Start learning →

AP Microeconomics Monopoly — practice questions

Explore 20 free Monopoly questions in AP Microeconomics Economics. Open each question or exercise to read its content, reference answers and available explanation.

Practise Monopoly with Quill →

Monopoly questions and exercises with answers

Showing questions 1–20 of 20.

The forces that discourage or prevent potential competitors from entering a market are called:Read the answer and worked solution →Barriers to entry may be legal, technological or:Read the answer and worked solution →A monopoly created because laws prohibit or severely limit competition is a:Read the answer and worked solution →A monopoly where the barrier to entry is something other than legal prohibition is a:Read the answer and worked solution →An identifying symbol or name for a particular good is a:Read the answer and worked solution →A patent gives the inventor the exclusive legal right to make, use or sell the invention for:Read the answer and worked solution →Copyright protection ordinarily lasts for the life of the author plus:Read the answer and worked solution →A natural monopoly can arise when economies of scale combine with:Read the answer and worked solution →Another type of natural monopoly occurs when a company has control of a:Read the answer and worked solution →Businesses that develop schemes to deter potential competitors are engaged in:Read the answer and worked solution →The body of law protecting confidential business information is known as:Read the answer and worked solution →The wave of deregulation that began in the late 1970s continued into the:Read the answer and worked solution →A monopolist in the real world often lacks enough information to analyse its entire:Read the answer and worked solution →The United States South's near monopoly in the mid-nineteenth century was in supplying which good to Great Britain?Read the answer and worked solution →Comparing patents and trade secrets, a patent differs because it:Read the answer and worked solution →Legal or natural monopoly?Read the answer and worked solution →Match each protection to what it coversRead the answer and worked solution →True or false: monopolyRead the answer and worked solution →Key in the monopoly figuresRead the answer and worked solution →Complete the monopoly rulesRead the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

The forces that discourage or prevent potential competitors from entering a market are called:

  1. Barriers to entry
  2. Economies of scale
  3. Marginal revenues
  4. Consumer surpluses
Show answer and solution

Correct answer: A. Barriers to entry

1. A monopoly can only persist if rivals cannot arrive to compete it away. 2. Barriers to entry are the legal, technological, or market forces that discourage or prevent potential competitors from entering a market. 3. They are what allow a single firm to keep a market to itself. 4. Economies of scale are one possible source of such a barrier rather than the general term. _Source: OpenStax Principles of Microeconomics for AP(R) Courses 2e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 9 'Monopoly', sections 9.1-9.2_

Open this question →

Barriers to entry may be legal, technological or:

  1. Wholly seasonal
  2. Market forces
  3. Purely random
  4. Entirely social
Show answer and solution

Correct answer: B. Market forces

1. The definition names three distinct kinds of obstacle. 2. Barriers to entry are the legal, technological, or market forces that discourage or prevent potential competitors from entering a market. 3. A legal barrier might be a patent and a technological one a costly process. 4. A market force might be the sheer scale a newcomer would have to reach. _Source: OpenStax Principles of Microeconomics for AP(R) Courses 2e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 9 'Monopoly', sections 9.1-9.2_

Open this question →

A monopoly created because laws prohibit or severely limit competition is a:

  1. Local monopoly
  2. Partial monopoly
  3. Legal monopoly
  4. Natural monopoly
Show answer and solution

Correct answer: C. Legal monopoly

1. Monopolies are sorted by what keeps rivals out. 2. One kind is natural monopoly, where the barriers to entry are something other than legal prohibition. 3. The other is legal monopoly, where laws prohibit or severely limit competition. 4. So the source of the barrier is what distinguishes the two. _Source: OpenStax Principles of Microeconomics for AP(R) Courses 2e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 9 'Monopoly', sections 9.1-9.2_

Open this question →

How to practise

  1. Choose a Monopoly question and try to work out your answer.
  2. Open the question to check the correct answer and read its worked solution.
  3. Continue in the app for bite-sized lessons, explanations and review with Quill. You can start without creating an account.

More Economics topics

Consumer ChoicesNegative ExternalitiesLabor Markets and IncomeMonopolistic Competition and OligopolyPositive Externalities and Public GoodsProduction, Costs and Industry StructureChoice in a World of ScarcityElasticity