Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Government Intervention
- Indirect Tax
- Why?
- 1. government revenue
- 1. increase
government revenue
- 2. decrease the usage
of a product
- 3. indirectly collect taxes from
the rich to strengthen the middle
class
- Market Outcome
- equilibrium quantity produced and
consumed falls from Q* to Qt
- equilibrium price increases from
P* to Pc, which is the price paid by
consumers
- consumer expenditure on the
good is given by the price of the
good per unit times the quantity
of units bought; it therefore
changes from P* × Q* to Pc × Qt
- price received by the firm falls
from P* to Pp, which is Pp = Pc −
tax per unit
- the firm’s revenue falls from P* × Q* to Pp × Qt
- the government receives tax revenue,
given by (Pc − Pp) × Qt, or the amount of
tax per unit times the number of units
sold; this is the shaded area
- there is an underallocation of resources to the
production of the good: Qt is less than the free
market quantity, Q*.
- Effects on Stakeholders
- Consumers are worse off (market
price for them rises and there is a
smaller quantitiy available)
- Suppliers are worse off (fall in received
price and quantity they sell)
- Workers are worse off: A lower amount of
output means that fewer workers are
needed to produce it, therefore workers
become unemployed.
- Government is better off (receives tax
revenue)
- Society is worse off (under-allocation
of resources)
- Subsidies
- Why?
- To increase the revenue of a producer
and reduce cost of production
- To make necessities available to low
income consumers
- To promote the produce of merit goods
- to support the growth of particular
industries in an economy
- Subsidies can be used to encourage
exports of particular goods
- Market Outcome
- equilibrium quantity
produced and consumed
increases from Q* to Qsb
- the equilibrium price falls
from P* to Pc; this is the
price paid by consumers
- the price received by producers
increases from P* to Pp
- the amount of the subsidy is given by (Pp − Pc) ×
Qsb this is the entire shaded area, and represents
government spending to provide the subsidy
- there is an overallocation of resources to
the production of the good: Qsb is greater
than the free market quantity, Q*.
- Effects on Stakeholders
- Consumers are better off (the price
they pay reduces and quantity
available to them rises)
- Producers are also better off, because they
receive a higher price and produce a larger
quantity. The price and quantity effects translate
into an increase in revenues.
- Workers are better off: As output expands,
firms are likely to hire more workers to
produce the extra output.
- The government is worse off (has to use its own
budget to pay for the subsidy)
- Society as a whole is worse off because
there is an overallocation of resources to the
production of the good
- Price Controls
- Price Ceiling
- Why?
- to make necessities available to low
income consumers
- Market Outcome
- fall in price causes a drop in
quantity supplied and an
increase in quantity demanded
(law of supply and demand)
- this causes a shortage
(excess demand) which is
a disequilibrium.
- Consequences for Economy
- Shortage: not enough of the good
being supplied, excess demand
- Non-price Rationing:
1. waiting in line and
the
first-come-first-served
2. the distribution of
coupons to all
interested buyers, so
that they can
purchase a fixed
amount of the good in
a given time period 3.
favoritism
- Underground Markets: buying a
good at the maximum legal price,
and then illegally reselling it at a
price above the legal maximum.
- welfare loss (deadweight loss),
or lost social benefits due to the
price ceiling.Welfare loss
represents benefits that are lost
to society because of resource
misallocation.
- Effects on Stakeholders
- Consumers partly gain and partly
lose.Those consumers who are able to
buy the good at the lower price are
better off. However, some consumers
remain unsatisfied as at the ceiling
price there is not enough of the good
to satisfy all demanders.
- Producers are worse off, because with
the price ceiling they sell a smaller
quantity of the good at a lower price;
therefore, their revenues drop
- Workers are worse off because fall
in output results in workers being
fired, unemployment rises
- the government may gain in political
popularity among the consumers who
are better off due to the price ceiling.
- Price Floor
- Why?
- to protect low income
producers such as farmers.
- Agricultural Price Floor
- Market Outcome
- The price floor results in a larger quantity
supplied, Qs, than the quantity supplied at
market equilibrium, Qe. In addition, the price
floor, Pf, leads to a smaller quantity demanded
and purchased than at the equilibrium price:
the quantity consumers want to buy at Pf is
Qd, which is smaller than the quantity Qe that
they bought at price Pe. A price floor does not
allow the market to clear; it results in
disequilibrium where there is a surplus (excess
supply). A common practice is for the
government to buy the excess supply, and this
causes the demand curve for the product to
shift to the right to the new demand curve ‘D
plus government purchases’.
- Consequences for the Economy
- Surplus: not enough demand, excess supply
- Government measures to
dispose of surpluses: storage,
export, send as aid, all
problematic
- Firm inefficiency Higher
than equilibrium product
prices can lead to
inefficient production;
- Overallocation of resources
- creates welfare (deadweight) loss,
indicating that the price floor
introduces allocative inefficiency due
to an overallocation of resources
- Effects on Stakeholders
- Consumers are worse off, as they must
now pay a higher price for the good
while they buy a smaller quantity of it
- Producers gain as they receive a higher
price and produce a larger quantity, and
since the government buys up the
surplus, they increase their revenues
- Workers are likely to gain as
employment increases on account of
greater production of the good.
- government is worse off because it
buys the excess supply, this is a burden
on its budget
- Minimum Wage
- Market Outcome
- The minimum wage, Wm, lies above the
equilibrium wage, We. Therefore, at Wm,
the quantity of labour supplied, Qs, is
larger than the quantity of labour supplied
when the labour market is in equilibrium
(Qe). The quantity of labour demanded,
Qd, is less than the quantity demanded at
equilibrium, Qe. There results a surplus of
labour in the market equal to the
difference between Qs and Qd.
- Consequences for the Economy
- Labour surplus (excess supply)
and unemployment
- Illegal workers at wages below the minimum wage
- Misallocation of labour resources:
industries that rely heavily on
unskilled workers are more likely to
be affected, and will hire less
unskilled labour.
- Misallocation in product markets Firms
relying heavily on unskilled workers
experience an increase in their costs of
production, leading to a leftward shift in their
product supply
- Effects on Stakeholders
- Firms are worse off as they face
higher costs of production due to the
higher labour costs.
- The impacts on workers are mixed.
Some gain, as they receive a higher
wage than previously but some lose as
they lose their job.
- Consumers are negatively affected,
because the increase in labour costs
leads to a decrease in supply of
products causing higher product prices
and lower quantities.