TAILIEUCHUNG - Ebook Microeconomics (6E): Part 2
(BQ) Part 2 book "Microeconomics" has contents: General equilibrium and economic welfare, monopoly, pricing and advertising, oligopoly and monopolistic competition, game theory, factor markets, interest rates, investments, and capital markets, uncertainty, externalities, open access, and public goods, asymmetric information, contracts and moral hazards. | 1 0 CHALLENGE Anti-Price Gouging Laws 316 General Equilibrium and Economic Welfare Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. —John Maynard Keynes After a disaster strikes, prices tend to rise. For example, . gasoline prices increased by an average of 46¢ per gallon after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 damaged most Gulf Coast oil refineries. Many state governments enforce anti-price gouging laws to prevent prices from rising, while prices may be free to adjust in neighboring states. For example, Louisiana’s anti-price gouging law went into effect when Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency in response to the 2010 BP oil spill that endangered Louisana’s coast. Arkansas, California, Maine, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, and West Virginia set a “percentage increase cap limit” on how much price may be increased after a disaster, ranging from 10% to 25% of the preemergency price. California passed its law in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake. Sixteen states prohibit “unconscionable” price increases. After Hurricane Katrina disrupted gasoline deliveries, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney established a hotline for consumers to report evidence of price gouging. Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Utah have outright bans on price increases during an emergency. Georgia enacted its anti-price gouging statute after a 500-year flood in 1994. However, the Georgia state senate passed a bill in 2010 to remove its anti-price gouging legislation and allow gasoline prices to rise after an emergency. Other states do not have such laws. Governments pass anti-price gouging laws because they’re popular. After the post-Katrina gas price increases, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that only 16% of respondents thought that the price increase was “justified,” thought that “oil companies and gas dealers are taking unfair advantage,” .
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