How does an imperfect market affect the interest of an average consumer

 A market where information is not quickly disclosed to all participants in it and where the matching of buyers and sellers isn't immediate. Generally speaking, it is any market that does not adhere rigidly to perfect information flow and provide instantly available buyers and sellers.

 Imperfect market structure is where the firms that operate in a market have a lot of control over the good or service they produce. This will happen when the numbers of firms that produce that good or supply a certain services are very few in the market. Imperfect competition market structure is the most common type of market structure in the market.   We can illustrate imperfect competition by an example in the energy sector. If there is only one gas station in your geographical area and you cannot

afford to go and buy fuel from the neighboring gas station because of its distance and costs. Then your local gas station will price its commodity above the prevailing market prices because there is no competition from other firm. The consumers do not have any choice but to purchase from this station at the inflated prices. The gas station has therefore created an imperfect market.

 The characteristic of imperfect market structure is that they reduce the economic surplus to varying degrees. Economic surplus is the extra revenue you acquire from selling a commodity at a higher price more than what you were willing to sell in the market. There are five major sources of market power in the imperfect market competition. There are

 •                    Exclusive control of the factors of production

•                    Having the patent right or copy rights in the production of a good or service

•                    Government regulation

•                    Firms network in a market to create economies of scales.

•                    Natural monopolies

As a result the average consumer will be faced problem to achieve their desired interested product.