The Allocative Cost of Price Ceilings in the US Residential Market for Natural Gas

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Davis, Lucas W.; Kilian, Lutz
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/660124
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 212-241
• 关键词: econometric-analysis; rent dissipation; Shortage; industry; IMPACT

摘要

A direct consequence of restricting the price of a good for which secondary markets do not exist is that, in the presence of excess demand, the good will not be allocated to the buyers who value it the most. We demonstrate the empirical importance of this allocative cost for the U. S. residential market for natural gas, which was subject to price ceilings during 1954-89. Using a household-level, discrete-continuous model of natural gas demand, we estimate that the allocative cost in this market averaged $3.6 billion annually, nearly tripling previous estimates of the net welfare loss to U.S. consumers.