Market Intervention

Aborting White Flight (11/1/2000)

An ethnically integrated neighborhood may not come about or persist if it is not reinforced by deliberate intervention.

Keywords: affirmative marketing, fear of integration, invisible hand, neighborhood integration, prisoner's dilemma, property value, white flight

Blocked Exit (3/7/2002)

Inefficient firms in mature industries often are preserved for political reasons long after they should have exited the market.

Keywords: bankruptcy, capacity reduction, Chapter 11, consolidation, exit, glut, import tariffs, market exit, overcapacity, steel industry, steel summit

Byrding for Profit (6/25/2004)

U. S. shrimpers use anti-dumping protection to resist competitive pressure from more efficient Asian shrimp farmers and to gain de facto subsidy.

Keywords: anti-dumping, Asia, Byrd amendment, overproduction, protection, shrimp, subsidy, tariff

Cash for Clunkers - Cash Rebates vs Fuel Tax (8/19/2009)

Cash rebates are an inefficient means to reduce carbon emissions.

Keywords: carbon emissions, cash for clunkers, cash rebates, fuel efficiency, fuel tax, incentive discontinuity

Airlines deregulation has allowed more competitive discounters to grow at the expense of high-cost traditional hub-and-spokes airlines. But instead of exiting the market, the unprofitable traditional airlines hang on for dear life.

Keywords: airfares, airlines, Chapter 11 bankruptcy, deregulation, discounter, leasing GE, market entry, market exit, regulation

Milked to Order (6/22/2006)

Milk price support has discouraged vertical integration in the milk industry that might have led to cheaper milk for and lower tax on milk consumers.

Keywords: Hettinga, market intervention, milk price support, processors vs farmers, vertical integration

Oil Glut (2/4/2014)

Supply gluts do not always result in low prices to consumers if supply and demand conditions are not allowed to freely interact.

Keywords: Brent, gasoline prices, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracking, Jones Act, Louisiana Light Sweet, oil glut, refinery, shipping cost

Rent Ceiling (8/31/2000)

Rent control in Boston, MA has led to most apartments charging rent right up to the price ceiling. The effective rent is actually higher if under-the-table payments are included.

Keywords: apartments, black market, Boston, equilibrium price, price ceiling, rent ceiling, rent control, shortage, under-the-table payment

Sugar Daddy (6/22/2006)

US subsidies to domestic sugar cane and sugar beet growers have resulted in huge collateral damage to domestic industries and overseas producers.

Keywords: candy, import quota, price support, subsidies, sugar, sugar beet, sugar cane

The Dust Bowl - Natural or Man-made Disaster? (12/21/2001)

High transaction costs, whether natural or artificial, could delay the transfer of property rights from lower-value use to higher-value use.

Keywords: consolidation, disaster, diversification, Dust Bowl, farm size, Great Plains states, Homestead Act, livestock, property right, transaction cost

The Logic of Collective Action (12/21/2001)

Narrow special interests are often more politically powerful because they are easier to organize and the benefits of membership exceed the cost of participation.

Keywords: collective action, consumer lobbies, free rider, free-ridership, group membership, import quotas, organization costs, participation, pluralism, producer lobby, special interests, tariffs, trade protection

What Makes Rights? (12/21/2001)

Temporary property rights created out of sympathy or a preference for insiders over outsiders might become politically entrenched.

Keywords: assistance, capitalization, Coke, compensation, delayed adjustment, disaster, factoring, lobby, Pepsi, presumed right, property right, steel, swing states, swing vote, sympathy, trade protection, vested interests