Active learning ideas
Market structures provide the framework for understanding how firms compete and set prices in the Irish economy. Students compare the theoretical extremes of Perfect Competition and Monopoly with the more common real world structures of Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly. This topic focuses on barriers to entry, product differentiation, and the pursuit of supernormal profits.
Activity 01
Divide the class into 'Pro-Monopoly' (focusing on R&D and economies of scale) and 'Anti-Monopoly' (focusing on high prices and lack of choice). Students use Irish examples like Iarnród Éireann or historical ESB cases to argue their points.
How does market power affect consumer prices?
Activity 02
Set up four stations representing the four market structures with data on firm numbers, barriers to entry, and product types. Students rotate in groups to match real Irish industries (e.g., farming, supermarkets, tech) to the correct station.
What are the characteristics of an oligopolistic market in Ireland?
Activity 03
Students act as investigators for the CCPC looking into a suspected price-fixing cartel in the Irish petrol market. They must identify the characteristics of an oligopoly and explain why collusion is tempting but illegal.
How do monopolies create deadweight loss?
A few notes on teaching this unit
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Monopolies can charge any price they want.
Monopolies are still constrained by the demand curve; if they set prices too high, quantity demanded drops. Using a simulation where students 'buy' goods from a monopolist helps them see the limit of market power.
Perfect competition is a common real-world occurrence.
It is a theoretical model used for comparison. Peer teaching sessions where students try to find a 'perfect' market in Ireland usually lead to the realization that almost all markets have some degree of imperfection.
Methods used in this brief
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