Natural monopoly

Monopolies are called enterprises that occupy a dominant position in the market of a particular product. This allows him to profit by not allowing other producers to enter the market, and dictating the terms to consumers.

A natural monopoly occupies a specific position on the market due to the specifics of its production. This may be the need to use very expensive equipment, sole ownership of natural resources, exceptional technologies or marginal capacities. The dominant position of the enterprise is called, if it occupies 65% of the commodity market.

As a rule, a natural monopoly is a particularly large enterprise with a developed infrastructure, which is again difficult to create and economically unprofitable. For example, railways, heat and electricity, etc. Most of the monopolies are just public enterprises, without which it is impossible to operate the economy on a countrywide scale. Such enterprises are characterized by a high threshold, which must be overcome to enter the industry.

In Russia, a situation has developed in which the existence of monopolies in its market prevents the development of full-fledged competition, which leads to a reduction in export opportunities. During the Soviet period, under the command system of conducting the national economy, the entire economy was what is now defined by the term "natural monopoly". Then there was no competition in principle, there was comprehensive directive planning. Gosplan, Goskomtsen and Gossnab set all the parameters of the enterprises of the country.

Natural monopoly is also seen as a special type of commodity market structure , in which barriers to entry of other subjects into it are raised so that they are almost insurmountable.

A distinctive feature of socialist monopolies was that they were planted "from above," while in the capitalist world they began to form "from below" and were accompanied by a competitive struggle (leading companies broke through with advanced technologies and a powerful technical base).

The legacy of the socialist community largely predetermined the further development of economic relations in the country. Antimonopoly legislation in the Russian Federation was developed in the conditions of existence of strong dominant enterprises and only emerging market relations. Today it is far from perfect and needs to be improved on the basis of generalization of law enforcement practice.

Natural monopolies in Russia have strong positions. To implement the policy aimed at supporting market structures and entrepreneurship, the State Committee for Antimonopoly Policy was created. In 1999, on its basis, the Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy and Support of Entrepreneurship was created. However, the level of development of competition in Russia is still not sufficient. The reasons for this are that privatization has not led to the emergence of efficient owners, enterprise restructuring has not been properly used, and small business is still not developed at a sufficient level.

A natural monopoly should not become a hindrance to the development of other promising forms of management (first of all, medium and small businesses). Therefore, experts believe that in Russia today it is necessary to establish more strict antimonopoly control over the conduct of auctions, auctions, tenders for deliveries for state needs; Take measures against attempts by regional authorities to prevent the movement of capital and goods across the country; With the help of state regulation to expand the opportunities for competition; To harmonize the legislation of all CIS countries on the issue of antimonopoly regulation.