PRICE CEILING: A legally established maximum price. The government is occasionally inclined to keep the price of one good or another from rising too high. Examples include apartments, gasoline, and natural gas. While the goal is invariably a noble one--like keeping stuff affordable for poor people--a price ceiling often does more harm than good. First, it usually creates a shortage, meaning that many of the buyers who being protected against high prices, can't even buy the good. Second, as a consequence of this shortage, a price ceiling is likely to generate a black market where the good is sold illegally above the price ceiling.

     See also | market | price | regulation | shortage | black market | price floor |

PRICE CEILING, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: May 20, 2025].

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The general elasticity relation in which relatively large changes in price cause relatively small changes in quantity supplied. Large changes in price cause relatively small changes in quantity supplied or the percentage change in quantity supplied is smaller than the percentage change in price. This characterization of elasticity is most important for the price elasticity of supply. Inelastic supply is one of two general elasticity relations for supply. The other is elastic supply.

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