Week 11 · Readings & resources

Week 11 — Readings & Resources

Principles of Microeconomics Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 11 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 60–69 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (19–20 min total)

① What makes a monopoly, and what keeps rivals out

Chapter 11, Section “Name what makes a monopoly” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Barriers to entry” · Remember: a monopoly is the only seller of something with no close substitute, and a barrier such as a key resource, a patent or license, or economies of scale keeps rivals out.

What is a Monopoly?: Economics Explained — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — opens with a tennis match where the opponent never shows, then walks through the same three barriers the chapter names: a government-granted patent or license, control of a key resource, and a market where one firm can serve everyone more cheaply, its example being the electric lines that run to every house. Past the four-minute mark it makes the chapter's point that a monopolist will not charge a sky-high price, because no one would buy. Its claim that a monopolist has little reason to innovate is the video's own judgment and one side of the debate in the chapter's last section, where the case for restraint argues that the reward for invention can work the other way. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)
Economies of Scale in One Minute: Definition, Explanation and Examples — One Minute Economics — a one-person business making small wooden airplanes pays the same monthly rent whether it fills a handful of orders or hundreds, so its cost per plane falls steeply as orders grow. That falling cost per unit is the economies of scale behind a natural monopoly. The last half-minute lists limits to the pattern, such as needing more space. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
Patent Essentials — United States Patent and Trademark Office — the agency's own answers to basic questions about patents. Read the first few questions, on what a patent is, the three kinds, and how long one lasts; notice that a patent is a right to exclude others from making or selling an invention, the legal barrier to entry in the chapter's first section. Skip the sections on foreign filing and inventor assistance. (reading, 4–6 min)

② Choosing the quantity and price, and what buyers lose

Chapter 11, Section “Measure the deadweight loss of monopoly” · Session 1, Segment 3, “The monopoly outcome and its deadweight loss” · Remember: the monopolist picks its quantity where marginal revenue meets marginal cost, reads its price from demand, and the trades it never makes are the deadweight loss.

How to Calculate Deadweight Loss on a Monopoly Graph (The Easy Way) — Think Econ — on a monopoly graph, the narrator finds the quantity where marginal revenue crosses marginal cost, goes straight up to the demand curve for the price, and computes the deadweight-loss triangle as one half times base times height. Its marginal-cost curve slopes upward, so the triangle's corners differ from the ferry's flat-cost case, but the steps are the same. Watch for one slip: the video calls the price where MR meets MC the competitive price, while the competitive outcome is where demand meets marginal cost. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
Monopoly and Perfect Competition: How to Solve for Consumer & Producer Surplus and Deadweight Loss — Economics in Many Lessons — a worked problem that turns a demand equation into an inverse demand line, draws marginal revenue twice as steep, sets marginal revenue equal to marginal cost to find the monopolist's 5 units, and reads the 22-dollar price off the demand curve. It then compares the competitive outcome, where price equals marginal cost at 7.5 units and 17 dollars, and finds the deadweight loss of 12.50 dollars as the surplus the monopoly gives up. It finds marginal cost with a short calculus step; take its marginal-cost line as given and work the rest yourself. Use its closing comparison while completing the Week-11 module overview. (video, 12 min) (captions: automatic)

③ Price discrimination

Chapter 11, Section “Recognize price discrimination” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Price discrimination” · Remember: charging different buyers different prices for the same good takes market power, a way to sort buyers, and a way to stop resale.

Price Discrimination Explained: Microeconomics — Think Econ — defines price discrimination as different prices for the same product based on willingness to pay, location, or buying habits, then gives three types: haggling over a car, bulk discounts at a grocery store, and fares that vary by group and booking time. It does not mention the resale condition, which the chapter adds. Its claims that the practice can raise buyers' welfare are positions to weigh, not results this course teaches. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)

④ Natural monopoly and the antitrust debate

Chapter 11, Section “Weigh natural monopoly and antitrust” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Natural monopoly and antitrust” · Remember: the antitrust laws are facts, but how hard to enforce them is a debate in which values do the final weighing.

Monopolies and Anti-Competitive Markets: Crash Course Economics #25 — CrashCourse — a ten-minute episode that covers barriers to entry, the Sherman Act of 1890, patents as a deliberate and temporary monopoly, utilities as natural monopolies, and price discrimination with early and late airline bookings. It names real firms, and market shares for some of them, as examples; treat those as the hosts' illustrations, not facts this course has checked, and read its line that most economists support the antitrust laws as the video's own judgment. Its hosts open and close by saying monopolies are both good and bad, which fits the chapter's two cases for and against vigorous enforcement. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
The Antitrust Laws — Federal Trade Commission — the agency's plain-language guide to the Sherman Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Clayton Act. Read what it says about the Clayton Act and mergers, which carries the merger wording you met this week, and notice the short mention of a later amendment on discriminatory prices between merchants. Skip the details on penalties. (reading, 6–8 min)
Who Does the PUCN Regulate? — Public Utilities Commission of Nevada — a state regulator's short answer to who it oversees: utilities that are the only provider in a service territory, which accept oversight of their prices and service quality in exchange. It is a real-world version of the chapter's natural-monopoly paragraph, where costly pipes and wires make a second provider impractical. (reading, 2–3 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Monopoly — Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, Econlib — a signed reference entry. Read the opening paragraph, the worked example with a demand table that shows a monopolist's profit and the lost value of units never produced, and the closing section on natural monopoly. The later paragraphs argue a view about antitrust enforcement and regulation; that is a normative position, so read it as one side of the debate. Skip the paragraphs on industries with a few sellers. (reading, 10–14 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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