Economic Efficiency and Its Obstacles

Overview

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This course will equip you to analyze how market interventions like price controls and taxes affect economic efficiency. You will learn to calculate consumer and producer surplus, identify the sources of deadweight loss, and evaluate the fairness and impact of different tax systems on wages and prices. Mastering these skills will enable you to assess the real-world consequences of government policies and understand the critical trade-off between efficiency and equity in resource allocation.

Syllabus

Economic Efficiency and Its Obstacles

This course will take us through the intricacies of resource allocation, emphasizing how market interventions and taxes influence efficiency. We will delve into allocation types and see how actions like price ceilings or price floors create deadweight losses, reflecting efficiency costs. The course also covers tax incidence and the real bearers of taxation consequences. Finally, we will conclude with a debate on tax fairness, encouraging students to contemplate the equilibrium between efficiency and equity in taxation.