Wage and Price Controls: Panacea for Inflation or Prescription for Disaster?

This Study by Professor J. Carr of the University of Toronto is the first in a series of six on the topic of wage and price controls that the Fraser Institute published.

Each of the studies in the series is designed to deal with a particular aspect of inflation or wage and price controls. This study was designed to investigate the causes of inflation in general and the sources of Canada's present predicament in particular. The study comes to conclusions in that regard and presents a point of view - a refreshingly different economic study on that account alone.

Wage and price controls suspend individual rights, impose a system of law that, by design, does not treat equals equally, and impose arbitrary bureaucratic control over people's lives. In view of these high 'fixed' costs, Professor Carr has also attempted to ascertain the operational costs and benefits of wage and price controls. In other words, what side effects does the 'cure' produce other than its obvious effects on individual freedom of choice.