Corak Economics For Everyone Lecture 7 Public Policy in Competitive Markets
Channel: MilesCorak
Date: 2020-04-01

This is Lecture 7 of a course I teach at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, called "Understanding public policy in competitive markets."


Government intervention in perfectly competitive markets can be done for the benefits of the few, at the cost of the many, when the outcomes in well functioning markets are changed. This is sometimes called rent seeking behavior. But it can also be done to the benefit of society when markets fail.


This lecture helps us to understand and assess both cases in terms of the standard micro-economic tool box of demand and supply curves, examining examples in agricultural support programs, and carbon pricing.

This narrated presentation was made for a class held in March 2020.