The Tyranny of the Market : Why You Can t Always Get What You Want

Joel Waldfogel

ISBN 10: 0674025814 / ISBN 13: 9780674025813

Published by Harvard University Press Sep 2007, 2007

About this Item

Neuware - Markets are widely believed to make products available to suit any individual, regardless of what others want. But the argument is not generally correct. In markets, you can't always get what you want. This book explores why this is so and its consequences for consumers with atypical preferences.

Seller Inventory # 9780674025813

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Tyranny of the Market : Why You Can t Always Get What You Want
• Publisher: Harvard University Press Sep 2007
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674025814
• ISBN 13: 9780674025813
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 217W x 149H x 19D millimeters 217 millimeters width by 149 millimeters height by 19 millimeters depth
• Weight: 376 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Economists have long counseled reliance on markets rather than on government to decide a wide range of questions, in part because allocation through voting can give rise to a "tyranny of the majority." Markets, by contrast, are believed to make products available to suit any individual, regardless of what others want. But the argument is not generally correct. In markets, you can't always get what you want. This book explores why this is so and its consequences for consumers with atypical preferences.

When fixed costs are substantial, markets provide only products desired by large concentrations of people. As a result, people are better off in their capacity as consumers when more fellow consumers share their product preferences. Small groups of consumers with less prevalent tastes, such as blacks, Hispanics, people with rare diseases, and people living in remote areas, find less satisfaction in markets. In some cases, an actual tyranny of the majority occurs in product markets. A single product can suit one group or another. If one group is larger, the product is targeted to the larger group, making them better off and others worse off.

The book illustrates these phenomena with evidence from a variety of industries such as restaurants, air travel, pharmaceuticals, and the media, including radio broadcasting, newspapers, television, bookstores, libraries, and the Internet.

About the Author

Joel Waldfogel is Professor of Business and Public Policy at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.