Price controls have been in the news lately. This reminded me of a chapter in the second edition of the book The Economics of Macro Issues by Roger LeRoy Miller & Daniel K. Benjamin.
They had a chapter titled "The Futility of Price Controls." They gave some examples from history, including ancient Rome.
With government mandating low prices "the people brought provisions no more to market." Incentives matter. Sometimes policies have unwanted and unintended consequences.
See also An English translation of the Edict on Maximum Prices, also known as the Price Edict of Diocletian. (Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium) by Antony Kropff, an Archaeology Professor at Leiden University.
Hat tip: Mark Koyama.
Excerpt:
"Issued between November 20 and December 10 of the year 301 AD, the price edict gives maximum prices for more than 1.200 products, raw materials, labour and services, transport, animals and even slaves. Prices ranged from 1 denarius communis for fresh green animal fodder to 150.000 denarii for a male lion or for purple dyed silk. The price edict and the monetary edict issued some months before were an attempt to check inflation.
The edict came to us through (fragments of) inscriptions on stone slabs (fig. 1) found at a number of sites, all but one in the eastern part of the Empire where Diocletianus resided."
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