In microeconomics, the main criteria by which one can distinguish between different market forms are: the number and size of producers and consumers in the market, the type of goods and services being traded, and the degree to which information can flow freely. The major market forms are: Microeconomics is one of the main fields of the social science of economics. ... Consumers are individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the economy. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. ... Information as a concept bears a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. ...

• Perfect competition, in which the market consists of a very large number of firms producing a homogeneous product.
• Monopolistic competition, also called competitive market, where there are a large number of independent firms which have a very small proportion of the market share.
• Oligopoly, in which a market is dominated by a small number of firms which own more than 40% of the market share.
• Oligopsony, a market dominated by many sellers and a few buyers.
• Monopoly, where there is only one provider of a product or service.
• Natural monopoly, a monopoly in which economies of scale cause efficiency to increase continuously with the size of the firm.
• Monopsony, when there is only one buyer in a market.

These somewhat abstract concerns tend to determine some but not all details of a specific concrete market system where buyers and sellers actually meet and commit to trade. Perfect competition is an economic model that describes a hypothetical market form in which no producer or consumer has the market power to influence prices. ... Monopolistic competition is a common market form. ... An oligopoly is a market form in which a market is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). ... An oligopsony is a market form in which the number of buyers are small while the number of sellers in theory could be large. ... In economics, a monopoly (from the Latin word monoplium - Greek language Greek monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a kind of product or service. ... In economics, a natural monopoly occurs when, due to the economies of scale of a particular industry, the maximum efficiency of production and distribution is realized through a single supplier [citation needed]. Some free market-oriented economists argue that natural monopoly exists only in theory, and not in practice. ... ... In economics, a monopsony is a market form with only one buyer, called monopsonist, facing many sellers. ... A market system is any systematic process enabling many market players to bid and ask: helping bidders and sellers interact and make deals. ... A fruit stand at a market. ...

See also

• Economics
• Microeconomics
• Macroeconomics
• Industrial organization
• List of marketing topics
• List of management topics
• List of economics topics
• List of accounting topics
• List of finance topics
• List of economists

Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala. ... Microeconomics is one of the main fields of the social science of economics. ... Macroeconomics is the economics sub-field of study that considers aggregate behavior, and the study of the sum of individual economic decisions. ... Industrial organization is the field of economics that studies the behavior of firms, the structure of markets and of their interactions. ... This is a list of over 200 articles on marketing topics. ... This is a list of articles on general management and strategic management topics. ... This aims to be a complete list of the articles on economics. ... This is a list of topics which are relevant to Accountancy. ... What follows is a list of over 250 Wikipedia articles on finance topics. ... This is an alphabetical list of well-known economists. ...

External links

• Microeconomics by Elmer G. Wiens: Online Interactive Models of Oligopoly, Differentiated Oligopoly, and Monopolistic Competition