Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Oligopsony
/ˌɒlɪˈɡɒpsəni/noun
A market in which a few buyers face many sellers and can hold the price down between them.
The Greek roots
ὀλίγος
olígos
few, little
ὀψωνία
opsōnía
buying of provisions
Literally: “buying by a few”
The story of the word
The buyer's mirror of oligopoly. Tobacco leaf, cocoa and milk have all been traded this way, with a handful of processors deciding what the farmers get and no realistic second customer to walk to. The word rides on ὀψωνία, provisioning, the piece Joan Robinson introduced to economics with monopsony in 1933.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 20th century
Same family
monopsonyoligopolyoligarchy
In a sentence
Three buyers take the entire cocoa crop, which is oligopsony however the contracts are worded.
Growers describe the market as an oligopsony and price their labour accordingly.