We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

The State of Minnesota is investigating a number of gas stations for charging customers too little for gasoline.

Story

To protect its citizens [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] , the state has minimum prices for many goods, including gas and cigarettes. Thank God the state legislators are looking out for me. I'd hate to have some gas station not stick it to me to the max.

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

Story

And in other Minnesota news, the State senate decided against forcing a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the state.

To protect its citizens , the Republican senators tried to prevent the gays from getting married. I am so mad right now that the Democrats blocked it. Don't they realize that the correct thing to do is strip people of their human rights?

But hey, we're from the state, and we're here to help you, by banning gay marriage. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

Meh. You can thank Standard Oil for that one.

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

The benefits of such laws keep places like WalMart from moving in, selling gas for a loss to drive out their competition, then jacking the prices back up.
For more info by one of my profs check this out

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

[ QUOTE ]
The benefits of such laws keep places like WalMart from moving in, selling gas for a loss to drive out their competition, then jacking the prices back up.
For more info by one of my profs check this out

[/ QUOTE ]

Or see Scaramunga in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die.

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

[ QUOTE ]
The benefits of such laws keep places like WalMart from moving in, selling gas for a loss to drive out their competition, then jacking the prices back up.
For more info by one of my profs check this out

[/ QUOTE ]

These laws don't sound very free-market oriented. Are you sure that you're okay with this, BCPVP? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

[ QUOTE ]
The benefits of such laws keep places like WalMart from moving in, selling gas for a loss to drive out their competition, then jacking the prices back up.
For more info by one of my profs check this out

[/ QUOTE ]

The link is to a news story about the study, not the study itself, so there are a lot of unanswered questions about the methodology used and the conclusions drawn.

A favorite magical incantation of economists is "ceteris parabus", meaning everything else being equal. There is no indication here that "ceteris" is "parabus". In addition to pricing controls, gas prices can be affected by other laws, local costs, taxes, economic conditions, supply and demand, etc.

Also, proper methodology for such a study would be to state a hypothesis, and then to use empirical data to confirm or deny the hypothesis. I see no theoretical statement of a cause and effect relation between price controls and lower prices. Without such a connection, you have the danger of the logical fallacy of "post hoc ergo propter hoc", meaning B happens after A, so A must have caused B.

The article also states that the study found that price control states have more medium to large gas stations than do states without controls. Again, no explanation of the causal link. Just here's A and then here's B.

There are at least two obvious and well-established economic principles that argue against the link between price controls and lower prices. One is the cost and inefficiency of regulation, and the other is that artificial price supports promote business inefficiency, with the costs being passed on to the consumer. With prices set at cost plus some fixed profit margin, there is no economic incentive to manage costs.

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

How is a monopoly any more free?

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

Ask Microsoft?

Re: We\'re from the state, and we\'re here to help you.
 

I'm not going to defend Microsoft. My point is that some states have these laws to prevent monopolies. These laws can encourage a more free market, while not having them might allow a less free market. It might not work in all cases, but it does seem to work in this case.

As far as the study, I don't know where it is. If you're really interested, why not email him and ask for it?