Barriers to entry, as described in your text, are in fact key elements which act to "protect" the existing firms in monopolistic industries from new firms' entering and competing against them.Examples of such barriers can include things like huge start-up costs, or technical barriers relating to the difficulty of producing complicated products, or they can also be legal in nature, such as an industry requiring a government license to operate (such as in broadcasting).But whatever the obstacle, there's no question that these entry barriers serve to reduce competition.The lesser the competition, the higher the price can be in the market.

Should monopoly firms be able to command a relatively high price for their output?