English

Noun

monopsony ‎(plural monopsonies)

1. A market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product; such a buyer.
   • 1933, Joan Robinson, The Economics of Imperfect Competition, page 219:

     This may be described as the comparison between competitive and monopsony buying, just as the corresponding comparison for selling was called the comparison between competitive and monopoly output.

2. A buyer with disproportionate power.
   • 2014 March 15, “Turn it off”, in The Economist, volume 410, number 8878:

     If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets, […]. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry.

Translations

Antonyms

• monopoly

See also

• monopsonist, monopsonistic, monopsonistically