Q. Types of Market Structures by the Nature of Competition?

Conventionally, the nature of competition is assayed to be the basic criterion for distinguishing different types of market structures.

The degrees of competition can vary among the sellers and the buyers in different market situations.

• Nature of competition among the sellers is viewed on the foundation of two key aspects:

The number of firms in the market

• The characteristics of products, like whether the products are homogeneous or differentiated

Individual seller's control over market supply and his hand on price determination fundamentally depends upon these two factors.

Based on supply orselling, the below types of market structures are generally distinguished: 

• Oligopoly
• Monopolistic competition
• Perfect competition
• Monopoly

Monopoly and Perfect competition are two extremes of market situations. Other forms of market like monopolistic and oligopoly competition fall in between these two extremes. Oligopoly and monopolistic competition are the market situations characterised by imperfect competition