Why do governments enact price controls? How do they determine what the appropriate prices are? And what happens when a good or service is priced either too low or too high? In economics, price controls are regulations set by governments to ensure goods and services are appropriately priced. When the pricing is mis-optimized, it causes misallocation of resources. The real losses come from the misallocation of scarce resources and a reduction in the total wealth of society. In this article, you’ll learn when the government intervenes in the pricing of goods and services and the implications of these interventions.
Price Control in Economics: The Pros and Cons
