Why government regulation of airline fares created ‘quality waste’
Religion & Liberty Online

Why government regulation of airline fares created ‘quality waste’

Note: This is post #28 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.

If you flew on an airplane prior to 1978, when the government regulated air fares, you probably noticed the high quality of air travel—wide seats, good food, friendly service. But as economist Alex Tabarrok explains, that was actually a bad thing for customers since the government imposed prices floors created “quality waste.”

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d recommend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Previous in series: What you should know about rent controls

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).