Munger on Shortages, Prices, and Competition

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2009

⏱️ 68 minutes

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Summary

Mike Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the limits of prices and markets, especially in the area of health. They talk about vaccines, organ transplants, the ethics of triage and what role price should play in allocating. The discussion concludes with a discussion of how markets respond to price controls, particularly minimum wages.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts
0:13.9	of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org
0:21.2	where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast, and find links to
0:26.5	another information related to today's conversation. Our email address is mailadicontalk.org. We'd
0:33.6	love to hear from you. Today is October 14th and before we get started, I want to cover a few housekeeping
0:43.4	matters. Last week we talked about what might happen to the size of a cup of coffee if a per cup
0:51.6	tax was put on coffee. A number of interesting suggestions have been made at econtalk.org at the
0:59.3	podcast site or the Wellingham podcast where that came up. I've given a few hints, so if you want
1:05.8	to continue that discussion, please go there. Also, remind listeners that we have a thorough archive of
1:11.4	every podcast that's ever been done here. It's available at econtalk.org. If you look at the
1:17.0	live-tanned margin, you'll see it organized by date, category, and guest. If you're interested in
1:22.0	whether we've interviewed someone in the past and you're usually listening to us via iTunes,
1:27.0	where you don't have a complete archive, the complete archive is available at econtalk.org. I also
1:32.9	want to remind listeners that we are on Twitter at econtalker, e-c-o-n-t-a-l-k-e-r. My guest today is
1:41.8	Mike Munger of Duke University. Long time guest. Always happy to have you back, Mike. How are you?
1:50.1	It's my favorite part of every month we get to do this. Well, you are a very popular guest, so as long
1:58.9	as that remains true, I guess I'll have to have you along. It's me catering to the marketplace.
2:03.6	Yeah, absolutely. Without price signals, which is ironic, because that's our topic for today.
2:07.6	Our topic really came from a email I received from a listener, Caleb Kenjolosi, and it builds on
2:16.8	earlier podcast material that we did on gouging. Caleb was curious about the limits to prices and
2:26.0	markets and how far you and I might go, or anyone might go, and advocating the use of prices and
2:31.6	markets for allocating scarce stuff, particularly in the area of healthcare and particularly in the
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