Why a monopoly can lead to inefficient outcomes?

There are various reasons why monopoly leads to an inefficient outcome. Some of the reasons are as follows: * It produces less output that what a competitive market would and charge higher price which ultimately leads to a decline in consumer surplus and a deadweight loss. * Monopoly charges a price above its marginal cost, i.e. P > MC, and this results in an allocative inefficiency * A monopoly doesn't produces at the lowest point of the average cost curve (AC) and hence it leads to production inefficiency. * Monopoly has less incentive to cut cost as it doesn't face competition. This is often termed as X-inefficiency. * A monopoly makes supernormal profit (economic profit), i.e. Q * (AR

• AC), leading to an unequal distribution of income. * Monopoly

produces less than perfect competition and hence creates unemployment of resources. * By producing less in order to charge higher price, monopoly creates an artificial scarcity. The inefficiency associated with a creation of artificial scarcity is called the Deadweight Loss. (Written by Manish Regmi )