Systembolaget's Monopoly Analysis

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Assumptions of the Monopoly Model Systembolaget operates as a government owned monopoly. The assumptions of this market structure are the following: • Single seller in the market Systembolaget has been Sweden’s only seller of alcohol since 1955, when it was founded and made a government owned alcohol monopoly to control and limit the consumption of alcohol. (“Historien Om Systembolaget”) • They have 40% or more of the market share According to data from 2014, Systembolaget has 79% of the market share of recorded alcohol consumption, however, it has 61% of the market share of total alcohol consumption (Hallberg, Joh, and Esa Österberg) Figure 3 (created using Excel) showing the market share of Systembolaget. • There are no close …show more content…

The myth that Systembolaget is only trying to make a profit can be debunked by the fact that alcohol and its effects create losses for the government. The government does receive large sums through VAT and alcohol tax but the cost to society due to abuse of alcohol is a lot higher. According to 2011’s Missbruksutredningen (Translated: abuse inquiry), alcohol creates a cost to society of 49 to 66 billion Swedish kronor ($6-8 billion). The government isn’t trying to exploit consumers but protect them and society from the effects of alcohol abuse. Price Elasticity of Demand for Alcohol Price elasticity of demand measures the responsiveness of quantity demanded of a good to a change in price. It gives the indication whether a good is elastic (large change in Qd) or inelastic (small change in Qd). Alcohol is a habit forming good, meaning that consumption patterns will almost remain constant with a change in price. As shown in figure 6, increasing the price due to a tax from Pe to Pc will only result in a small decrease in quantity demanded (Q to Q1) due the inelastic nature of alcohol. Because of this, an increase in taxation of alcoholic beverages will not reduce consumption patterns of this good by a large amount and thus the imposition of tax on alcoholic beverages will benefit the government by increasing government

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