The purpose of a minimum price is to protect producers from receiving low prices for their produce.
Price floors and ceiling prices both cause shortages.
Cause the supply and demand curves to shift until equilibrium is established.
They are usually put in place to protect vulnerable buyers or in industries where there are few suppliers.
Price floors and ceiling prices.
Price ceilings which prevent prices from exceeding a certain maximum cause shortages.
A price floor can cause a surplus while a price ceiling can cause a shortage but not always.
Some effects of price ceiling are.
Interfere with the rationing function of prices.
Producers won t produce as much at the lower price while consumers will demand more because the goods are cheaper.
Taxes and perfectly inelastic demand.
Price ceilings only become a problem when they are set below the market equilibrium price.
A price floor means that.
Taxation and dead weight loss.
An effective price ceiling will a induce new firms to enter the industry.
The graph below illustrates how price floors work.
Price floors prevent a price from falling below a certain level.
But if price ceiling is set below the existing market price the market undergoes problem of shortage.
Price ceilings impose a maximum price on certain goods and services.
When the ceiling is set below the market price there will be excess demand or a supply shortage.
Price and quantity controls.
If price ceiling is set above the existing market price there is no direct effect.
Price ceilings and price floors.
Suppose that the supply and demand for wheat flour are balanced at the current price and that the government then fixes a lower maximum price.
Interfere with the rationing function of prices.
However price ceiling in a long run can cause adverse effect on market and create huge market inefficiencies.
Example breaking down tax incidence.
A good example of this is the oil industry where buyers can be victimized by price manipulation.
Price ceilings prevent a price from rising above a certain level.
Percentage tax on hamburgers.
The effect of government interventions on surplus.
Price floors which prohibit prices below a certain minimum cause surpluses at least for a time.
Price floors and ceiling prices.
Cause the supply and demand curves to shift until equilibrium is established.
When a price ceiling is set below the equilibrium price quantity demanded will exceed quantity supplied and excess demand or shortages will result.
Interfere with the rationing function of prices.