• Competition
•             Industrial regulation refers to the directives imposed by the government in sectors such as banking, transport among many others (Laudati, 2001). Guidelines are imposed to monitor prices and quality of product to protect consumers and ensure do not get exploited. It is done to check creation of monopolies. Monopolies are firms that singly own a given market time in the provision of goods and services. However, much as these bottlenecks seem beneficial to the economy but they also have limitations. For instance, they affect price allocation as well as market entry and exit. They tend to scare potential investors leaving few participants in the market. The regulations are imposed in the form of quotas and tax credits (McConnell, 2006).
•             Some of the market entities that get affected by these regulations include monopolies. Barriers to entry are equity, economies of scale and cost advantages (McConnell, 2006). Once a monopoly does not end in the open market, the government may choose to break it and declare it a publicly owned monopoly. The regulations affect markets by changing the total structure of natural monopolies to protect consumers. The markets structures of such like monopolies are altered to let in new firms by reducing the competition. The second market structure that is affected by industrial regulation is known as oligopoly. Oligopoly refers to the market structure that whereby a small number of large firms dominate the market. The large organizations can either be selling identical products with different types of barriers of dominating an industry (McConnell, 2006). The reason why oligopoly is affected by industrial regulation is that the action of one firm influences the actions of another. There number of sellers in oligopoly is low while the number of buyers is high.
•             Social regulation refers to a government control mechanism that is imposed to address needs of a people (McConnell, 2006). The social needs entail issues such as product protection and workers’ environment safety. An example of these regulations is the Consumer product protection body, established to ensure safety standards are observed in production of goods. Social regulations came into place for a number of reasons such as to capitalize on social wellbeing. This is enhanced through remediation of the various market failures (McConnell, 2006). The other reasons social regulations exist is to promote socioeconomic benefits such as fairness and income distribution. Social regulations affect entities such as employers who operate how employees work. Regulatory commissions such as employee safety organizations monitor employers. Social regulation covers large areas considering the fact that the government employs most of the regulations. The laws employed by the government or State affect all businesses. The laws may include paying of taxes and imposing several restrictions that prohibit harmful organizational behaviors (McConnell, 2006).
•             Natural monopolies are firms that singly produce output to supply the current market at lower costs. A good example of these monopolies is firms that provide electricity and water. Basic utilities form this form of monopolies. They are formed when a significant extent of economies of scale is to be exploited to generate a substantial quantity of output (McConnell, 2006).
•             Natural monopolies are linked to firms with large ratios of fixed to variable overheads. For instance, the non-variable costs of a multinational firm for a given product may be large but, variable costs of producing an extra unit of output minimal. The average costs will, as a result, establishes a downward trend with every production of an additional unit of output (McConnell, 2006). This would be the case for a large company such as the electricity industry.
•             In the United States, the Anti-trust laws restrict the formation of monopolies (Laudati, 2001). They ensure a healthy market environment is created. They include the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), which restricts competitive trade in business transactions (Laudati, 2001). There is also the Clayton Act of 1924. The four sections outlawed in this law are price discrimination when it reduces competition, the prohibition of tying contracts, prohibition of acquiring stocks that would create less competition and prohibits “interlocking directors” or when a board member is also is on the board of a competing firm (McConnell, 2006). The third antitrust law is the Celler-Kefauver Act (1950) which prohibits a firm from acquiring the assets of another so as to counteract competition (Laudati, 2001). Last is the Federal Trade Commission that implements the terms of each antitrust law with a five member team which has responsibility with the Justice Department for enforcement of the laws.
•             Regulatory bodies shield consumers from forces of market power by stabilizing prices and terms of service. The Federal Energy regulatory Commission (1930) has jurisdiction over electricity, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, and water power sites (McConnell, 2006).   The Federal Communication Commission (1934) has jurisdiction of over telephones, cable television, radio, CB radio and ham radio operators (McConnell, 2006). Finally, the individual state public utility commissions regulate the intrastate activities and utility rates locally. All of these regulatory bodies are concerned with the consumer’s safety from the producers.
•             There are regulatory commissions, which deal with social regulations. They include the Food and Drug Administration which controls the safety and helpfulness of food, drugs and cosmetics (McConnell, 2006). There is also the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who regulates hiring, promotion and discharge of workers (McConnell, 2006).   In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration manage industrial health and safety (McConnell, 2006).   The Environmental Protection Agency has jurisdiction over air, water, and noise pollution (McConnell, 2006). Finally, the Consumer product safety commission manages and has jurisdiction over safety of consumer products.   These 5 represent the main federal regulatory commissions that provide social regulations by addressing the consumers need in areas where monopolies may arise.
• • References
• Giuliano A., Laudati L.L. (2001). The anticompetitive impact of regulation. United Kingdom:       Edward Elgar publishing
• McConnell C.R., Brue S.L. (2006). Economics: principles, problem, and policies. Boston:             McGraw-hill Irwin publishers