Effect of price ceiling on economic surplus

This article attempts to discuss the effects of a price ceiling on the social surplus. The reference point for studying these effects is a world without the price ceiling, where the price is the market price and the quantity traded is the equilibrium quantity traded at that market price.

In a world without the price ceiling, we have (assuming away external costs and external benefits):

social surplus in absence of price ceiling = (producer surplus in absence of price ceiling)+ (consumer surplus in absence of price ceiling)

We also have:

social surplus in presence of price ceiling = (producer surplus in presence of price ceiling)+ (consumer surplus in presence of price ceiling)

The goal is to ask the questions:

• How does the producer surplus in the presence of a price ceiling compare with the producer surplus in the absence of a price ceiling? If the values differ, what accounts for this difference?
• How does the consumer surplus in the presence of a price ceiling compare with the consumer surplus in the absence of a price ceiling? If the values differ, what accounts for this difference?
• How does the overall social surplus in the presence of a price ceiling compare with the social surplus in the absence of a price ceiling? If the values differ, what accounts for this difference?