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Standards are Too High
Author(s) -
Hartley Keith
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0270.1985.tb01690.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , forcing (mathematics) , state (computer science) , quality (philosophy) , action (physics) , economics , public economics , business , marketing , law and economics , computer science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , linguistics , physics , epistemology , algorithm , quantum mechanics
Government action to establish minimum standards in a wide range of consumer activities almost invariably ignores the obvious economic truth that standards can be too high: they must have a cost, by forcing up prices, reducing choice and so on. Dr Keith Hartley, of the University of York, argues that the market, not the state, will provide the amount of information on quality that consumers want.