{"title":"Equilibrium responses to price controls: a supply-chain approach","authors":"Casey B. Mulligan","doi":"10.1007/s11127-024-01196-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Prices are regulated in many markets, ranging from healthcare to labor to telecommunications. This paper reinterprets the variables in the basic supply–demand model so that both product-definition and quantity are equilibrium outcomes. Specifically, compliance with price controls is achieved by altering the production-factor mix along the supply chain. This approach yields surprising insights into the incidence of price regulations and their effects on the amount of trade. Furthermore, it reveals how many of the short-run effects of price controls can be opposite of what they are in the long run. The supply-chain framework also easily represents business-to-business price controls, which have been more prevalent in policy practice than price-theoretic analysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":48322,"journal":{"name":"Public Choice","volume":"2022 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Public Choice","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-024-01196-8","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Prices are regulated in many markets, ranging from healthcare to labor to telecommunications. This paper reinterprets the variables in the basic supply–demand model so that both product-definition and quantity are equilibrium outcomes. Specifically, compliance with price controls is achieved by altering the production-factor mix along the supply chain. This approach yields surprising insights into the incidence of price regulations and their effects on the amount of trade. Furthermore, it reveals how many of the short-run effects of price controls can be opposite of what they are in the long run. The supply-chain framework also easily represents business-to-business price controls, which have been more prevalent in policy practice than price-theoretic analysis.
期刊介绍:
Public Choice deals with the intersection between economics and political science. The journal was founded at a time when economists and political scientists became interested in the application of essentially economic methods to problems normally dealt with by political scientists. It has always retained strong traces of economic methodology, but new and fruitful techniques have been developed which are not recognizable by economists. Public Choice therefore remains central in its chosen role of introducing the two groups to each other, and allowing them to explain themselves through the medium of its pages.
Officially cited as: Public Choice