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Yes! A chance to geek out on economics! A "monopoly" refers to supply side, when one supplier is (or practically is) the entire market supply. But on the dema
by tomrod 4y ago
Yes! A chance to geek out on economics!
A "monopoly" refers to supply side, when one supplier is (or practically is) the entire market supply.
But on the demand side, the term is "monopsony."
For example, the US Department of Defense is (probably) a monopsony for fighter pilots. The classic example is the company-owned coal town.
Another term to remember is "regulatory capture." This usually refers to a government's regulators having their incentives captured by those they are intended to regulate. However, the incentive structures are more or less equivalent if an union is captured by a monopsony employer.
- trilbyglens 4y agoWould a union controlling companies' access to labor not be considered supply side?
- tomrod 4y agoYour intuition is going in the right direction. Workers, and worker aggregates in the form of unions or other entities, are the supply side for labor. They can be a monopoly (indeed, "better wages" and similar demands are expressions of market power). If there is only one demander (employer) for the labor, it would be a monopsony. Like a coal company in a company town.