Economics Workshop

 Better Regulation Executive

Sandeep Kapur

2006

s.kapur@bbk.ac.uk

WORKSHOP AIMS

To provide rigorous but non-mathematical training in economics, enabling BRE staff to• develop a simple but reliable toolkit for economic

analysis• practise its application using concrete regulatory

problems• explore the application of simple economic theory

to their own work

Objectives: Day 1

To understand • how markets work, and their efficiency• why markets sometimes fail to be efficient and how

various regulatory instruments can improve efficiency• how regulation can improve on other aspects of market

outcomes, such as inequity• how, in practice, regulatory interventions carry the risk

of government failure

Objectives: Day 2

To • review the standard rationale for regulation• the basics of regulatory impact assessment• understand how good regulatory design can cope

with risk and uncertainty, informational imperfections, and minimise distortion of incentives

• rationale for and implementation of RPI-X regulation• the link between regulation and productivity growth

Introduction to EconomicsSome Concepts and Tools

Markets vs. Command

The central questions: given existing resources• what goods and service to produce?• how to produce? • for whom?

Alternative mechanisms• COMMAND ECONOMY

direct control, as in Soviet economy, or firms’ internal decisions

• FREE MARKET ECONOMYoutcome determined by private transactions in markets, based on prices, incomes, wealth

Degree of government intervention differs..

Hong Kong- China - Denmark - UK - USA -Cuba

Most countries have mixed economies with both• markets, which are regulated to different extent• public production and provision

Scale of government

1880 1930 1960 2004

Japan 11 19 18 37

USA 8 10 28 36

UK 10 24 32 43

Germany 10 31 32 47

France 15 19 35 53

Sweden 6 8 31 57

Spending as share of national income (%)

The policy question

Markets are generally considered to be efficientIf so, why not leave things to the market?

Governments care about both equity and efficiency

• Free markets rarely deliver equitable outcomes, so some redistributive intervention is unavoidable

• Free markets do not always lead to efficient outcomes, so some interventions are motivated by efficiency considerations

To understand this, we must look at how markets work

How Markets WorkDemand, Supply, and Price Adjustment

Market

• MARKET any arrangement in which prices adjust to reconcile buyers and sellers intentions

• DEMANDquantity buyers wish to buy at each price

• SUPPLYquantity producers wish to sell at each price

• EQUILIBRIUM PRICEthe price at which market clears(i.e. quantity demanded = quantity supplied)

Price Adjustment

Demand curve

quantity

price

EquilibriumQuantity

EquilibriumPrice

PRICE ADJUSTMENT

Equilibrium price clears market

Supply curve

Price Controls

Price

Quantity

Demand curve

Supply curve

Equilibrium price

excesssupply

Suppose government sets minimum price above market clearing price

Controlled price

Examples include• Minimum wages• Rent control• Common Agricultural Policy

What does price controls do?

Price controls interfere with the adjustment process• minimum wages are good for equity: they boost the

income of some low-skill workers• But such interventions may not be good for efficiency: if

employers are unwilling to hire as many at regulated minimum wage, some potential workers are deprived of the chance to work

Economic Efficiency

An intervention is said to improve efficiency if it makes someone better off and nobody worse off

Economic efficiency: an outcome where no one can be made better off without hurting someone else

The key question: do free, unregulated markets always lead to efficient outcomes?

Markets and Choice

In markets

• consumers buy up to the point the marginal benefit equals price

• competitive firms sell as long as price covers ‘marginal cost’ of production (this is the opportunity cost of producing another unit of the good)

The Efficiency of Markets

Thus, in competitive markets

• prices align marginal benefit with marginal cost • all possible gainful exchanges are carried out• PUNCH LINE: Free, unregulated markets lead to

efficient outcomesThis is the so-called Invisible Hand Theorem

But free markets are not always efficient..

Market failure: a circumstance in which free markets fails to achieve an efficient outcome

Many interventions are designed to correct market failures, and thus to increase efficiency

In sum: why intervene?

‘Economic regulation’ • Aims to correct market failures, and make the

market outcome more efficient

(when the ‘invisible hand’ does not work, the government can provide a helping hand)

‘Social regulation’• To prevent undesirable social outcomes inherent

in market outcomes

Group Work: Efficiency and Equity

Government intervention in the economy is pervasive. For each intervention listed below identify the possible rationale. Is it primarily

a. efficiency considerations?b. equity consideration?c. something else?

1. Income tax2. Taxation of petrol3. Regulating gas prices

…Group Work

4. Regulating discharge of sewage in the Thames 5. Legislation against insider trading 6. Banning the use of cocaine 7. Making primary school compulsory 8. Regulating financial advisors9. Regulating length of the working week10. Compelling citizens to carry identity cards11. Minimum wage legislation12. Regulating taxi fares

Market Failures  Why intervene?

How to intervene?

