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Alex Tabarrok

What Alex Tabarrok thinks about market efficiency

@alex-tabarrok · 4 positions · On ppll ↗

Professor of economics at George Mason University and Bartley J. Madden Chair at the Mercatus Center. Co-writes the blog Marginal Revolution and co-authors the textbook Modern Principles of Economics with Tyler Cowen.

Alex Tabarrok did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

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Only Alex Tabarrok on market efficiency. See everyone on market efficiency

3 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Alex Tabarrok has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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  1. Our readingCorner allocations under price ceilings are a distinct source of cross-market misallocation, separate from Harberger quantity loss and within-market misallocation.

    Their wordsThese corner allocations create a distinct source of cross-market misallocation, separate from the aggregate quantity loss (the Harberger triangle) and from within-market misallocation emphasized in prior work.

    ↗Chaos and Misallocation under Price Controls (with 2 co-authors)arxiv.org All 4 from this paper

  3. Our readingUnder binding ceilings, cost-minimizing suppliers drive allocations to corners rather than Harberger or random benchmarks, producing larger losses and discontinuous welfare jumps.

    benchmarks

    Their wordsWe show that equilibrium generically occurs at neither the Harberger nor Glaeser-Luttmer benchmark. Cost-minimizing suppliers drive allocations to vertices, not interiors. Corners are not an assumption but an outcome about what cost-minimizing suppliers choose. The correct benchmark is corners, not random, and corners generate qualitatively different welfare properties: losses far larger than either efficient or random distributions, and discontinuous jumps from small parameter perturbations.

    ↗Chaos and Misallocation under Price Controls (with 2 co-authors)arxiv.org All 4 from this paper

  5. Our readingMisallocation, not the aggregate quantity reduction, is the main welfare cost of price controls.

    price gouging

    Their wordsThe quantity reduction is not the main cost of price controls. The misallocation is.

    ↗Chaos and Misallocation under Price Controls (with 2 co-authors)arxiv.org All 4 from this paper