Advantages and disadvantages of monopoly’s price regulation methods

Straipsnyje analizuojama monopolijų reguliavimo, pasitelkiant kainų mechanizmą, problematika. Naudojant literatūros analizės metodą, analizuojami pagrindiniai kainų reguliavimo metodai, atskleidžiamos jų silpnosios pusės bei privalumai. Naujausios monopolijų reguliavimo technologijos siejamos su „benchmarking“ (liet. pozicionavimo) sąvoka, kuri apima geriausios praktikos perėmimą, o tai reiškia, kad kainos nustatomos orientuojantis ne į egzistuojančius įmonės kaštus, o į sektoriaus lyderius regiono ar pasaulio mastu. Taip suteikiamas išorinis stimulas tobulinti monopolijų veikląThe main purpose of this article was to summarize the features of applying monopoly price regulatory measures, thus creating a basis for further development of those measures. The analysis of scientific literature on monopolies regulation applying pricing measures let the authors to formulate the following conclusions: Great number of authors analysing monopolies’ regulation advocate the position of non interventionism in the market formation. However, the authors of this theoretical research support the idea of limited regulation of monopolies and this regulation must be implemented on the basis of market forces. The question of monopolies’ regulation is especially important in less developed and small countries, where monopolies abuse their power regarding societal needs. The last one manifests itself diminishing effectiveness of monopolized business and finally by increased prices of supplied products and services. Classical-theoretical pricing of monopolies’ products is associated with the cost coverage, which is also associated with the situation of marginal costs and marginal income overlap. The agency problem between the monopolistic systems and the society hampers to establish economically efficient prices. An essential weak point of all monopolies’ regulations applying the pricing mechanism and based on own costs consideration is that it slows down the initiative to improve the activities of monopolies, encourages them either to lower the quality of the product in order to increase profits, or to carry out the investment of enlarging the costs, increasing the pressure on the state institutions to raise prices. In the authors’ view, the principles of methodology for the efficient development of natural monopolies in societal and private terms could lie in the benchmarking based pricing idea. [...]Ekonomikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta