The tyranny of the market : why you can't always get what you want / Joel Waldfogel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waldfogel, Joel, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consumers' preferences.

Majorities.

Supply and demand.

Social choice.

Free enterprise.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Economists have long counseled reliance on markets rather than on government to decide a wide range of questions, in part because allocation through voting can give rise to a "tyranny of the majority." Markets, by contrast, are believed to make products available to suit any individual, regardless of what others want. But the argument is not generally correct. In markets, you can't always get what you want. This book explores why this is so and its consequences for consumers with atypical preferences.

Contents:

Theory

Markets and the tyranny of the majority

Are "lumpy" markets a problem?

Empirical evidence

Who benefits whom in practice

Who benefits whom in the neighborhood

Preference minorities as citizens and consumers

Market solutions and their limits

Market enlargement and consumer liberation

Fixed costs, product quality, and market size

Trade and the tyranny of alien majorities

Salvation through new technologies

Policy solutions and their limits

Government subsidies and insufficient demand

Books and liquor: two case studies.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-193) and index.

ISBN:

9780674044791

0674044797

OCLC:

646814869