This paper investigates whether the efficiency effect of product market dispersion is a function of the infrastructural and policy environment. We hypothesize that more developed transportation and communication infrastructure and lower government regulation may reduce transaction costs, intensifying the competition associated with a given market structure, and we use data from the recently lib...

Imagine a world where government regulation of gasoline, justified by scarcity of supply, allowed 20% of the gasoline in the U.S. to be used for farming; 20% for manufacturing; 20% for home use; 20% for government; and another 20% held in reserve for future potential government uses. In this world, prices would regulate the use of gasoline within each sector, but consumers would pay vastly diff...

Propelled by a national concern with social justice and health disparities, the notion of cultural competency is being incorporated into both government regulation and professional standards. Although most of the standards that are being developed nationally apply at the institutional level, it is in the clinical setting where the expectation of cultural competency is the most demanding. The re...

This feature explores the operation of individual markets. Patterns of behavior in markets for specific goods and services offer lessons about the determinants and effects of supply and demand, market structure, strategic behavior, and government regulation. Suggestions for future columns and comments on past ones should be sent to James R. Hines Jr., c/o Journal of Economic Perspectives, Depar...

Becoming a democracy and having a market driven economy seem to be the goals of virtually every country in the world nowadays. The market system has led to a higher standard of living for more people than any other economic system yet invented. Similarly, democracy has brought the freedom to enjoy that standard of living to billions of people. The recent years have witnessed the transition from...

Society today expects the physician of the future to concern himself increasingly with social justice, the environment and government regulations. However, when attempts are made to deal with these subjects they usually focus on the 'here and now' and not the historical underpinning. The student, practitioner and public, often through the media, marvel at the contemporary medical scene with its...