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Social Sciences and History / Unit 13   SSH 1217 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Price Ceilings Make Shortages

Captions available

The idea

A price ceiling is a legal maximum price. Set below the equilibrium, it keeps price from rising, so quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied: excess demand, a shortage. Above equilibrium it binds nothing. Price controls are government laws regulating prices instead of letting markets set them.

In practice

Rent control: more renters than apartments.

Where people slip

Unintended consequences often follow, the anchor says.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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