Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T01:51:51.869Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What's the Matter with Price Gouging?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Jeremy Snyder
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

When prices for basic commodities increase following a disaster, these price increases are often condemned as 'price gouging.’ In this paper, I discuss what moral wrongs, if any, are most reasonably ascribed to accusations of price gouging. This discussion keeps in mind both practical and moral defenses of price increase following disasters. I first examine existing anti-gouging legislation for commonalities in their definitions of gouging and then present arguments in favor of the permissibility of gouging, focusing on the economic benefits of price increases following disasters. I argue that gouging takes the form of a specific failure of respect for persons by undercutting equitable access to essential goods. While I discuss anti-gouging legislation throughout this paper, my aim is to give an account of the moral wrongs associated with gouging rather than guidance for developing morally defensible anti-gouging legislation.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 275 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Elizabeth. 1993. Value in ethics and economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth. 2004. Ethical assumptions in economic theory: Some lessons from the history of credit and bankruptcy. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 7: 347–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, Michael. 2007. Planning disaster: Price gouging statutes and the shortages they create. Brooklyn Law Review, 72: 1101–37.Google Scholar
Elliott, Janet. 2008. Two hotels face lawsuits for raising rates. The Houston Chronicle (October 3).Google Scholar
Federal Trade Commission. 2006. Investigation of gasoline price manipulation andpost-Katrina gasoline price increases. http://www.ftc.gov/reports/060518PublicGasolinePricesInvestigationReportFinal.pdf.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1962. Capitalism and freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich. 1945. The use of knowledge in society. American Economic Review, 35(4): 519–30.Google Scholar
Hill, Thomas. 1991. Autonomy and self-respect. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson Sun. 2008. Go after those who may be price gouging. The Jackson Sun (September 17).Google Scholar
Jacoby, Jeff. 2004. Bring on the ‘price gougers.’ The Boston Globe (August 22): F11.Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva. 1999. Love's labor: Essays on women, equality, and dependency. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Michael. 2004. After the storm come the vultures. USA Today (August 20): 6B.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2000. Women and human development. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, Edward, & Cho, Min. 2006. Price gouging 101: A call to Florida lawmakers to perfect Florida's price gouging law, Florida Bar Journal, 80: 49–52.Google Scholar
Raghunathan, Abhi. 2005. South Florida shortages fuel black market. St. Petersburg Times (October 29): 1B.Google Scholar
Ramasastry, Anita. 2005. Assessing anti-price-gouging statutes in the wake of hurricane Katrina: Why they're necessary in emergencies, but need to be rewritten. Findlaw (September 15). Available at http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20050916.html.Google Scholar
Rapp, Geoffrey. 2005/2006. Gouging: Terrorist attacks, hurricanes, and the legal and economic aspects of post-disaster price regulation. Kentucky Law Journal, 94: 535–60.Google Scholar
Reader, Soran. 2003. Distance, relationship and moral obligation. The Monist, 86: 367–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rockoff, Hugh. 2002. Price controls. In David, R. Henderson (Ed.), The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc. Available at http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PriceControls.html.Google Scholar
Rushing, J. Taylor. 2004. Storms stir up price gouging. Florida Times-Union (September 18): A–1.Google Scholar
Satz, Debra. 2007. Liberalism, economic freedom, and the limits of markets. Social Philosophy and Policy, 24: 120–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1992. Inequality reexamined. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development as freedom. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Skarbek, Brian R., & Skarbek, David B. 2008. The price is right: Regulation, reputation, and recovery. Dartmouth Law Journal, 6(2): 235–76.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. 1976 (1776). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Ed. Campbell, R. H., Andrew, Skinner, and Todd, W. B.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, Jeremy. 2008. Needs exploitation. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 11: 389–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Jerry. 2005. Gouge on. National Review Online (September 2). http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/taylor200509022359.asp.Google Scholar
Treaster, Joseph. 2004. With storm gone, Floridians are hit with price gouging. New York Times (August 18): A1.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 2003. Who is my neighbor?: Humanity and proximity. The Monist, 86: 333–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wall Street Journal. 2005. In praise of ‘gouging.’ Wall Street Journal (September 7): A16.Google Scholar
Wertheimer, Alan. 1996. Exploitation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwolinski, Matt. 2008. The ethics of price gouging. Business Ethics Quarterly, 18: 347–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar