the.com/monopsony
one buyer holding all the cards while everyone selling has to take the deal
means A market in which a single buyer dominates, giving that buyer the power to dictate terms to many competing sellers (such as a lone employer in a one-company town).
from Coined by economists in the early 20th century from Greek roots: monos, 'single,' plus opsōnia, 'buying of provisions' (the kind of word that once meant haggling for fish and meat at market). It was deliberately built as the mirror-image of 'monopoly,' which pairs monos with pōlein, 'to sell' — so monopoly is one seller, monopsony one buyer. The coinage is often credited to the Cambridge economist Joan Robinson, who popularized the term in the 1930s.
- flip side
- a monopoly with the power reversed onto buyers
- labor markets
- economists blame it for suppressed worker wages
- company town
- the boss owns the only store and the only job
- name origin
- Greek for single purchase, coined 1933
- real giants
- single dominant buyers reshape entire supplier industries
amazon marketplace — single dominant buyer of third-party goods, sets commission rates and terms unilaterally
coal mining in appalachia — historically dominated by a few large companies as sole employers in isolated regions