Source: Wikipedia
An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). The word is derived from the Greek oligoi 'few' and poleein 'to sell'. Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The decisions of one firm influence, and are influenced by, the decisions of other firms. Strategic planning by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants. This causes oligopolistic markets and industries to be a high risk for collusion.
Firms often collude in an attempt to stabilize unstable markets, so as to reduce the risks inherent in these markets for investment and product development. There are legal restrictions on such collusion in most countries. There does not have to be a formal agreement for collusion to take place (although for the act to be illegal there must be actual communication between companies) - for example, in some industries, there may be an acknowledged market leader which informally sets prices to which other producers respond, known as price leadership.
In other situations, competition between sellers in an oligopoly can be fierce, with relatively low prices and high production. This could lead to an efficient outcome approaching perfect competition. The competition in an oligopoly can be greater than when there are more firms in an industry if, for example, the firms were only regionally based and did not compete directly with each other.
Question: Is banking in Singapore similar to an oligopoly?
3 comments:
Yes.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck .....
Banking in every country is an oligopoly - only the degree varies.
In Singapore, India, it is a very high degree of oligopoly; In the USA it is of a much less degree.
Unlike normal oligopolies, in banking there is a natural demand because people need some place to receive money (salary) someplace to park their money and some means to manage their transactions.
So not only is banking an oligopoly with a very high barrier to entry, it is the worst kind because it is skewed too much in favor of the seller.
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