Sources of Market Failure

• Externalities

• Public goods

• Imperfect competition

• Imperfect information

• Coordination problems

We will look at each of these in turn

MARKET FAILURE: Externalities

EXTERNALITY

• A circumstance in which an individual's choices affects others' utility or productivity

• the effect is direct (not through market or prices)

Examples

• Adverse externalities: smoking, pollution

Since costs are partly borne by others, self-interested decision-making might lead to excess

• Beneficial externalities: bees and orchards, personal hygiene

Since benefits partly accrue to others, self-interested choices lead to sub-optimal quantities

Adverse Production Externality

For social optimum, we wantmarginal social cost = marginal social benefitAt free market equilibrium E, output Q is higher than social

optimum Q*

Quantity

Demand

MPC

MSC

E

FG

QQ*

Why Externalities Matter

THE ESSENTIAL PROBLEM• Market mechanism aligns private costs and benefits • Externalities imply divergence between social and

private costs (or social and private benefit)• If divergences exist, should not expect socially efficient

allocations

Correcting externalities

1. Quantitative regulation or direct government action: e.g. pollution quota

2. [Pigou] Taxes or subsidies to correct prices e.g. pollution tax

3. [Coase] Create markets: assign property rights and enable trade in pseudo-marketse.g. carbon trading

Coasean Solution

• Assign property rights and let people trade these rights in specially-created market

• Initial assignment of rights affects distribution but get an efficient outcome regardless

• This solution does not work if there are high transactions costs Quantity

MC (for you)

QQ*

MB (to me)

Efficient quantity is Q*

MARKET FAILURE: Public Goods

Examples: defence, broadcast TV signal

Characteristics• Non-rival consumption: my consumption does not

diminish what is available for you• Non-excludability: impossible or too costly to prevent

people from consuming it

Public goods: the problem and solutions

• If you cannot exclude, people will ‘free ride’. But if no one pays, there is nothing to free-ride on (this is the paradox of free riding)

• In fact, exclusion is not efficient either In general, markets cannot provide public goods

SOLUTIONS

• public provision• compulsion Government needs to ensure right quantity, but need

not produce itself

MARKET FAILURE: Imperfect competition

The essential problem of monopoly• Firms with market power can charge prices that exceed

marginal cost • which restrains consumption below efficient level• other problems: resources wasted in securing monopoly

power (‘rent-seeking’), and in maintaining it

Solutions to monopoly problem

Solution 1. Nationalize and finance losses through taxes politically not very feasible

Solution 2. Break monopoly e.g. anti-trust legislation in US

However, no good for ‘natural monopolies’Industries with severe economies of scale, so having one producer avoids duplication of costs

And in some sectors monopoly is good for R&D, or for internal coordination

More solutions to the monopoly problem

Solution 3. Regulate Prevent abuse of monopoly power through price and non-price controlsPractical issues: when is regulation necessary? What form? How frequently?

Solution 4. Nurture competition Encourage new entrants, (but will they enter and will it only lead to cream skimming?)

Important to get the right mix of remedies

MARKET FAILURE: Imperfect information

Information in markets is imperfect. Often there is asymmetry of information between buyer and seller leading to problems of

• ‘adverse selection’: people who know themselves to be risk-prone are more likely to buy insurance

• ‘moral hazard’: once you have insurance, incentive to be careful is weakened

• these distortions may result in ‘incomplete markets’ or even ‘missing markets’: e.g. low-risk people may not find appropriate insurance

SOLUTIONS: Imperfect information

1. mitigate informational problems• mandating provision of information

(regulate financial advisors)• providing information directly

(publish league tables)

2. reduce the possibility of opportunistic behaviour • consumer protection

3. government provision of the good or service

Inefficiency due to strategic interaction

No nukes Nukes

No nukes 8, 8 1, 12

Nukes 12, 1 2, 2

SOLUTION: coordinate individual choices through agreements or regulation

Country 1

Country 2

Individual choices do not always result in the best collective outcomes

Regulating technological standards

Problem: uncertainty about new technological standards may slow down adoption

• VHS vs Betamax• Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD

Should regulation aim to guide technological choices?

• GSM in mobile telephony

Lessons for Policy Makers

• Market failures makes a potential case for corrective intervention

• However, we must beware of the possibility of government failure. If so, the net effect may be to replace market failure with government failure

Well-intentioned regulation may• end up being ineffective• have perverse, unintended consequences• persist beyond its purpose• be vulnerable to regulatory creep, with high cumulative

burden

The scope for successful regulatory intervention is limited by • informational constraints• agency problems• lack of correction

Group Work: Pollution control

As the National Rivers Regulator, you must tackle the problem of a chemical firm that is polluting the Thames

a. If everything could be quantified and valued, show in a diagram how a pollution tax can induce the firm to behave in a socially efficient manner.

Group Work: Pollution control

b. Instead of the tax you offer the firm a pollution quota (specifying the maximum pollution it can discharge in any year). Show the size of the quota in the diagram. What difference does it make to the efficient quantity of pollution?

Group Work: Pollution control

c. Now suppose information is harder to come by. As the regulator, you are not entirely certain about the firm's cost curve. Does this affect your choice between tax and quotas?

Group Work: Pollution control

d. Lastly, suppose there are two chemical firms discharging into the river, one cleaner than the other. Is it better to • set a pollution tax? (same rate per unit polluted for

both?) • auction pollution quotas?