Why is customer service better at Starbucks than at the DMV?
Religion & Liberty Online

Why is customer service better at Starbucks than at the DMV?

Note: This is post #22 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.

Prices are signals that indicate to suppliers how much is being demanded. So what happens when the government puts a cap on the price that can be charged for a product or service? Two effects are shortages and lower quality. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains why this happens.

 

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d recommend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Previous in series: When Nixon tried to control prices

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).