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Showing posts with the label natural monopolies

Decision Making as Output and Bounded Rationality

  The classical economics theories proceed on the assumption of rational agents. Rationality implies the economic agents undertake actions or exercise choices based on the cost-benefit analysis they undertake. The assumption further posits that there exists no information asymmetry and thus the agent is aware of all the costs and benefits associated with the choice he or she has exercised. The behavioral school contested the decision stating the decisions in practice are often irrational. Implied there is a continuous departure from rationality. Rationality in the views of the behavioral school is more an exception to the norm rather a rule. The past posts have discussed the limitations of this view by the behavioral school. Economics has often posited rationality in the context in which the choices are exercised rather than theoretical abstract view of rational action. Rational action in theory seems to be grounded in zero restraint situation yet in practice, there are numerous restra

Economies of Scale and Natural Monopolies- A Note

  The world often seems of puzzles yet they go unnoticed. Yet to an economist or rather a student of economics, these puzzles are the ones which challenge their mind and thought process. Let us take a few instances. Across countries, we find a single railway company operating railway lines. If there are multiple companies, they operate in different geographic zones. For example, one would not find multiple companies laying railway lines between two cities let us say Mumbai and Delhi. Similarly electricity transmission too observes just one company operating as the power gets transmitted from the power generation source to the local transmission set ups for further distribution to households, industries and commercial establishments. The same observation can be made of water distribution companies. From the source of water till the local water tanks, one finds only pipeline being laid and there are no competitors found in this instance.   In economics, competition is the bedrock of