Price Ceilings: Lines and Search Costs

In this video, we explore two more unintended consequences of price ceilings: long lines and search costs. What was it like waiting in long lines for gasoline back in the 1970s? Not fun. But why did this happen? When price ceilings were imposed on gasoline, people could not use prices to signal how much they were willing to pay for gas. Instead, the only way they could show how much (or how little) they wanted of gasoline, was to wait (or not wait) in line. Going to fuel up becomes less about paying in money and more about paying in time. At the end of the day, paying in time is much more wasteful. In this video, we’ll show how to calculate the value of the time wasted in line.

Try our price ceilings interactive practice: https://mru.io/dz2

Microeconomics Course: https://mru.io/s83

Next video: https://mru.io/lm2

Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/GLJ7/

00:00 Price controls do not eliminate competition
01:22 Wasteful lines and other search costs
05:44 How long will the line get?
07:54 Wasted time and other search costs
09:33 Recap

• #education
• #supply
• #demand
• #economics
• #ceiling
• #floor
• #price