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Understanding Price Controls and Nonprice Competition with Matching Theory

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  • John William Hatfield
  • Charles R. Plott
  • Tomomi Tanaka

Abstract

We develop a quality competition model to understand how price controls affect market outcomes in buyer-seller markets with discrete goods of varying quality. While competitive equilibria do not necessarily exist in such markets when price controls are imposed, we show that stable outcomes do exist and characterize the set of stable outcomes in the presence of price restrictions. In particular, we show that price controls induce non-price competition: price floors induce the trade of inefficiently high quality goods, while price ceilings induce the trade of inefficiently low quality goods.

Suggested Citation

  • John William Hatfield & Charles R. Plott & Tomomi Tanaka, 2012. "Understanding Price Controls and Nonprice Competition with Matching Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 371-375, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:102:y:2012:i:3:p:371-75
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. John William Hatfield & Scott Duke Kominers & Alexandru Nichifor & Michael Ostrovsky & Alexander Westkamp, 2013. "Stability and Competitive Equilibrium in Trading Networks," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(5), pages 966-1005.
    2. Douglas, George W & Miller, James C, III, 1974. "Quality Competition, Industry Equilibrium, and Efficiency in the Price-Constrained Airline Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(4), pages 657-669, September.
    3. Klaus, Bettina & Walzl, Markus, 2009. "Stable many-to-many matchings with contracts," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(7-8), pages 422-434, July.
    4. Paul L. Joskow, 1980. "The Effects of Competition and Regulation on Hospital Bed Supply and the Reservation Quality of the Hospital," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(2), pages 421-447, Autumn.
    5. Kelso, Alexander S, Jr & Crawford, Vincent P, 1982. "Job Matching, Coalition Formation, and Gross Substitutes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1483-1504, November.
    6. Hashimoto, Masanori, 1982. "Minimum Wage Effects on Training on the Job," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 1070-1087, December.
    7. Michael Ostrovsky, 2008. "Stability in Supply Chain Networks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 897-923, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Plott, Charles & Roll, Richard & Seo, Han & Zhao, Hao, 2019. "Tick size, price grids and market performance: Stable matches as a model of market dynamics and equilibrium," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 7-28.
    2. Lata Gangadharan & Charles N. Noussair & Marie-Claire Villeval, 2019. "Introduction to the special issue in honor of Professor Charles R. Plott," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(3), pages 577-584, September.
    3. Just, Natascha, 2018. "Governing online platforms: Competition policy in times of platformization," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 386-394.
    4. Gerard van der Laan & Zaifu Yang, 2016. "An ascending multi-item auction with financially constrained bidders," The Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design, Society for the Promotion of Mechanism and Institution Design, University of York, vol. 1(1), pages 109-149, December.
    5. He, Simin & Wu, Jiabin & Zhang, Hanzhe, 2021. "Experimental and Noncooperative Analyses of Decentralized Matching with Transfers," Working Papers 2021-2, Michigan State University, Department of Economics.
    6. Dürr, Niklas S. & Engelstätter, Benjamin & Ward, Michael R., 2018. "Strategic microscheduling of movies," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-033, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, revised 2018.
    7. Tamás Fleiner & Ravi Jagadeesan & Zsuzsanna Jankó & Alexander Teytelboym, 2019. "Trading Networks With Frictions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(5), pages 1633-1661, September.
    8. Herings, P. Jean-Jacques, 2018. "Equilibrium and matching under price controls," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 222-244.
    9. Herings, P. Jean-Jacques, 2020. "Expectational Equilibria in Many-to-one Matching Models with Contracts - A Reformulation of Competitive Equilibrium," Research Memorandum 018, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    10. Grace Finley & Charles Holt & Emily Snow, 2019. "The welfare costs of price controls and rent seeking in a class experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(3), pages 753-771, September.

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