Title
Inflation as Prisoner's Dilemma: The Case for Mandatory Wage-Price Controls
Author(s)
Shlomo Maital Shlomo Maital (Princeton University)
Yael Benjamini Yael Benjamini (Princeton University)
Abstract
Behavior toward uncertain future inflation gives rise to large diffuse externalities which result in market failure and require introduction of legal restraints -- mandatory wage-price controls. Models of wage-profit conflict and consumer vs. consumer rivalry are set out in which individual rationality leads to collective ruin (the so-called Prisoner's Dilemma). Evidence from national sample surveys indicates broad-based support for controls, and suggests some people do perceive the externalities generated by inflation.
Creation Date
1979-11
Section URL ID
IRS
Paper Number
131
URL
https://dataspace.princeton.edu/bitstream/88435/dsp01cn69m413t/1/131.pdf
File Function
Jel
L88
Keyword(s)
Suppress
false
Series
1