Markets and Government

Chapter Hooks: Consider your experiences with online shopping. Have you ever come across an odd product and thought to yourself, “Who would purchase this?” Use “Weirdest Product on Amazon” as a search term.

• For example,  https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/money/g28649116/weirdest-products-on-amazon/
• Use Willing to Pay, price, and consumer surplus to explain this.

Price Ceilings:

• High Hopes, Low Limits: The Paradox of Price Ceilings in Economic History
• Price-Gouging Laws and Consumer Welfare: An Economic Analysis+

Private Solution: Surge Price vs Public Solution: Price Ceiling

• The Economics of Ride-Sharing and Market Equilibrium in New York City’s Snowstorms

Price Floor:

• Raising the Bar: The Intriguing Economics of Price Floors
• Nobel Economics Prize Rewards Work on Minimum Wage

Issue of Externalities, example of Innovative Solutions:

• Singapore’s Innovative Approach to Traffic Management and Pollution Control

Relevant Economist:

• Amartya Sen: A Life Dedicated to Understanding Poverty and Inequality