The question was popular as many candidates attempted it. Majority of the candidates who attempted it demonstrated good knowledge of the definition
i.e. a market situation that combines the features of both perfect competition
and pure monopoly.
Unfortunately, many candidates went to near extreme of enumerating the characteristics of monopoly or perfect competition instead of the characteristics
of the ‘hybrid’ imperfect market required by the question. As a result of this, they lost some marks.
However, the candidates demonstrated fairly good knowledge of the requirements of the question which accounted for their average performance in the question.
Some of the points required from the candidates in the (b) part included:
- commodities sold are usually heterogeneous or differentiated;
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there are usually few buyers and sellers;
-
price discrimination may exist;
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entry and exit are restricted;
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there is no free flow of information, etc.
