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Price controls are governmental restrictions on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of staple foods and goods, to prevent price gouging during shortages, and to slow inflation, or, alternatively, to insure a minimum income for providers of certain goods or a minimum wage. There are two primary forms of price control, a price ceiling, the maximum price that can be charged, and a price floor, the minimum price that can be charged. Historically, price controls have often been imposed as part of a larger incomes policy package also employing wage controls and other regulatory elements. Although price controls are sometimes used by governments, economists usually agree that price controls don't accomplish what they are intended to do and are generally to be avoided.〔 ==Historical examples== The Roman Emperor Diocletian tried to set maximum prices for all commodities in the end of the 3rd century CE, but with little success. Governments in planned economies typically control prices on most or all goods, though these schemes have not sustained high economic performance and have been almost entirely replaced by mixed economies. Price controls have also been used in modern times in mostly free-market economies for such things as rent control. During World War I, the United States Food Administration enforced price controls on food.〔 (【引用サイトリンク】 accessdate = 2012-01-21 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 accessdate = 2012-01-21 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 accessdate = 2012-01-21 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 accessdate = 2012-01-21 )〕 Price controls were also imposed in the US and Nazi Germany during WWII.〔Paths to Democracy: Revolution and Totalitarianism By Rosemary H. T. O'Kane page 135〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 accessdate = 2012-01-21 )〕 Wage controls have been tried in many countries to reduce inflation, but this is seldom successful. Modern economic theory supports the alternative remedy of reducing the money supply, proposing that monetary inflation is caused by too much money creation by the central bank. States have sometimes chosen to implement their own control policies. California controls the prices of electricity within the state, which economist Thomas Sowell blames for the occasional electricity shortages the state experiences.〔 〕 Sowell said of California's controls in 2001: "Since the utility companies have been paying more for electricity than they were allowed to charge their customers, they were operating in the red and the financial markets are downgrading their bonds."〔 California's price-setting board has agreed to raise rates, but not as much as the companies were paying on the wholesale market for their electricity.〔 〕 Economist Lawrence Makovich contended, "We've already seen in California that price caps on retail rates increased demand and made the shortage worse and price caps also forced the largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, into bankruptcy in four months."〔 〕 While some charged that electricity providers had in past years charged above-market rates,〔 in 2002 the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reported that before the blackouts, many energy providers left the state because they could make a greater profit in other Western states.〔 〕 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stepped in and set price caps for each megawatt of power bought, after lifting the caps to avoid rolling blackouts six months previously.〔 The state of Hawaii briefly introduced a cap on the wholesale price of gasoline (the Gas Cap Law) in an effort to fight "price gouging" in that state in 2005. Because it was widely seen as too soft and ineffective, it was repealed shortly thereafter. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Price controls」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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