均衡价格理论的应用

3.3 均衡价格理论的应用

微观经济学的核心是要论证通过价格机制能够对社会经济自发地做出合理的调节，事实上价格机制的调节作用并不像理论上所讲的那样完善，比如某些生活必须品严重短缺时，价格会大幅度提高，在此价格水平上，收入水平低的家庭便难以维持最低水平的生活，从而不利于社会稳定。因而政府有必要通过制定价格政策来克服这些副作用。政府常用的价格政策主要有限制价格和支持价格政策。

一、限制价格

Maximum price A price ceiling set by the government or some other agency. The price is not allowed to rise above this level (although it is allowed to fall below it).

Rationing Where the government restricts the amount of a good that people are allowed to buy.

The government may set maximum prices to prevent them from rising above a certain level. This will normally be done for reasons of fairness. In wartime, or times of famine, the government may set maximum prices for basic goods so that poor people can afford to buy them.

The resulting shortages, however, create further problems. If the government merely sets prices and does not intervene further, the shortages will lead to the following:

●Allocation on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.

●Firms deciding which customers should be allowed to buy: for example,

giving preference to regular customers.

Neither of the above may be considered fair. Certain needy people may be forced to go without. Therefore, the government may adopt a system of rationing. People could be issued with a set number of coupons for each item rationed.

A major problem with maximum prices is likely to be the emergence of black markets, where customers, unable to buy enough in legal markets, may well be prepared to pay very high prices.

Another problem is that the maximum prices reduce the quantity produced of

an already scarce commodity.

To minimize these types of problem the government may attempt to reduce the shortage by encouraging supply: by drawing on stores, by direct government production, or by giving subsidies or tax relief to firms. Alternatively, it may attempt to reduce demand: by the production of more alternative goods or by controlling people’s incomes.

Minimum price A price floor set by the government or some other agency. The price is not allowed to fall below this level (although it is allowed to rise above it).

Black markets Where people ignore the government’s price and/or quantity controls and sell illegally at whatever price equates illegal demand and supply. The government sets minimum prices to prevent them from falling below a certain level. It may do this for various reasons:

●To protect producer s’ incomes.

●To create a surplus, e.g. grains. Particular in periods of glut, which can be

stored in preparation for possible future shortages.

●In the case of wages (the price of labor), minimum wage legislations can

be used to prevent workers’ wage rates from falling below a certain level. The government can use various methods to deal with the surpluses associated with minimum prices.

●The government could buy the surplus and store it, destroy it or sell it

abroad in another markets.

●Supply could be artificially lowered by restricting producers to particular

quotas.

●Demand could be raised by advertising, by finding alternative uses for the

goods, or by reducing consumption of substitute goods (e.g. by imposing taxes or quotas on substitutes, such as imports).

One of the problems with minimum prices is that firms with surpluses on their hands may try to evade the price control and cut their prices.

Another problem is that high prices may cushion inefficiency. Firms may feel less need to find more efficient methods of production and to cut their costs if