price controls
legal restrictions on how high/low market price may go
price ceiling (definition)
maximum price sellers allowed to charge for good/service
price floor (definition)
mimimum price buyers required to pay for good/service
price ceilings create inefficiency in at lest 4 ways:
(and blackmarkets)
inefficient allocation to consumers (price ceiling)
some people who want the good badly+willing to pay high price don’t get it and some who care relatively little+only willing pay low price get it–> someone is better off andthe other worse
wasted resources (price ceiling)
people spend up money, effort and time to cope with shortages caused by price ceiling–> example: wasted time, thus an opportunity cost
inefficiently low quality (price ceiling)
sellerd offer low-quality goods at low price even though buyers rather have higher quality+willing to pay higher price for it–> because price ceiling makes it impossible for supplier to raise price to improve
black markets
market where goods+services bought/sold illegally–> prices charged are illegal by price ceiling (or illegal completely to sell)
3 common results price ceilings
2 reasons to why price ceiling:
binding
when it affects the market
4 ways how Price floors causes inefficiency:
(and illegal behaviour)
inefficient allocation of sales among sellers
sellers who willing to sell at lowest price unable to mae sales, while sales go to seller only willing sell at higher price
inefficiently high quality
sellers offer high-quality goods at high price, eventhough buyers would prefer lower quality at lower price
quantity control/quota
upper limit on quantity of a good that can be bought/sold (instead of price limits)
–> other way of government to intervene in market
quota–> licenses=
gives owner right to legally supply a good/service
demand price (quantity controls)
the price at which consumers will demand that quality
supply price (quantity controls)
price at which producers will produce that quality
how does the supply of a good that is legally restricted create a wedge?
the difference between the
demand price and the supply price at the quota limit.
quota rent
the earnings that accrue to the license holder of ownership of the right to sell the good–> it is equal to the market price of the licence
if person doesn’t rent out his license and uses it himself–> can’t ask the same higher price as if he did rent it out–> no now has an opportunity cost of the maount he misses by using it himself–> because otherwise he wouldn’t have to work and still would make money
2 undesirable side effects quantity controls:
imports
goods+services purchased from other countries
exports
goods+services sold to other countries
world GDP
total value of goods+services produced in world as a whole