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Price Controls and Consumer Surplus

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  • Bulow, Jeremy I.
  • Klemperer, Paul

Abstract

The condition for when a price control increases consumer welfare in perfect competition is tighter than often realised. When demand is linear, a small restriction on price only increases consumer surplus if the elasticity of demand exceeds the elasticity of supply; with log-linear or constant-elasticity, demand consumers are always hurt by price controls. The results are best understood - and can be related to monopoly-theory results - using the fact that consumer surplus equals the area between the demand curve and the industry marginal-revenue curve.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 7412.

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Date of creation: Aug 2009
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7412

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Related research

Keywords: Allocative Efficiency; Consumer Welfare; marginal revenue; Microeconomic Theory; Minimum Wage; rationing; rent control;

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References

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  1. Filip Palda, 2001. "Some Deadweight Losses from the Minimum Wage: The Cases of Full and Partial Compliance," Labor and Demography 0112001, EconWPA.
  2. R. Quentin Grafton & Michael B. Ward, 2008. "Prices versus Rationing: Marshallian Surplus and Mandatory Water Restrictions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 84(s1), pages S57-S65, 09.
  3. Bagnoli, M. & Bergstrom, T., 1989. "Log-Concave Probability And Its Applications," Papers 89-23, Michigan - Center for Research on Economic & Social Theory.
  4. Lucas W. Davis & Lutz Kilian, 2011. "The Allocative Cost of Price Ceilings in the U.S. Residential Market for Natural Gas," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(2), pages 212 - 241.
  5. Luttmer, Erzo F.P., 2007. "Does the Minimum Wage Cause Inefficient Rationing?," IZA Discussion Papers 2713, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. An, Mark Yuying, 1998. "Logconcavity versus Logconvexity: A Complete Characterization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 350-369, June.
  7. Edward L. Glaeser & Erzo F. P. Luttmer, 1997. "The Misallocation of Housing Under Rent Control," NBER Working Papers 6220, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. W. Kip Viscusi & Joseph E. Harrington & John M. Vernon, 2005. "Economics of Regulation and Antitrust, 4th Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 4, volume 1, number 026222075x, November.
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Cited by:
  1. Simon Cowan, 2012. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination and Consumer Surplus," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 333-345, 06.

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