Dr. Catherine Pakaluk, Director of Social Research and Associate Professor, wrote an article on price controls and the impact of inflation on prices for Law & Liberty.
"The term 'price controls' is ironic, because they don’t really establish meaningful control of anything. Since only money prices can be ‘dictated,’ exchange (real) prices still float as households figure out the best way to provision themselves under new conditions. Suppose milk is frozen at $3.75 a gallon. To prevent shortages of milk, a policymaker will soon have to ‘control’ prices for half-gallons, and then all the natural milk substitutes: half-and-half, cream, almond milks, soy milks, oat milks, and so forth. Very few people will buy half-and-half if gallons of whole milk are much cheaper. Modest price controls quickly become immodest."
Read the full article, "The Eternal Return of Price Controls."
Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk is Director of Social Research and Assistant Professor at the Busch school. Formerly, she was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy. Dr. Pakaluk is the 2015 recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award, a prize given for “significant contributions to the study of the relationship between religion and economic liberty.”Pakaluk did her doctoral work at Harvard University under Caroline Hoxby, David Cutler, and 2016 Nobel-laureate Oliver Hart. Her dissertation, “Essays in Applied Microeconomics”, examined the relationship between religious ‘fit' and educational outcomes, the role of parental effort in observed peer effects and school quality, and theoretical aspects of the contraceptive revolution as regards twentieth century demographic trends.