An Additional Cost of Non-Price Rationing

Today’s (July 5, 2014) New York Times has an interesting story about rationing of water in California.  There are apparently rules in place urging people to cut back on water use, but they are apparently not well enforced.  Unsurprisingly, these appeals and unenforced rules are having relatively small effects.  So many municipalities are urging neighbors to report each other for misuses of water.  Economists know that a price increase would be the most efficient method of  limiting use.  But we may not have known that other forms of rationing would lead to increasing conflict among neighbors and increasing ill will.  This is an example of the sort of hostility generated by non-market institutions, as opposed to the cooperation generated by markets, and further evidence of the fundamental morality of markets.   Of course, the Times being what it is, there is no mention of the possibility of price increases to reduce water consumption, although the article does mention “water flowing very cheaply” but there is no suggestion that this should be changed.