Monopoly Rent
Some returns are associated with legally enforced monopolies like patents or copyrights. In addition, companies like Microsoft and Intel have important de facto monopolies that can be quite valuable. The American Medical Association has traditionally regulated the number of students each US medical school can graduate, and by restricting the supply of doctors has been accused of thus increasing the income of doctors. Some businesses like public utilities are by their very nature monopolies. George Stigler estimated the impact of monopoly rent on the US economy to be fairly low, but he specially excluded labor monopolies from his studies.
Read more about this topic: Economic Rent
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