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The effects of seemingly nonbinding price floors: An experimental analysis

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  • Salant, Stephen
  • Shobe, William
  • Uler, Neslihan
Abstract
Price floors are common policies in markets for storable goods such as commodities, bankable emissions permits, and currencies. Hard price floors are implemented as unlimited government buybacks and prevent the price from falling below the floor; soft floors, whether implemented as limited buybacks or as reserve prices in emission permit auctions, allow the market price to fall below the floor. We specify and then test in the laboratory a two-period model with the same properties as our infinite-horizon model, Salant et al. (2022). Theory predicts that asset prices will respond to price floors even in a set of circumstances where the floor seems nonbinding. Most of our experimental findings are consistent with theoretical predictions: a seemingly nonbinding floor can cause the price and carryover to jump up, the jump is higher with a hard floor than a soft one, and when the floor is so low that the theory predicts no effect, none is observed. In contrast to theoretical predictions, however, the soft floor fails to increase the carryover and market price in our experiment.

Suggested Citation

  • Salant, Stephen & Shobe, William & Uler, Neslihan, 2023. "The effects of seemingly nonbinding price floors: An experimental analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:159:y:2023:i:c:s0014292123002118
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104583
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sitarz, Joanna & Pahle, Michael & Osorio, Sebastian & Luderer, Gunnar & Pietzcker, Robert, 2023. "EU carbon prices signal high policy credibility and farsighted actors," EconStor Preprints 280455, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Joanna Sitarz & Michael Pahle & Sebastian Osorio & Gunnar Luderer & Robert Pietzcker, 2024. "EU carbon prices signal high policy credibility and farsighted actors," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 9(6), pages 691-702, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Price floors; Emissions markets; Agricultural price supports; Commodity markets; Laboratory experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D0 - Microeconomics - - General
    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

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