mercado. No obstante, en un periodo de 15 anos

A company has market power if it can charge more than a purely competitive market would permit. The authors of the study test for the presence of market power in 27 countries, two-thirds advanced and one third emerging, by measuring “markups”: how much companies charge for a product above the cost of producing one.

In theory, excessive markups should quickly disappear as new competitors undercut incumbents. Yet the IMF found between 2000 and 2015, companies’ markups in advanced economies rose eight percentage points. In other words, for every dollar of cost per unit, they were able to charge an additional eight cents. Markups didn’t rise in emerging countries, perhaps because they were relatively high to start with.

According to Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, inefficient firms, including monopolies, would eventually be replaced by more efficient and effective firms through a process called creative destruction.

It has been consistently argued by some economists that monopoly power is required to generate dynamic efficiency, that is, technological progressiveness. This is because:

High profit levels boost investment in R&D.

Innovation is more likely with large enterprises and this innovation can lead to lower costs than in competitive markets.

A firm needs a dominant position to bear the risks associated with innovation.

Firms need to be able to protect their intellectual property by establishing barriers to entry; otherwise, there will be a free rider problem.

Why spend large sums on R&D if ideas or designs are instantly copied by rivals who have not allocated funds to R&D?

However, monopolies are protected from competition by barriers to entry and this will

The disadvantages of monopoly to the consumer

Monopolies can be criticised because of their potential negative effects on the consumer, including: