Harberger triangle

plural Harberger triangles · alternative Harberger's triangle

1. economicsA graphical representation of the deadweight loss (as measured on a supply and demand graph) in the trade of a given product or service caused by market failure or government failure.

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   “It takes a heap of Harberger triangles to fill an Okun gap,” wrote James Tobin in 1977, four years before winning the Nobel Prize in economics. He meant that the big issue in economics was not battling against monopolists but preventing recessions and promoting recovery. […] The Harberger triangle is the loss to society as monopolists raise their prices, and it is named after Arnold Harberger, who 60 years ago discovered that the costs of monopoly were about 0.1 per cent of US gross domestic product […]

   2014 August 12, Tim Harford, “Monopoly is a bureaucrat’s friend but a democrat’s foe”, in Financial Times